When you’ve been around since 1996, you can bet theres a large team behind our next feature. Cathy (the Executive Director), 6 part time staff and over 250 volunteers are the amazing people behind the non for profit organization Making Changes – essentially a community helping women and girls transition throughout life. Whether that’s learning life skills, or just helping with wardrobe items this organization has a hold on our hearts. We hope they have the same affect on you!
Making Changes Association
WHAT DO YOU MAKE/SELL? TELL US ABOUT YO’ SELF.
Making Changes Association is a community of women helping women and teenage girls through life transition by providing them with programs and resources to support their pursuit of meaningful work and educational opportunities.
Empowerment for all women is the vision of Making Changes and our three successful programs had more than 2,100 local women and girls use our services in 2015. Women making the transition from unemployment to employment face a myriad of challenges from understanding corporate culture to building an appropriate wardrobe, often without any support systems in place to help them navigate this daunting change. Many of our participants are highly educated women accredited in foreign countries and find themselves having to re-establish their careers with limited family, community or financial support.
Making Changes Association proudly fulfills its mission of empowering women and teenage girls in transition through the offering of three core programs; 1) Employment and Life Skills, 2) The Walk-in Closet, and 3) My Best Friend’s Closet.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU HAD YOUR BUSINESS?
Established as a not for profit society in 1996, Making Changes assists more than 2,100 women and teen girls each year to build better futures for themselves. With a rich history of programs aimed at women in transition dating back as far as 1981, our strength lies in our rootedness in community and in building the collaborative partnerships that create a more inclusive range of opportunities for women in transition. The organization’s success is directly related to the committed and talented volunteers and staff members, donors and community partners, and we continue to develop new ways to deepen the impact of our services.
WHO OR WHAT INSPIRES YOUR WORK?
Women Helping women to build self-confidence, skills and experience required to escape poverty.
Unemployment/underemployment is an underlying cause of poverty. The assistance we provide helps women facing economic challenges reach their potential and improve the quality of life for themselves and their families.
We proudly fulfill our mission by providing 3 core programs that are offered at no cost to our participants:
- The Employment and Life Skills Program assists immigrant women in establishing more meaningful lives in their new society through career planning, information sharing, networking, job search skills and assertiveness training.
- The Walk-In Closet provides 90-minute, one-on-one consultations on professional business attire to women facing financial barriers who want to join the work force, return to school or engage in volunteer opportunities. Women are offered gently used clothing and accessories, to help them look and feel their best while they are pursuing a new path in life.
- My Best Friend’s Closet provides teenage girls (ages 12-18) from low-income homes with 90-minutes one-on-one consultations where they can select a broad selection of fashionable and functional clothing to meet their back to school and recreational needs.
WHAT DO YOU DREAM FOR YOUR BUSINESS IN THE FUTURE?
That all women and girls from low income families and newcomers facing financial barriers gain an understanding of Canadian workplace and are able to find employment commensurate with their skills and experience.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM AND WHY?
Facebook and twitter are platforms used by our target audience, volunteers, staff and donors.
WHAT ARE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES? (Please include links)
Website: www.makingchangesassociation.ca
FaceBook: Makingchangesassociation
Twitter: makingchangesca
Instagram: makingchangesYYC
WHERE CAN WE FIND YOUR STUFF?
The Walk-in Closet and MY Best Friend’s Closet are situated at 6516- 1A Street SW, Calgary.
It takes seven seconds to create a first impression. For our participants these seven seconds represent the barrier they face when trying to find the road to success in their professional and personal lives