Dress for Success mobile boutiques bring dignity to working women in Greater Pittsburgh

Since 2005, Dress for Success Pittsburgh has been on a mission to empower women seeking employment by providing them with professional attire free of charge.  In the past, this meant women came to the Pittsburgh chapter’s brick-and-mortar location for a suiting, and volunteers worked with them to find the perfect interview outfit. Yet, just as lack of transportation can be a barrier to obtaining employment, Tanya Vokes, CEO of Dress for Success Pittsburgh, says the organization’s branch manager at the time realized it could be an obstacle to acquiring proper clothing.  This became clear in the case of Kelly, a single mother based in Greene County who didn’t have a car or the scrubs she needed for her first day on the job at a personal care home.  “Our branch manager at the time, Robin, decided that she would go out to Greene County and do what was our first mobile services styling appointment,” Vokes tells Pittsburgh City Paper . “She got the colors that Kelly needed. She got her shoe size. She found out what other types of personal care and professional accessory items that Kelly could use [and] drove out to the Career Link and provided services there on site. And from there, it started to grow because Kelly was able to start her job on Monday morning with the appropriate attire for work.” Dress for Success Pittsburgh’s mobile boutique Credit: Courtesy of Dress for Success While Dress for Success has boutiques in Allegheny County, Butler County, Fayette County, Greene County, and Washington County, the experience made them realize that there were likely other women like Kelly who could greatly benefit from their services but couldn’t get to them. So, the organization began fundraising, and by 2019 they were able to host their grand openings for their first two Dress for Success mobile boutiques.  “[That] became really kind of like a turning point for the organization since we were removing that barrier of that