Dress for Success: Making a Difference with Up-cycled Clothing

A friend of mine was just telling me about a little closet project where she cleaned out unused clothing of hers, her hubby and her two boys and sent all the pieces out for someone else to use. Very zen, say it with me…aaaahhhh.

I’m big on de-junkifying my space but I’m always uncertain what really happens to my unused duds. Mostly I hope they are truly donated but sometimes it’s hard to tell.

I’ve done the eBay thing many times with bigger items, like a gold leme prom dress that was hard to part with but obviously had not found a second purpose in my well-past-prom-age life. It was bittersweet for me but a new prom-bound teenager fell in love with online. Who would’ve guessed gold leme is back in style? Or ever was for that matter.

Recently I discovered an organization that has an eye on giving clothes new life and truly bringing a boost to someone’s life: Dress for Success. Founded in New York in 1997, Dress for Success helps disadvantaged women overcome the barrier of not having appropriate clothes to enter the workforce.

Here’s how it works: Dress for Success supplies an interview appropriate suit or outfit. When the job-seeker is hired she can return for a week’s worth of business wear and is invited to join the Professional Women’s Group (PWG).

The program has to date suited up more than 350,000 women with 80% going on to retain their jobs. Other life-changing improvements related to the apparel program include improved credit scores and an increase in further education. Pretty impressive considering that the recipients were all living below poverty level and 70 percent are single mothers.

Giving green at its best is more than just an environmental cause, it’s a social commitment. That’s what Dress for Success is all about - upcycling clothes and having a positive effect in the lives of women who are working their way out of poverty.

Via Vegetarian Times