Fairy Godmothers

Dress for Success Sacramento, a boutique tucked in a North Sacramento mall, performs the role of a modern-day fairy godmother. The nonprofit takes under its wing disadvantaged women who are entering the job market and provides them with an outfit to wear to job interviews, as well as training for interviews and access to a community support network.

WOMEN IN NEED: Clients often are single mothers. Some have escaped abusive relationships or were previously homeless. Some are returning to work after years away. “Women carry a lot of responsibility in families,” Dress for Success Sacramento founder Veronica Smith says. “When you help a woman, you have the ability to change the trajectory of her family and generations to come.”

THE OUTFITS: Referred from other agencies, clients meet at Dress for Success for a private fitting with volunteer stylists who assemble a job-interview outfit. If the woman lands a job, the agency provides her with a week’s worth of outfits. “It’s about confidence,” Smith says. “We make sure women are able to step into interviews and jobs feeling good about themselves.”

THE ASK: Dress for Success recently reopened after a pandemic-related closure. The agency is seeking funding to hire two employees, a job developer and an outreach coordinator.

THAT “OH MY!” MOMENT: The fitting can be a revelatory experience. And an emotional one. “We see their faces, their gratitude,” Smith says. “They look at themselves in the mirror and sometimes they cry. We put makeup on a 60-yearold woman for the first time in her life and she just cried. She said she never imagined herself looking this good.”