The Kiwanis Club of Vancouver received its charter in 1919 to function primarily in service and goodwill. Since its inception, the Kiwanis Club of Vancouver has raised funds for the handicapped, aged, and needy, and sponsored other civic, cultural and social activities.

Earlier this month, one of our members spoke with Jennifer Halinda, Executive Director of Dress for Success Vancouver, to better understand how they are leading the way to empower women into the workforce in our city.

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HI JENNIFER, THANKS SO MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO SPEAK WITH ME. HOW ABOUT WE START WITH A QUICK INTRODUCTION OF YOURSELF AND HOW YOU GOT INVOLVED WITH DRESS FOR SUCCESS?

Absolutely, so my name is Jennifer Halinda, and I’m the Executive Director at Dress for Success Vancouver where my focus is on growing the impact we have on women in our community. Back in 2007, I was working in the corporate world and decided at that time in my life to finally give back by doing more volunteer work.

I started on my crusade to decide which charity I wanted to spend my time with. I eventually chose three: one was an arts organization and the other two were women’s organizations. I love fashion and remembered hearing about Dress for Success when Bill Clinton mentioned it in a speech talking about giving back – whether it’s your time, money, clothing, or something else. I found out Vancouver had a chapter, signed up for a volunteer orientation session, and my first shift was the following month.

I started off volunteering as a stylist, working once a month in the evenings with clients at our boutique – a role I continued with for four and a half years. It’s when I started volunteering here that I realized just how many women in our city are starting over due to divorce, illness, job loss… you name it, we’ve seen it. It was then that I understood we were about so much more than just the clothes.

With the clients I helped to style at our boutique, I would hear their stories, find out where they are with their job search, and try my best to refer them to our other services to help them. After a while, when they realized we were here to support them, to help them succeed, and that it was all a very positive experience, you would see them with their held up high and a light in their eyes that they hadn’t seen in themselves in a long time. I was hooked. I just knew this was going to be part of my life forever, and that I would do this full-time if I ever won the lottery.

THANKS FOR SHARING THAT, JENNIFER. CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT DRESS FOR SUCCESS AS AN ORGANIZATION?

Sure thing. Dress for Success was established in 1997 and has been in Vancouver since 1999. Locally, we serve as a community empowering women into the workforce by providing them with professional attire, career services, and skills development programs. We have a number of programs to support these goals.

Internationally, our purpose is to offer long-lasting solutions that enable women to break the cycle of poverty. Dress for Success is part of a global movement for change, empowering women to obtain safer and better futures.

FOLLOWING THAT, WOULD YOU MIND SHARING HOW YOUR VOLUNTEERING EVENTUALLY TRANSITIONED INTO EMPLOYMENT WITH DRESS FOR SUCCESS?

Well, I eventually wanted to get more involved so I joined an event committee for one of our fundraisers, because I saw that my sales & marketing background could really help out. I also started attending more of our Dress for Success events to get more involved.

A little while later, I was taking time off from work in the corporate world and felt like it was time for a change. I had a great job, worked with great people, and was doing very well at the company, but just felt that I wasn’t satisfied with it anymore- like something was missing and that it had to be more meaningful.

I had this time, wanted to volunteer more, and figured that I don’t know the day-to-day operations of Dress for Success because I’d been a once-a-month volunteer up to that point. So I went to the Executive Director at the time, Deb, whom I adore and who started all of this in Vancouver, and asked if there’s something I can help her with 2-3 times a week. She told me that she needed an executive assistant because there was just so much to do around the office at the time.

Up until then, I thought we were a grassroots organization and was surprised to find out that 1,800 women a year were coming through our doors at that point. It was like a startup that got too big for itself, and the staff just couldn’t handle everything. I came on board and started helping two days a week doing communications and going to events on Deb's behalf.

Unfortunately, Deb became quite sick and had to take a one-year leave. Since I was already working closely with her, knew the organization well, and was able to bring to bear the skills from my time in the business world, I agreed to the board that I would take on the one-year contract out of respect for what Deb had been building. Deb wasn’t able to return due to her health. I miss her dearly.

It’s very bittersweet story of ‘winning the lottery’ because I think that I was here at the right time when the organization needed someone with the right skills. It’s the craziest, most amazing, and fulfilling job I’ve ever had in my life.

WHAT A JOURNEY! LET’S BRING IT BACK TO OUR CITY OF VANCOUVER. CAN YOU SHARE WHAT DRESS FOR SUCCESS DOES LOCALLY?

Our core three programs here are the Dressing Program (e.g. dressing services, styling), Career Center (e.g. job search coaching, resume/interview prep), and the Professional Women’s Program (e.g. skills workshops, mentorship groups).

To give you an example of how we help and what a local focus is for us, it’s the diversity of the people and the need in Vancouver. A lot of the women who come to us are refugees who came to Canada to start over. Maybe their education isn’t recognized or they have some language barriers, and so they often end up being underemployed because they have to take just any job to be able to feed their children. It’s to the point where some of them are having to make the choice of, “do I go on EI or make $15 an hour? It’s the same thing.”

Our clients are women who’ve really had the rug pulled out from under them in many situations. As a result, their confidence and how they feel about themselves really take a hit, and being in that state isn’t going to help them find better employment. What we try to do through the programs here is to focus on that piece: to help them rediscover who they are and really believe in themselves again. That’s key for our work – the clothes are one piece, but it’s really what’s happening on the inside that matters to us. This is what we can really have a profound impact on.

IF PEOPLE OR COMPANIES ARE INTERESTED IN HELPING, HOW CAN THEY GET INVOLVED AND CONTRIBUTE TO DRESS FOR SUCCESS?

Thanks for asking this. There are really so many different ways to get involved with us. Most people know us for our styling, and that’s certainly one way. People and organizations can contribute in many ways like donating money, organizing clothing drives in their workplace/community, volunteering their time in our programs or during group volunteer days, or partnering with us to put on special events/programs.

The great thing about what we do is that it’s very tangible – you can arrange to come in to see the boutique, the stories are very relatable as humans, and what we do is local so it continues to give back in immeasurable ways.

Firstly, in our Dressing Program, we have fashion consultants, merchandisers, sorters for the donations we receive, and people who work behind the scenes to make it all come together. We also have administrative positions in the office where people can help us book in clients and answer inquiries.

Second, in our Career Center program, we currently have about 45 volunteers who work directly with our clients. This is usually 1 on 1 to give advice, but can also be helping to facilitate a variety of specific, focused workshops for our women to do skills/career development. The topics for our workshops are constantly evolving since they are based on the needs of our clients.

And then in our third program, the Professional Women's Group, we are always looking out for great mentors. This program is for our clients who have landed employment, and the mentors meet with our clients once a month as a group. Many have gone on to form 1 on 1 relationships outside of that setting to help them develop & grow as a leader.

We also have our Board of Directors which is volunteer-run. There are currently eight members, and we are currently in the process of hiring for four. We’re really looking for more diversity on our board, which in our case means more men. We really like to have at least two men on our board at all times. In this search, we’re looking for people have previous board experience, are well connected in business/industry, and has high-level strategic planning experience. An added bonus would be somebody who has experience working in the non-profit world.

On the board, there are a number of committees made up of specialized professionals to provide guidance on topics related to our work. For example, there’s an advisory committee which provides guidance on fundraising and marketing. Another example is our events committees which help raise the profile of, advise on operations for, and secure funds/sponsorship for our major events in the year. Speaking of events, Shop for a Cause is coming up on Saturday, June 25, you should check it out!

TO WRAP THINGS UP HERE, COULD YOU SHARE THE CURRENT GOALS THAT DRESS FOR SUCCESS VANCOUVER IS WORKING TOWARDS?

The last few years have been focused on setting up policies and systems, establishing the team and culture, securing more private funding, and generally working towards stability. Today, we’re in a good groove to look ahead.

Let me share our 3-year goal plan with you:

1. Expanding the Career Center program.
   • This past year, we had almost 900 women come through the Career Center – as many we through out Dressing Program – and there’s a clear growing demand. So far, we’ve been running things from here, but we have very limited space, meaning that not as many career specialists can be on site and we can’t open as many hours to see more women. This year, we will be deciding how far we want to and can expand this program, and my bet is that we’ll need to rent more space and hire at least a part-time coordinator to help run the operations. This is exciting because it means we can help more of our women to get the jobs in their industries/communities. 
   • Starting to put on full-day workshops. Our other goal with the Career Center is to give our clients the chance to really sink their teeth into different materials. This ties into the real estate piece, but also involves finding great partners in the community to facilitate these specialized workshops. A lot of our women who find jobs through our Career Center program still return to attend our events because they want to keep building their skillset.
2. Reaching more women in BC.
   • We’re the only Dress for Success in BC and we’ll be doing a study on the needs of the community we can’t currently reach. We’re lucky to be located at a major transit artery so most women from the lower mainland can get to us. There are still women in the Okanagan, Whistler, and Island who can’t make it here. We’ll be looking at two models: (a) having a mobile unit that brings Dress for Success right into their community, or (b) a virtual stylist and career counselling program that’s done online, followed up by a ‘pack & send’ program.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR TIME AND SHARING YOUR THOUGHTS WITH US, JENNIFER. DO YOU HAVE ANY PARTING WORDS FOR OUR READERS? 

There’s always something to be around here, and we’re a very volunteer-heavy organization as far as our staffing goes. At any given time, we have over 200 active volunteers, and last year our volunteers committed more than 15,000 hours of their time to help. We are incredibly thankful to everybody who helps make this happen.

This interview has been paraphrased and condensed.

You can learn more about Dress for Success Vancouver by visiting their site, see what they're up to or engage with them on social media (facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, youtube), or check out their blog.

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This community highlight is written as a member of the Kiwanis Club of Vancouver, the local chapter of Kiwanis International.