REGINA - Dress for Success Regina is a non-profit group that aims to help women achieve independence and success in the workplace by providing them with tools, attire and more.
Barbara Byers, chair of Dress for Success Regina, talked about how the idea for the organization started in the first place.
"Dress for Success in Regina started because of two women [Barbara Hildebrandt and Jan Forrest] who saw really a need for women to be able to have clothing for their interviews."
Hildebrandt and Forrest approached the Westminster United Church in Regina about the idea. The church gave the two women not only space for an area but also a significant grant as well.
So, Dress for Success Regina officially opened in February of 2008. While Dress for Success was happy with the space they had in the church, over time, it presented some challenges.
As Byers mentioned, "the difficulty with our space at Westminster was that it was not accessible for people who may have mobility issues. It wasn't accessible for people who may have, for example, lung capacity problems because we were on the third floor of the office annex."
Wishing for an entry-level floor location, Dress for Success Regina was able to make that possible with a grant. In 2022, the federal government gave the Dress for Success Canada Foundation a large grant.
Under the foundation, there are 10-plus affiliates in the country, including the Regina location. Additionally, the Regina branch is part of Dress for Success: Worldwide.
With the money they received from the grant, the group dedicated a portion of the money to moving into a new location.
In 2024, the non-profit organization shifted to downtown Regina at 1920 Hamilton St. Since moving into the new location, Byers said, "our donations [for clothes] have definitely gone up in the new location just because we're more visible."
Lending a hand
For Byers, the reason she joined Dress for Success Regina was to give back to the community. She had donated to a sister location in Ottawa before, but Byers didn’t know much about the group either than 小蓝视频 a drop-off clothing store.
Later on, Byers decided to volunteer and looked into Dress for Success Regina. The group was looking for volunteers, so Byers joined in 2017. Then, in 2022, Byers joined the organization's board.
Byers and the other volunteers ensure women coming through the door would be provided with optimal services.
One service Dress for Success Regina offers is suiting. "The idea here is women will be referred for either or both an interview suiting [or] an employment suiting," said Byers. For an interview suiting, women will be provided with a couple of outfits they can use for days when they have said interview. Meanwhile, an employment suiting lets women take home about a week's worth of clothing. All the clothing that is provided by the non-profit group is also free.
It's worth noting the group doesn't offer individual appointments and only offers services, like suiting, to those who were referred by agencies, which include Regina Work Preparation Centre Inc. and Sask. Polytechnic. A full list of the agencies can be
To ensure that women get the clothes they need or desire more easily, volunteers will know information about the clients before they arrive, including their age range, what size clothing they wear, if there are any restrictions, etc.
Once they have all this information, volunteers will pull out clothes they think will work for the client. Byers mentioned while they pick out clothes for women, they don’t want them only to take items because they were hand-picked. Instead, Dress for Success Regina "wants people to feel like they have a personal service."
Byers pointed out a lot of women say they’ve never been treated this well before because some women weren't allowed to voice their own opinion.
She gave an example of one client who kept asking the volunteers, "what do you think [about this outfit]? The volunteers wanted to know how the women felt in the outfits. Later, the client admitted she recently left a domestic violence situation, where she wasn’t allowed to have any opinions for years.
Understanding what she went through, Byers and the other volunteers worked with the client, ensuring she felt confident and proud walking into a workplace or for an interview.
When asked what it meant to help out women who are dealing with hardships, Byers said "It’s huge." She added, "It means that we're making a difference for women who may not have had any other options."
While Dress for Success Regina doesn’t have information regarding the number of women who successfully got employed after they helped them out, Byers did say, "we often run into women who are in senior positions in government, in corporations and whatever. So we have, I think, a great cadre of people out there [who have been helped by us]."
In order to continue helping out women, Dress for Success Regina will have meetings with their counterparts across Canada and the world to come up with new ideas.
