New $2.5 Million Grant from the Walmart Foundation Allows Dress for Success to Expand Career Development Services for Unemployed and Underemployed Women
Summary
The GPN will continue to improve the lives of unemployed and underemployed women by increasing their employability, boosting their self-confidence and self-efficacy and providing them access to diverse professional networks.The primary goal of the GPN: REAL is to increase and improve the economic status of low income women by positioning them for career mobility through training and pathways to advancement specific to the retail industry.Dress for Success determined the need to integrate retail-related skills among GPN participants after an analysis of sector-specific hiring outcomes revealed that almost half of its women are securing employment in retail since the program’s inception in 2011.Participants will benefit from a dynamic curriculum that includes hands-on activities like store tours, mock interviewing and job shadowing, allowing them to better understand the needs of employers and potentially secure employment.This new grant will also allow Dress for Success to explore a focus on the retail industry as a viable and growing sector within the GPN by piloting the Going Places Network by the Walmart Foundation: Retail Education Advancing Leadership (GPN: REAL).The Paving the Way Forward capacity building grant was distributed to start-up affiliates who needed additional support to become sustainable, strengthen their capacity and enhance their internal infrastructures.About Dress for SuccessDress for Success is an international not-for-profit organization that promotes 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.