Dress for Success Regina, a local non-profit organization that provides professional attire for women, has a new home.
Barb Byers, the board of directors’ chairperson for Dress for Success, said they are excited about the new move.
“We loved being in Westminster United Church. The church was very good to us. We had a great relationship with them and we in lots of ways we were really sad to go,” said Byers. “It was time for Dress for Success to move on to a new step, a new level. And what we really realized is our past location was not accessible, so that meant there were women that couldn’t come and couldn’t use our services because we were up three flights of stairs with no elevator.”
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The new home for Dress for Success Regina will be located in downtown Regina, off Hamilton Street. Byers said mid-January is when the organization will do their first drop-off for donations and start preparing women for fittings afterwards.
“We’ve got a lease for five years. We’re here and we hope that we’ll be here a lot longer than that because we put in a fair bit of our finances into renovations to make sure that it was the kind of space that we needed here,” she said.
Jan Pyle, English for Employment Instructor and team lead at Regina Immigrant Women’s Centre, said having Dress for Success helps women in the workforce.
“Often when they’ve been at home for a while, they don’t have suitable clothing, nor do they have the income to buy suitable clothing,” said Pyle. “This has just made it so much easier for them to be career ready, before they’ve even received a paycheque.”
Dress for Success has been at the Westminster United Church since their inception in 2008.