National American University and Dress for Success Black Hills have joined forces to help job seekers be well-prepared and well-dressed for the workforce.
The sheer volume of information a job seeker needs can be daunting — resumes, cover letters, interview skills, social media, networking and more. NAU provides career readiness classes and online resources for its students. Dress for Success offers job seekers some career development tools and professional clothing.
In March, the two nonprofits launched a collaboration in Rapid City that gives women skills to find employment, along with clothing appropriate for interviews.
NAU attracts a diverse mix of students, many of whom are adult learners. Seventy-five percent are low-income, 68 percent are single, divorced or widowed, 69 percent are female, 35 percent are low-income single parents and 75 percent come from low-income households with children.
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Dress for Success clients also tend to be adults who may be entering the job market for the first time, or who need or want better jobs. They, like NAU students, need career-readiness training and clothing to help them in the workforce.
NAU’s marketing department recently revamped its career services handbook and created a user-friendly folder of job-hunting advice. The folder includes information about Dress for Success services. The folders are given to NAU students and Dress for Success clients, said Tamie Hopp, director of Alumni & Foundation Services at NAU. Simpsons Printing supported the collaboration by printing the materials free of charge.
“It’s two nonprofits working together to elevate individuals who need our help. We have a lot of great resources for our students who are approaching graduation. Not unlike our students, Dress for Success clients in our community are making an investment in their future, and we are delighted to support them on their journey,” Hopp said. “It made sense to put that need together with the resources we have.”
NAU students take career readiness courses before they graduate. Teaming with Dress for Success “is part of their journey to put everything to work for them,” Hopp said. “Our students value the career resources.”
Although the full resources of NAU’s Career Services office are available exclusively to NAU students and alumni, the public can use the digital handbooks and videos about job-seeking that are on NAU’s website, careerservices.national.edu/.
Dress for Success is an international nonprofit. It has a location at Rushmore Mall where it gathers and stores clothing for its clients.
“We launched the Dress for Success Black Hills chapter about two years ago to respond to a need in our community for these services,” said Sarah Baker, the chapter’s executive director. “We were delighted when the NAU Foundation approached us with an offer to share with our clients some of the university’s career services resources.”
Clothing is the most visible piece of Dress for Success’ services, but ultimately the organization’s mission is to empower women to thrive in their careers.
“Dress for Success is for every single woman in our community. It’s for people who are coming out of college or even high school who are looking to get into their first job. It’s just as relevant for those woman who are (considering) a career change or looking for work … or even women who are looking at going for that promotion but don’t feel like they have the ability. It’s important to give them their confidence back,” Baker said.
Dress for Success coaches women on presenting themselves well and being prepared for job interviews, and their first days, weeks and months on a new job. Long-term career planning also can be part of the process. “We talk about what women want (as a career goal), and how do we get you there,” Baker said.
Women must be referred to Dress for Success by one of the organization’s partner agencies: Goodwill of the Great Plains; the Department of Labor; Love Inc.; The Hope Center; Cornerstone Rescue Mission; Youth & Family Services; U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services; WAVI; Adecco Staffing; Great Plains Tribal Health Board; and Pathways. However, Baker encourages women who are interested in getting help from Dress for Success to email blackhills@dressforsuccess.org.
“A big misconception is that we give clothing to women, but that’s an extra bonus. That’s how we get people in the door, but really the crux of what we do is to empower women to be successful,” Baker said. “We do mentoring, education and development. … We’re working through that self-awareness of being prepared to succeed.”
To learn more about Dress for Success services, follow them on facebook.com/dressforsuccessbh/ or go to blackhills.dressforsuccess.org/