Congrats to our DE Partner Bottomless Closet – 15 Years of Empowering Women

Congratulations to Bottomless Closet on 15 years of incredible work!

For many New York City women, transitioning into the workforce is wrought with challenges that they are often minimally prepared to face. These include learning to dress for a professional setting, anticipating questions in job interviews and balancing the demands of home and work. Bottomless Closet works to reduce the barriers many women face in the search for employment as well as provide on-going workshops so that women gain the tools to succeed in their professional and personal lives.

Bottomless Closet envisions a time when all women overcome poverty and achieve self-sufficiency for themselves and their families. Using the model of women helping women and their network of dedicated volunteers, Bottomless Closet enhances their clients’ self-esteem and self-confidence in order for them to enter and succeed in the workforce and improve the quality of their lives

Bottomless Closet was established by a group of founding volunteers in response to an August, 1996 New York Times article that spoke about the obstacles that mothers on public assistance had seeking work, including the lack of appropriate interview clothing and the lack of self-confidence to present themselves professionally in an unfamiliar interview setting. The founders were also responding to the passage of “The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act”, also known as The Welfare Reform Act, the same year which radically transformed the nation’s welfare system by imposing a time limit on federal welfare benefits further complicating women’s transition from public assistance into the workforce.

Learn more about Bottomless Closet, visit their website.