Thursday, December 13, 2012
Andrea L. Cowley, Associate Director, Dress for Success Indianapolis
At Dress for Success Indianapolis, we believe that an empowered woman is an asset to
herself, her family, her community and the world. We believe the more thoughtful
about our programming and informed about workforce development and poverty
issues we are, the more successful we will be at fulfilling our mission. I can’t
thank the Indiana Institute for Working Families enough for the thoughtful,
insightful research you make available to our community. We regularly use your
research and resources in all aspects of our organization and I can’t express
to you how much we value your work.
Dress for
Success Indianapolis partners with nearly 90 community agencies in Central
Indiana who refer women for interview and work attire, as well as preemployment
and career development assistance. Once employed, women are offered programming
through our Professional Women’s Group that is designed to help women keep
employment, build a network of support and develop a career that will help them
achieve true self-sufficiency. Throughout our programming we use your research
to not only determine what employment opportunities are realistic, abundant and
obtainable for our women, but also use the Indiana Self-Sufficiency Standard Calculator to determine a target wage for women based on county of residence and
family composition. We have recently begun using the ancillary documents and
tools provided through the Indiana Self-Sufficiency Standard Calculator and
have been excited by the diversity of the tools and their ability to fill our
existing needs.
As an organization, we’re
incredibly fortunate to have the support of over 400 active volunteers. We feel
that in order for our volunteers to give their talents most effectively,
helping them understand the situations our women are in is vitally important to
the continuance of our work. In each of our volunteer orientations, as well as
our Board orientations, we work with our volunteers on a fictional monthly
budget for a single-mom making $9/hour. Through this exercise, we better
understand some of the truly tough choices working families are making every day.
We include real expenses and discuss FSSA programs available to low-income
families. This exercise gives us tons of time to explore how these programs
work and helps our volunteers understand a world they often have only heard
about. We find sharing information like you provided in ‘The Cliff Effect’
report, combined with information from the Indiana Self-Sufficiency Standard Calculator allows our volunteers to not only be more empathetic of our women’s
situations, but they are also more informed citizens. Many even continue to send
me information they find about poverty and economic issues well after they have
started volunteering.
I also find your work incredibly
helpful as we seek funding for our programs. As a city, we’re incredibly
fortunate to have a healthy, supportive philanthropic community. Our
foundations and grantors are not only sources of funding, but also guide,
support and often position themselves as thought leaders on issues such as
ending poverty in our city. As funders look to organizations to provide more research
and simultaneously more outcome measurements to prove the effectiveness of
programming, I thank you for providing a consistent, reliable source of
information regarding working families in Indiana. There is truly no other
single resource that provides the breadth and depth of information about the issues
working Hoosiers face.
I like to think that as a social
service community, we have a collective vision that families deserve the chance
to succeed in work and in life. Helping women in Central Indiana move forward
on their journeys toward self-sufficiency is a complicated and daunting task
that demands thoughtful, innovative and responsive programming and support.
Thank you for providing access to research and information that allows us to
add value to all aspects of our organization and ensures the most successful
programming possible for our women, our community and our world.
