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Ft Myers Beach - Good Neighbor
EP# 151 - Tailoring Success Stories with Jennifer Nelson's Dress for Success Mission
When Jennifer Nelson speaks, her passion for empowering women is palpable, and it's impossible not to be swept up in her mission to break down barriers to employment. As the Executive Director of Dress for Success Southwest Florida, Jennifer joins us to share how her organization isn't just about providing professional attire but is a beacon of hope, offering comprehensive development programs and unwavering support to women on their journey to independence. Her personal story, woven with the strength of her mother's immigrant and single-parent background, brings an inspiring depth to our conversation, underscoring the profound impact of education and gainful employment on breaking the cycle of poverty.
Beyond the wardrobe, Dress for Success cultivates a thriving community with workshops on financial literacy, resume crafting, and savvy job search strategies, all at no cost to the participants. Jennifer opens up about her own life—her love for Indonesian cuisine, the tranquility of her prayer walks, and her recent engagement, lending a warm and intimate feel to the discussion. But it doesn't stop there; we get an insider's look at how creative community events like designer purse bingo and boutique shopping don't just fundraise—they build sustainable revenue and connect the dots between commerce and compassion. Listen to Jennifer's story of dedication and discover how you too can play a part in the empowering narrative of Dress for Success.
Dress for Success
Jennifer Nelson
12995 S Cleveland Ave, Ste 153
Fort Myers, FL 33907
(239) 689-4992
swflorida@dressforsuccess.org
WEBSITE
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This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.
Speaker 2:Welcome Good Neighbors to episode number 151 of the Good Neighbor Podcast Estero. Today we have Good Neighbor Jennifer Nelson from Dress for Success, Southwest Florida. Jennifer welcome.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Jim. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, pleasure to get to know more people in the community and what they do and see what they do. So why don't we just jump right in? Why don't we start off by sharing a little bit about what you do over at Dress for Success, southwest Florida?
Speaker 3:Sure, sure. So I started here as the executive director in January of 2024. So I've only been here a few months and I absolutely love this mission. We at Dress for Success we help women who are may have some sort of a barrier to employment or some sort of a disadvantage to becoming gainfully employed, whether they're coming out of an abuse shelter situation where maybe they haven't ever worked or they haven't worked in a while, or they're coming out of a recovery situation again, where they haven't maybe worked for a while. Or you know, we also work with women who are currently employed but maybe they want to level up in their career. So what we do is we offer programs and, most importantly, we dress them. We dress them for interviews and give them outfits to be successful.
Speaker 2:How wonderful is that I love that.
Speaker 3:I love it.
Speaker 2:So how did you go about getting involved in all this?
Speaker 3:Well, so I am actually a native Texan and I grew up in Texas and went to the University of Texas, graduated at the ripe old age of 22, and started working for Goodwill Industries as a volunteer, and at the Goodwill in Austin, texas, we actually had a Dress for Success program. It was with Goodwill. And in fact my first experience picking up a donation of nice clothing was with, at the time, first Lady Laura Bush going to the governor's mansion and picking up her beautiful suits and dresses in my beat up Volkswagen Cabriolet convertible, yep, yep. And so I was with Goodwill for almost 25 years, wow. And workforce development has always been my passion. Working with women has been my passion.
Speaker 3:I come from a single parent household and first generation on my mother's side she immigrated from Indonesia through Holland back in the 60s to the United States and you know, unfortunately my dad was in Vietnam and came back kind of a wreck, as most veterans did back then, and so she raised us by herself, and it was me and my two brothers, and so I was always very passionate about, you know, how strong my mom was and, like as I grew up, like seeing other single moms who really, you know, kind of struggled but made it, and so I kind of made it like my passion project, if you will, to help women and to help girls. And so I was with Goodwill for 25 years and then I actually became elected to city council in Cape Coral and was able to continue my passion for workforce because I was a part of Future Makers Coalition, which is through the Collaboratory, as well as I was on the Horizon Council Board, which does all economic guidance for economic development in Lee County, and so some staggering statistics that are still true today. Well, first of all, 52% of the people in our Southwest Florida region do not have any education beyond high school. So whether it's a grade school certification or four-year education, you know a large portion, more than half of our portion of our region, doesn't have that. So being when I was elected and of course you know now, and I was, I'm on the Pace Center for Girls Board where we help young girls kind of be successful as well I knew that I needed to continue with that passion of mine, and I always tell women and anybody that I speak with, the two number one ways to break generational poverty in your life is number one through education and number two through work.
Speaker 3:So when the opportunity came to me for Dress for Success, it was kind of a no braininer because it was sort of everything I feel like my life, you know, had built me up to for 53 years to sort of take over and hopefully bring to another level, and I really enjoy the work and I love you know speaking to other women and you know sharing some of my own story, just growing up and also being a single mom for the last 11 years and you know having a daughter who struggled and actually attended Pace Center for Girls and is one of those children who, as much as her mother, wanted her to wear burnt orange. She decided to go to FSW and get her certification as an EMT, which she graduated and finished two weeks ago. So you know there's so many opportunities for our youth here in Southwest Florida and you know anything I can do to help that and especially girls and women, sign me up. I'm in, so I love it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. That's wonderful what you do. Are there any maybe myths or misconceptions surrounding what you do that we can maybe clear up for our listeners?
Speaker 3:Well, I think you know, when I say that I was an executive for Goodwill, for example, or that I've always worked in nonprofits, even when I was elected, I still, you know, worked for Uncommon Friends Foundation and I worked out on Captiva for a small legislative district. And I think one of the biggest misconceptions is people often panic or have a bit of a freak out when they see that a CEO or an executive director, you know, makes a decent salary. And oftentimes, you know people think, well, if you work for a nonprofit, you should, you shouldn't make any money. And that's a huge misconception because nonprofits are no different than for-profits. They should be run like a business. You have your gross revenue, you have your expenses and you have your net revenue and then you have the percentage of revenue from your net that goes directly to your programs and another percentage that goes to administration. It's the old adage that people often say, which is you get what you pay for. So I think oftentimes when people panic and they see that you know you have this executive director and they're making you know, I don't know 30% of what the overall revenue is, you got to think that you know you want to retain and have really good people to run your nonprofits just like a business.
Speaker 3:I also think that with Dress for Success specifically, I think that individuals, you know, think that we charge women to come through our training programs. So we have like a professional women's group that meets once a month they're actually meeting tonight where we have different speakers who teach financial literacy, resume writing, job searching skills, and then we also have a women empowerment through employee training series. That's a five week program that we do that we actually hire Erica Kastner as our consultant to teach that and people often think we charge for those things and we don't. They're free to you if you want to come in and use our services and then in the end we'll dress you, you'll get a really great outfit. And people often wonder well gosh, where do you get all your clothes?
Speaker 3:And because of my background with Goodwill, when I started here, I realized very quickly that we needed more really quality product. We didn't necessarily have the quality of product we needed to especially be dressing a younger generation. So people, I think, forget that we take donations. So I always like to remind individuals if you have any gently loved or used current career wear that maybe you recently retired or, you know, maybe you've lost weight, gained weight, whatever, or you just want to do something. Know, maybe you've lost weight, gained weight, whatever, or you just want to do something. Great, we'll take your stuff. Any career wear and especially accessories. We definitely need accessories to complete the outfit for our women.
Speaker 2:That is important, Very important. It sounds like you've got a very full plate. Yeah, I was going to ask you where do you find time, or what when you do find time. What do you enjoy doing outside of this?
Speaker 3:I like to walk. Walking is kind of my piece. So I used to do those crazy CrossFit flipping tire workouts up until about two years ago when I tore my retina twice. But I used to flip these big tires and I'm kind of a taller, bigger girl anyway, so I would always my brothers would always say "'Gosh, you're looking like a linebacker". And I guess I did. But after I tore my retina twice in the same year, my doctor advised me to maybe take it easy on the workouts. So I started walking and I just love it. I average about four miles a day and I go in the morning really early and it's kind of my peace time, my prayer time, my time to talk to God and the universe and play with my dog. And then I recently got engaged, so that's been really exciting and I love to cook.
Speaker 3:I love to cook Oftentimes on a weekend, whereas I used to have to go to like five events in a day. I don't have to do that anymore, which is wonderful. I can pick and choose. Oftentimes you'll find me in my kitchen all day Saturday just meal prepping and cooking. I love to cook. I'm Dutch, indonesian, so I make a lot of Indonesian food. I really enjoy experimenting with that and I just I have a really good time cooking and walking.
Speaker 2:That's it Enjoying life Absolutely. And that's what we do down here in Southwest Florida, so true. So is there one thing you wish our listeners knew about what you do that maybe they're not familiar with?
Speaker 3:Again, I think you know, knowing that we take donations and knowing that we're always in need of really good quality career wear, is very important. You can bring those to our boutique that's currently located near the bell tower on off of 41. And we may be looking to branch out. We want to start serving more. 30% of the women that we serve actually come out of Collier County, 15% are in Glades, hendry counties, and so we are looking to find boutique locations in those two counties three counties to be able to dress more women. So that's something that's on the horizon, probably in my 12 month plan, but right now, you know, we are in desperate need of donations for product and, of course, money.
Speaker 3:We do have a bingo event, actually a designer purse bingo event. We got a sponsor, thank you to the Seminole Casino. They sponsored the money for us to buy some really nice designer bags, and so we're having a bingo event, a purse bingo event, this Thursday at 530 at the Shell Factory. If you go to our website or our Facebook page, you can click on the links and you can get tickets. I think we have a few left, but we're really looking forward to that.
Speaker 3:That's hopefully going to be a very successful fundraiser for us and we're also having a shop event. So we're going to open the doors on Saturday here in our boutique and we're going to invite friends and family and the public to come. You can give us a $10 donation if you feel so inclined to come in and shop and we're going to let you come through and shop our boutique. I like to do these types of events because I feel like it gives us an opportunity to bring the public in to see what we do here. In addition to it helps us generate some revenue and it's sustainable revenue. It's not relying on fundraising and it gives us an opportunity to kind of blow out some of our current product to make room for some new donations.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I love it. Jennifer, thank you for doing what you do in the community and for the women in the community. It's been a pleasure getting to know you, thank you for being such a good neighbor and I hope to see you out in the community here soon.
Speaker 3:I hope so too, Jim. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Estero. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpestero. com. That's gnpestero. com, or call 239-296-2621.