Women Helping Women
This One Dress is thrilled to announce our support of Dress for Success Columbus (DFSC)! You may have recently seen a picture of me on social media dropping off our first dress donation at their location in downtown Columbus, Ohio, on January 31, 2020. It was such an honor to meet with Stephanie Campolo Merkle, Senior Director, that day and chat about their mission and our company. Their clients are women who are unemployed and seeking work, or under-employed and wanting to advance. Women are referred to Dress for Success Columbus from more than 130 partners throughout Central Ohio. DFSC client services include Suiting, Career Center, Professional Women’s Group, Women2Women Mentoring, Boss Girl, Success Insight Conference…and soon to be, Mobile Career Center.
This One Dress intends to help DFSC with the “Suiting” area of their services by donating dresses. Through their mission of suiting, clients receive a complete interview outfit, including shoes, jewelry and a handbag so they can look their best on a job interview. That is so amazing in itself, but it gets even better- if the client gets the job, she can go back to DFSC and receive an entire 5-day workweek of professional mix and match outfits so she can start that job with the full confidence that she will look the part and fit in with the professional appearance of her colleagues. We love that!! I remember when I started my first job in 1988 after graduating from Miami University. I borrowed $1,000 from my grandfather to buy work clothes because I had nothing appropriate to wear to my new professional job. If I didn’t have him, I would probably have gone into credit card debt just to be able to show up to work. I needed to look my best at work just as their clients do!
We love the high standards that DFSC has as well. While they take any donations that come in the door, not everything can be kept. The outfits that they keep for their clients have to be clean, stylish, current and in great shape to be selected for the suiting boutique. (Other donations that don’t meet those standards are happily re-donated by them to other local non-profits that put them to good use.) Why are they so selective? It’s important for their clients to look great and be proud and confident in their clothes so they aren’t worried about the way they look but can focus on performing well in their new jobs. DFSC also creates a whole beautiful “experience” for their clients when they get their outfits in the suiting boutique by treating them like valued customers who are waited on, brought clothes into a dressing room for try on and given advice about how to put outfits together. It is a special and memorable time for both the clients and the volunteers of DFSC.
We think This One Dress will be a great work dress for any of these women to receive because it is such a versatile piece that can be worn so many ways with different jackets, scarves, boots, tights, etc. Mix and match will not be a problem! Since the material is washable, that will save them the cost of dry cleaning. (I wonder if they will smile when they find out that all of our dresses have pockets, too?!)
It is important to us to help women striving to make better lives for themselves and DFSC is such a nature fit for us. No one makes it on their own in this world; we each need others to help us along the way. Women helping women – because we are all better when we lift each other up. We are One.
When you buy a dress from This One Dress, you help us be able to give a new dress to DFSC. Thank YOU for being a part of making that possible.
Love from This One Dress,
Diane
Note: The featured image on this blog was provided to us by Dress for Success Columbus
