Blushing Boutique's Fourth Annual Dress For Success Drive!

November 20th -December 24th

Dress for Success Vancouver has partner with the Blushing for Blushing Boutique's fourth annual christmas Drive for women in need of a little blossoming.

When you bring in a suit or any work or interview approiate outfit, the outfit will be donated it to Dress for Success Vancouver.

All proceeds from the raffle will be donated to Dress for Success Vancouver. The raffle will be drawn on Friday December 24th!

Inspiring Stories

These Professional Women's Group(PWG) members shared their stories during the December PWG meeting. They told their life experiences and how thet overcame adversity in sich a positive and empowering way that they inspired everyone in the room, including fellow PWG members, mentors and board members.

Triangle Graduations!

Triangle Community Resources November graduates in their Dress for Success Vancouver outfits.

Triangle Community Resources provides a six week program that equips women with a realistically and practically perspective to improve their overall independence through employment and further training.

Dress for Success Vancouver supports these women with work attire. In the above picture, you can see the most recent graduates in their outfits. Dress for Success Vancouver wishes to congratulate all the graduates.

Come out to the "Stella & Dot Trunk Show"

Join us Tuesday, November 30th, for holiday treats and sparkly jewels!

Stella & Dot stylists Cheryl and Jen will be here to share holiday style tipsand help you pick out the perfect gifts for your friends, family, and you!

When: Tuesday, November 30th

Time: Stop by anytime between 4:30-7:30pm

When: Dress for Success Vancouver office, 675 W Hastings St ( Buzz #0100)

Please RSVP to Jen by November 29 at dfsvancouver.jennifer@yahoo.ca. Looking forward in seeing you all at the show.

Breakfast Club!

Dress for Success Vancouver has proudly launched the pilot of its 4th program, the Breakfast Club. The Breakfast Club provides jobseekers the opportunity to meet weekly, over the course of 15 weeks, to learn, support each other and find suitable employment.

We are nearly into third week of the program, having covered "Beliefs, Values and Assumptions", as well as " Active Listening Expert Recruiters, a local recruitment firm, has donated their boardroom and breakfast goodies for this pilot program.

Each week, for about an hour and a half, the participants engage in discussion and presentation on different topics by different presenters. The first few weeks have been facilitated by Kathy Taberner, professional coach, and past Dress for Successs Vancouver board member.

Vancouver's affiliate of Dress for Success is the first to launch the Breakfast Club outside of the US!

Canucks Live to Give Day!

We were so fortunate to have three Canucks employees join us last Wednesday, November 10th as part of their Live to Give Day, where staff go out into the community and help local charities. For The past three years, the employees from the Canucks have worked with our organization, sorting through mountains of clothing and helping us prepare for events.

This year, Nicole, Elroy and Mike sorted through clothing, pulling out clothing in preparation for the PWG's "Get Ready for the Holidays" Party as well as set up for a seminar that the Career Centre was putting on that night. For further information on Canucks, check out their website: http://canucks.nhl.com

HeartBroke Book Launch Today!

$1 from the sale of each book will support Dress for Success Vancouver's Book Club, a new program that will be offered to Professional Women's Group Members and Alumni.

Buy HeartBroke today (Nov 9) and gain access to $750 in FREE GIFTS! Visit http://www.heartbrokebook.com/ for more details and to buy!

"I was 42-years old, in phenominal shape and all set to run a half-marathon. My five-year-old business was taking off, and a spicy romance added sparkle to my day. My life was full, thriving and packed with fun. But, within three months and independant of eachother, the romance ended, I underwent emergency heart surgery and I closed down my beloved business. I call this time in my life "The Crumble"..." -- Christine Monaghan, Author HeartBroke

She IS a gold digger!

Volunteer Christina and her co-worker Patrick celebrate Halloween in style.

Every year we get a few things that just aren't meant for the workplace. Including the gold leggings and sweater modeled by DFS Vancouver volunteer Christina. Luckily, she found a purpose for them at her company Halloween party, where she won first prize in the costume contest for her "Gold Digger" ensemble. Congrats, Christina! Looking glam!

Happy Halloween!

PWG Scholarships

2010 PWG Scholarship Winners Amanda, Nadia, and Lynn.

Each year the Professional Women’s Group (PWG), a Dress for Success Vancouver program providing career support, awards several scholarships to PWG members to further their careers. We received eleven applications for three $500 scholarships this year.

Thanks to generous donations by Christine Nicolas and an anonymous former client, Dress for Success Vancouver was able to provide scholarships to Amanda Garcia, Nadia Bougachoch and Lynn Leo. Amanda will use her scholarship to take an Income Tax course; Nadia is enrolling in an Early Childhood Education program; and Lynn is taking a Certified General Accounting Course. Congratulations!

Wealth Academy raises nearly $3000!

Wealth Academy presenters (L to R) Jan, Corrine, Marlene, Kamal, and Carrie pose with their new Dress for Success scarves - looking great, ladies!

Thank you for attending Wealth Academy and your support of Dress of Success Vancouver. We hope you learned lots – we sure did! It sure was great to gain some further insight into our relationship with money, and how much fun it is to do the equity dance!

Through this event, we raised almost $3000 – enough to put 19 women through all four of our programs: Dressing Services, Career Center, Professional Women’s Group (PWG), and PWG Alumni.

Special thanks to our PWG sponsors and our sincere thanks to Wealth Academy presenters Tracy, Kamal, Carrie, Corrine, Marlene, and Jan for your generosity in volunteering your time and expertise.

Wealth Academy will be back again next year - keep your eyes open for the next installment!

Wealth Academy - This Saturday!

Be one of the first to visit the beautiful new roof top Pavilion at the Vancouver Art Gallery on October 16^th while joining with other women from all backgrounds to learn everything you need to know about money – in a day. With segments like “banks are our friends” and “from debt to prosperity”, this is not your typical financial seminar.

The amazing female presenters of Wealth Academy are women who understand more than finance – they understand how it is that women can learn about this commodity that affects everything we do in life. They understand how hard it can be to earn it – and how challenging it is to hang on to it. They are donating their time and skills to help us raise funds for Dress for Success Vancouver, and to help us to gain the freedom that knowledge can provide.

For only $49, (for tickets purchased in advance) you are invited to cast your pre-conceived notions behind - and learn to have a positive relationship with what you earn. In addition to this low price, if you would like to sponsor someone from our PWG - we can arrange that at a reduced price of $29 (for which you will receive a charitable tax receipt).

To purchase tickets, please click here!

Deb draws a winning ticket in the Challenge raffle as Valerie keeps track of the winners.

Announcing our Dress Me for Success Corporate Challenge raffle draw winners!

• Chevron Gift Certificate – $250 - #2666 – Joanne Adams

• Delta Vancouver Airport Hotel – 1 night stay – $200 - #0477 Christina Bell

• Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel - 1 night stay in Fairmont Gold Harbour Mountain View Room - $650 - #0281 – Gail Gossen

• Hennessey Hair Salon – Gift Certificate –$100 - #1511 Bill Maclager

• Le Petit Spa – Half Hour Facial Peel - $60 #0308- Andrea Potter

• Ora Recycled Leather Bag – $200 - #5486 – Brianna Bergeron

• Safeway Gift Certificate –$250 - #4075 - Pooneh Maghrebian

• Wine Lovers Gift Basket –$100 - #2004 – James Lee

• Rain Hair Boutique – Hair Cut Gift Certificate –$75 - #5457 – Julie Johnson

• Helijet Int'l & Delta Victoria - Return for 2, 1 night - $1000 - #0339 – Tamara Paul

Congratulations winners and a HUGE thank you to all who bought tickets – we raised close to $10,000 through the raffle! That’s enough money to put 67 women through all four of our client services: Dressing, Career Centre, Professional Women’s Group (PWG), and PWG Alumni.

Winning tickets were sold by the following companies: BC Hydro (2 winners), Klein Lyons (2 winners), Stella & Dot (2 winners), GBS (2 winners), Blakes, and Lydia Miller (event chair).

BEFORE

AFTER

8 hard-working volunteers from Deloitte made a 6-foot tall pile of clothing donations disappear last week during their “Impact Day”. In just 6 hours, they managed to sort through weeks’ worth of donations, so that we could once again see the floor… Thank you Deloitte crew!!!

DFS Van on flare.com!

Dress for Success' Deborah Twocock (second from right) and Professional Women's Group member Santa Chow (far right) pose with Kathy Barr and Kimberly MacAuley (left - both Oakridge Centre) and FLARE Editor-in-Chief Lisa Tant (centre).

Post-Challenge Kick-off, participants and other Vancouver fashionistas attended Flare Magazine and Oakridge Centre's Fall Trend Report - an exclusive preview of Fall 2010's fashion and beauty trends. All proceeds of the event supported Dress for Success Vancouver. Thank you Oakridge and FLARE! See more photos of the event on FLARE's website.

Corporate Challenge Kicks Off with a BANG! Literally…

BC Hydro's Cynthia Curll pops her balloon to determine what item her Challenge Team will collect for Dress for Success Vancouver’s Corporate Challenge. (Photo: Brian Hawkes Photographic Inc.)

Dress for Success Vancouver kicked off our annual fall fundraiser, Dress Me for Success Corporate Challenge, at Oakridge Centre September 1st. Challengers made noise by popping balloons to select which items they will collect over the month of September in support of local women re-entering the workforce.

Nineteen companies are taking part in the Challenge, which includes a drive, raffle, scavenger hunt and fashion show. You can join the Corporate Challengers at the Marriot Pinnacle Hotel on October 7th to celebrate the completion of their month-long challenge.

Tickets are $25.00 (one drink and appies included). The evening includes a fashion show, supporters showcase, auction and door prizes. Watch as Challengers strut their stuff and are awarded their prizes.

For more information and to buy tickets, click here.

PWG Success Summit 2010

Lucia Crosson, PWG Coordinator with Joi Gordon C.E.O of Dress for Success World Wide and Santa Chow, PWG Vancouver Delegate

Dress for Success Worldwide annually holds the Success Summit, a conference for Professional Women’s Group (PWG) members and coordinators to develop leadership skills through networking, learning new personal and professional skills and exploring issues surrounding career development.

This year, Santa Chow represented Dress for Success Vancouver at the PWG Success Summit in Chicago IL. Santa learnt to develop leadership skills to create and implement together with her PWG colleagues a project that will benefit the Lower Mainland community.

Flare Magazine and Oakridge Centre present Fall Trend Report 2010!

Join Lisa Tant, Editor-in-chief of FLARE for a sneak peak of the fashion and beauty trends for the fall! There will be door prizes, gift bags, raffle prizes, cocktails and hours d'oeuvres!

The details:
When: September 1 - 6:30-7:30pm (Doors open at 6pm)
Where: Oakridge Centre (Cambie and 41st)

$20 donation at the door benefits Dress for Success Vancouver

Seating is Limited -- Please RSVP by August 30th to www.flare.com/oakridge

Thanks Angel Restoration and PwC!

Last Thursday, we were so fortunate to have carpet cleaning services donated to us by Angel Restoration. A team of Dress for Success Vancouver volunteers emptied the store of nearly everything but a few clothing racks on Thursday morning.

Taking the store apart was easy, putting it back together was a tad more challenging! Thank goodness 5 fabulous volunteers from PwC came in to help us out! Over the course of the day, the store was scrubbed top to bottom and everything found its place again (just in time for our Dressing Services appointments the next morning!).

Thank you PwC and Angel Restoration!

Need a new lap top bag?

Rainbrooke just came out with a great new laptop bag. It is funky, chic and cool... therefore, it is called the Funchico!

Inspired by vintage train cases, and in an adorable light pink pattern, you will be the envy of all your other lap-top carrying friends!

Why are we so excited about this? Well other than it being so trendy, the purchase of these bags benefit Dress for Success! Now you have even more reason to order one. (As if you needed it!)

Actually, our Executive Director here at the Dress for Sucess Vancouver affiliate is awaiting the arrival of her own right now!

Click here for more info and to purchase the fabulous Funchico!

Dress for Success Vancouver wins the Lublin Award!

C.E.O. of Dress for Success World Wide, Joi Gordon, with Vancouver Executive Director, Deborah Twocock

Late last month, Dress for Success Vancouver Executive Director, Deborah Twocock, journeyed to Washington D.C. to attend the Dress for Success World Wide affiliate conference. The conference invites a representative from every Dress for Success affiliate (all 113 of them) to learn best practices, introduce new initiatives and develop leadership skills.

This year, Vancouver was the proud recipient of the Lublin Award, the most prestigious award given to affiliates, named after Dress for Success's founder, Nancy Lublin.

The PERFECT summer skirt!

Just this afternoon we received word from one of our lovely volunteers Tasia Pona, about a very special collaboration she is involved in with a digital print and fabric designer, Jasonda Desmond.

Jasonda, with Dotty Logic and was kind enough to donate her fabric made from organic cotton, while Tasia used her sewing skills to create a utterly fabulous skirt! The best thing about this project, is that all proceeds are going towards Dress for Success Vancouver!

Here are some pictures:

This is the adorable Tasia modelling the skirt:
For more pictures and info, check out Tasia's Sewaholic blog here: http://sewaholic.net/coral-garden-skirt-mccalls-5803-fabric-by-dotty-logic/

And to purchase the skirt on Dotty Logic's online Etsy store, click here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/51475024/coral-garden-skirt-all-proceeds-to

And rememeber all proceeds go to us here at Dress for Success Vancouver!

THANK YOU TASIA AND JASONDA!