Working Wardrobes makes a comeback after devastating fire, coronavirus shutdowns
Since a fire destroyed its Irvine headquarters in February, Working Wardrobes — a nonprofit that helps connect residents with job coaching and sets them up with appropriate work attire — has been gearing up for a serious makeover.
And now the transformation has begun.
Officials, volunteers and supporters celebrated Tuesday the opening of a 12,000-square-foot clothing donation center in Irvine. Locals turned out with professional outfits, shoes, jewelry and accessories in hand, ready to be donated.
The opening of the facility marks an important first step in $2.67-million rebuilding plan that will help the organization recoup, and even expand upon, what was lost in the fire, said founder and chief executive Jerri Rosen.
“We’ve taken a warehouse and created this wonderful, warm and engaging environment for our donors,” Rosen said. “This is like the point of entry for donors to learn about what we’re doing at Working Wardrobes.”
Tuesday’s ceremony marked the beginning of several new developments on the horizon for the nonprofit organization — a new career center in Santa Ana is scheduled to open after the Fourth of July weekend thanks, in part, to more than $1 million in donations.
Four retail clothing stores in Costa Mesa, Tustin, Laguna Niguel and Garden Grove are due to reopen to the visiting public later in July, after a four-month hiatus necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic.
The group is looking forward to holding a grand-reopening celebration in late September.
“A lot has happened, and it’s happened in a very short period of time,” Rosen said of the effort. “This is taking 30 years and condensing everything into five months of rebuilding.”
Rosen said the cause of the fire — which broke out in the early morning hours of Feb. 2 and resulted in $12 million in property and content loss — was never determined.
“It was an old building and not in the best condition,” she added. “We just knew we needed to rebuild and not at that location.”
Immediately following the disaster, employees and volunteers found a temporary home at a Goodwill facility in Santa Ana. Community members came with carloads of donations to help stock up the space, recalled Client Services Director Ashley Vlcan.
“We really didn’t miss a beat in serving our clients,” Vlcan said, estimating the group assists about 5,000 people annually. “We were at Goodwill the next day and were able to get right back to work.”
Then the coronavirus hit and, in the span of about a month, Working Wardrobes was forced again to retool. This time, its career coaching sessions went virtual as employees and volunteers worked remotely. About 25 staffers were laid off March 31.
Today, a “Building Careers” program is attracting clients from across the nation as millions of Americans experiencing unemployment during the pandemic seek out workshops, coaching sessions and other support online.
“We’d talked about going virtual for a while and then were forced to go virtual which, I think, has been a blessing in disguise,” Vlcan said. “We’re already seeing an uptick in the number of career coaching appointments.”
Dorothy Evans, a Mission Viejo resident who’s volunteered as a career coach for the past four years, said she learned how to hold virtual coaching sessions on Zoom and maintains a steady stream of appointments.
Since the fire, she added, every effort has been made to keep lines of communication and assistance open and available for clients in need.
“We went through that grieving process, as anybody would expect,” Evans said. “But we snapped out of that and said, ‘We’ve got work to do.’”
Working Wardrobes’ clothing donation center is at 17392 Daimler Street, Suite 150, in Irvine. It is open Tuesdays through Saturdays, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and will accept donations of clean clothing items, preferably on hangers. For more, visit workingwardrobes.org.
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