Dress For Success During COVID-19

PHOENIX, ARIZONA- It has been a month now, since Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey issued a stay-at-home order in response to COVID-19. Ducey encouraged Arizona residents to use social distancing while engaging in outdoor activities. This order, affected many different types of businesses including non-profits, where social distancing might be difficult if not impossible.

One of those non-profits which works closely with individuals is Dress For Success Phoenix, which helps out-of-work women re-enter the work force by providing them with a variety of career services, and also with professional work attire, that they can wear to interviews and to their new jobs once they are hired.

Dress For Success located in the city of Phoenix off of Buckeye Rd, it is an organization that focuses on the empowerment of women and their journey in the professional workforce. They offer a variety of client resources, one of them being where they provide their clients with work attire in preparation for an interview and a new job.

According to Dress For Success Phoenix, the organization has “suited more than 15,000 women since our inception in 2009, distributing more than $2,700,000 in apparel and accessories,” to their clients. They also provide resources to improve their resume and prepare for their clients for an interview.

In an interview, Lisa Doromal, CEO & Founder Dress For Success Phoenix said that the company has been impacted by the “stay-at-home” order. The organization did close their boutique and offices, therefore no longer offering the face to face suiting program but are still offering all their other services like resume building and career advice virtually.

“Now with a lot of individuals losing their jobs, we are there to be a support system for them and help them, with any of their employment needs, even as it relates to filing for unemployment if you lost your job,’ Doromal explains. “We are providing virtual tutorials on career counseling.”

Since moving online, Dress For Success has seen a significant decrease in clients that they serve. But Doromal knows that their services will soon be “significantly needed in the next 6-9 months, were going to be the next wave and apart of that relief effort because people, especially women have been hit harder in Arizona with the unemployment crisis” she mentions.

As of March 2020, the unemployment in Arizona has risen to 5.5% which is an entire percent increase within a single month.

According to 12 News, On Thursday, March 16, Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity, published reported that the spike in unemployment has disproportionately affected women, at least in the period between March 21 - April 1. They were accounted for 57% of all the newly reported claims.

12 News, provides a brief explanation,“Why are so many women losing their jobs? They represent a large share of the workers in the hardest-hit industries. The hospitality industry - hotels and restaurants - has suffered the heaviest losses, shedding more than 40,000 employees, or about 14 percent of its workforce,” wrote Brahm Resnik, 12 News Reporter.

As many individuals are being laid off, Doromal hopes that she won’t have to do the same for her staff.

She explains that is has been difficult, “walking a fine line, to not seem desperate, not seem incentive when you have to ask people for money,” because their organization depends on the “generosity of the community.”

As the CEO of the nonprofit, Doromal is the main fundraiser, during a time like this it has been hard for her “its a fine line of when is it appropriate to ask people for money, given the circumstance,” But she knows that if she does not solicit donors, Dress For Success might being in danger of shutting down, since the organizations fundraising events have been postponed.

As the months continue, with no clear vision of what is going to happen, Doromal, said she remains optimistic and that Dress For Success could resume its vital services in the Summer. She said with so many women out of work the organization is needed now more than ever, but that it is vital that everyone, not only her clients stay safe, listen to medical experts and not politicize issues surrounding COVID-19.

Doromal adds that like her clients, Dress For Success is "nimble and able to adapt and overcome." She said her main task now is to get the word out that while the doors at Dress For Success are temporarily closed, the organization's online presence is still up and running and that Dress For Success is needed now more than ever.

If you have questions about Dress For Success Phoenix, whether it is about their offered services or you are looking to make a donation, make you go their website to find more information.