Nonprofit Helps LI Women 'Dress For Success' In Job Search

FARMINGVILLE, NY —On its surface Dress for Success Brookhaven helps women by outfitting them with the external help they need to succeed in the workplace: clothes for job interviews, resume and financial planning support. But one Long Island woman credits encountering the organization with helping transform her life on a deeper level, by providing a needed confidence boost at a crucial moment in her life.

Star Arbouin, of Rocky Point, had lost almost everything in 2013: her home-based certified daycare business closed after budget cuts and Hurricane Sandy took a toll. She was living in a homeless shelter with her three children, working as a substitute teacher's aide, when a flood at the shelter destroyed her remaining possessions. Arbouin had nothing to wear to work.

A counselor at the shelter told her to contact the Farmingville-based nonprofit Dress for Success.

"After i lost my business I couldn't stay afloat," Arbouin remembered.

Dress for Success supplied her with a week's worth of professional clothing, even helping her to mix and match the pieces to last longer.

"It was a very friendly inviting atmosphere, the support was very nurturing, especially having come from a place where I felt like everything in my life had crumbled," she told Patch.

Arbouin felt such a boost of confidence and support, she joined a professional women's support group run by the organization. She attended financial planning workshops, and applied the resume and networking training to her life.

Created in 1999, Dress for Success Brookhaven estimates they have suited more than 6,500 women for job interviews and the workplace. A personal shopper helps each woman with her specific needs. A career center offers resume review, interview training and the Professional Women’s Group that Arbouin says was a welcome space of women supporting other women.

"They helped encourage me that it's okay to start over," Arbouin told Patch.

"There's something about how when you dress in a certain style, it boosts your confidence."

She is now working for Suffolk County social services and says she credits that encounter in 2013 with changing her life.

"But you have to apply the help. The confidence that's restored wasn't there when I first met them and that confidence to embrace change," helped her to try a new career path.

"I feel like I have the confidence now to embrace any change."