Surfing legend Layne Beachley, INXS’ Kirk Pengilly and author Tara Moss shared one thing this week: a catwalk at the annual Dress for Success Sydney (DfSS) 100 Years of Power Dressing fundraiser.
Also walking the catwalk at David Jones’ Sydney CBD store were TV host Catriona Rowntree, and news presenters Natarsha Belling and Juanita Phillips, all of whom helped raise $70,000 for DfSS to continue their work helping women achieve economic independence.
Dress for Success Sydney helps struggling women with free professional attire, career support programs and mentoring services to boost their confidence and help them gain employment. Crucially, it offers suffering women a much needed support network and a vehicle to drive their own successful future.
As DfSS’s CEO Ursula McGeown stated, there are more than 100,000 women who are currently seeking employment in NSW alone. Thanks to events like 100 Years of Power Dressing, DfSS has been able to raise much needed funding. In the last 12 months, the organisation has assisted 1100 women through career support programs, dressed 2,200 and provided more than 115 career support workshops.
Before the fashion show began, a client of Dress for Success Sydney, Melissa O’Connell bravely spoke to the crowd about her personal experience and relationship with the organisation. Her story began as a young, pregnant mother married to her high school sweetheart. Life was full of love and Melissa had only positive expectations for her future. When tragedy struck and Melissa’s husband died suddenly of a brain aneurysm, she was left alone to care for their infant son Riley.
Grieving, and struggling under the pressure, Melissa met another man, who she hoped would make a caring life-partner and step-father to her sons. But her hopes were cruelly dashed when her new partner turned out to be controlling and domestically abusive. Cut off from her friends and family, Melissa described, “living in a house full of fear and violence” and frequently staring into the mirror, crying, not recognising the person she’d become.
Eventually, after the 9th incidence of abuse, Melissa packed her bags and left with her sons. Reunited with her family she and her boys began to “thrive again”. She joined a single mums support group, where she was introduced to DfSS. Melissa recalled the compassion she received with open gratitude. The organisation actively helped her back on her feet, caring for and supporting her and her children. When a lucrative job opportunity arose, DfSS supplied Melissa with the perfect red dress to attend the interview.
Needless to say, she got the job. And years on, having met a new husband and living together with their children in a home full of love again, Melissa is ever grateful for the support and guidance she received from an organisation that’s helping to change the sad statistics for women in Australia.
