Working Wardrobes Rebuilding Lives, Rebooting Careers

LAKE FOREST, CA — Earlier this year, a fire claimed the large warehouse that housed the Working Wardrobes, a non-profit career development center in Irvine. The vast collection of suits, professional dress-wear, and an array of job training centers were gone in an afternoon, but that conflagration just lit a fire under founder and CEO Jerri Rosen.

In March, she was forced to layoff many staff members, but she keeps her head high and remains focused on rebuilding her non-profit. On Wednesday, Rosen announced the launch of a series of video workshops to help job-seekers during the coronavirus pandemic.

Working Wardrobes' free Rebuilding Careers workshops — which are conducted online on Tuesdays and Thursdays — cover a variety of career development topics, including job search strategies, resources to develop a resume and job interview techniques.

The workshops are allowing Working Wardrobes to "expand our reach into the community" and give people who have lost their jobs and opportunity to renew their skills and improve resumes that may be outdated, according to the organization's founder and CEO, Jerri Rosen.

"Part of this is rebuilding their confidence, their self-esteem," Rosen told City News Service. "It's a very difficult time for so many people."

Damages from the fire, which claimed all of the center's assets, were over $10 million, and $2 million in contents, according to Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Tony Bommarito.

Layoffs in March came after the coronavirus pandemic, though some of the employees are subsequently back to work at the organization, Rosen says.

She hopes that Working Wardrobes is fully staffed again no later than September.

The organization provides job training, career placement, and wardrobe services. For information and to learn how to donate to this organization visit workingwardrobes.org