Local group aims to dress for success

(WPRI) - A local organization is offering help, hope and style to hundreds of Rhode Islanders who are anxiously trying to get out of the seemingly endless unemployment cycle.

“Hmmm, this is lovely,” Ines Boyer says as she looks through the racks of clothes inside a Dorcas Place clothing collaborative. “I try to put in at least 5 applications a day but you can’t go on interviews without the right clothes.”

With that persistence and new found style, Boyer was able to find temporary, part time work as a Salvation Army bell ringer, beating out a crowd of 200 applicants for three dozen jobs.

“It's amazing,” Boyer said in this week’s Street Story. “It's easy to dress the part, be confident and then when you get in, there are 90 other people waiting.”

There are five department store-like clothing outlets run by Dorcas Place. On the racks, designer clothes for women and men who come to the Providence organization for career training courses. The donated clothes are the final lesson.

A fresh look for Aristido Mitogo helped him get a job that is keeping him in college.

“It's a first impression,” Mitogo says. “If you look good in front on an employer, I'm sure you'll get the job.”

Long term, Boyer's hoping for work with the hospitality industry in a hotel. Until then, she'll continue filling out a half dozen applications a day and competing with crowds of people but she's grateful for the help and the hope.

“It's church, it's family and it's friends. And the support around you is just so important.”

And right now, business is up at the clothing collaborative along with the unemployment rate. So far this year, about 300 people have dressed for success with the help of Dorcas Place.