Community Corner
Dress for Success Brings Confidence Building to Severna Park
The Baltimore chapter of Dress for Success is opening a satellite location at the Severna Park Community Center.
Dress for Success is bringing stylish clothes, confidence building and job networking resources to Severna Park for women in need.
The organization that promotes economic independence for disadvantaged women will open a satellite location at the Severna Park Community Center on Wednesday. Dress for Success not only provides women with professional attire but also a network of support and career development tools.
“We provide a service to help women get a job,” said Dress for Success Baltimore CEO and Founder Celona Garfield. “If they don’t have any money they cant afford to purchase clothes, so we provide that service for them. That way they can feel good about themselves, gain confidence and go out and get that job.”
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Garfield, a social worker in the Baltimore area, said she got involved with Dress for Success because the organization provides more than just clothes, it also provides a support network for women entering the workforce.
By opening up a satellite location in Severna Park, Garfield and Outreach Coordinator Connie Carter said they are hoping to reach more women in Anne Arundel County.
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Carter said she has seen first-hand the effect professional clothing can have on women.
“When these women come into the shop, they can be really down on themselves…and they don’t have a lot of confidence,” Carter said. “Most of them have never had dress clothing or even a dress, so they come in and try things on and they see how good they look. Then it’s this transformation, and they have more confidence.”
Dress for Success works on a referral program. The Department of Social Services and various job readiness programs refer women to Dress for Success and then Garfield helps them from there. She said they don’t just give out clothes, they provide women with professional attires to help them land a job.
“We provide more than just the clothing,” Garfield said. “We look for women to have job retention. We want them to become employed but we want them to stay employed and move into a career.”
The Severna Park location will be at the community center every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
In order to be able to provide area women with the clothes and services they need, Dress for Success is always accepting donations and is actively fundraising. For more information or to volunteer email Baltimore@dressforsuccess.org.Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.