Looking the part: Dress for Success
Trish Brickner, left, administrator of Pennsylvania Career Link’s Mon Valley office, speaks with Labor & Industry Secretary Julia Hearthway.
From left, Loretta Rathbone, Cindy Valent and Lori Puskas suit up for success.
Cindy Valent, Lori Puskas and Loretta Rathbone were dressed for success inside Dress for Success.
The three Washington County women are looking for work and were looking professional Wednesday as they prepared for a vital step in their journey: a job interview. Their suits were appropriate for the positions they are seeking, and likely will impress would-be employers.
They changed into the attire inside the Washington Branch of Dress for Success Pittsburgh, an international organization whose stated mission “is to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support, and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.”
Dress for Success locally is on North Main Street in Washington, where it rents space inside Friendship Baptist Church.
Valent, of Cecil Township; Puskas, of Marianna; and Rathbone, of Meadow Lands, were part of an event that helped kick off “Jobs 1st: On The Road,” an employment-related initiative of the Gov. Tom Corbett administration.
For three days, officials of the state Departments of Labor & Industry and Community and Economic Development will tour nine counties in Southwestern Pennsylvania, including Washington and Greene.
Julia Hearthway, Labor & Industry secretary, was at Dress for Success on Wednesday. She spoke about the importance of work – and not just for the money.
“Matching job-seekers with employers who are hiring is the key to securing employment,” she said. “When you have a job, you think differently, you walk differently, you act differently.
“With that, you have to look the part. It is important to your self-esteem and the job itself.”
The clothing was donated by Model Cleaners of Charleroi, which was represented by Executive Vice President Dan LaCarte and plant manager Gregg Anders. Model offers items that customers failed to claim within a year.
Hearthway was enamored of the attire the job candidates wore.
“It’s donated clothing, but it doesn’t look it,” she said.
Trish Brickner realizes that looking good can lead to a good employment outlook. She is administrator of the Mon Valley office of Pennsylvania Career Link, a prominent job service statewide.
“We offer a number of services,” she said, “and Dress for Success is one of our great resources.”
Looks, however, as a long-ago sage noted, are not everything, and Dress for Success executive director Monica Mendez amplified that point.
“Dress for Success is more than suits,” said Mendez. “We’re a support system for women who have a lot of barriers and need support.”
Mendez said Dress for Success has 134 sites in 16 countries, and has been in the Pittsburgh area for 10 years and in Washington for six.
“We save the state $15 million every year with the work we do,” she said, adding to the list of things that looked good Wednesday.