The ‘Trafford Working Wardrobe’ project is an exciting new initiative which Trafford Council, Groundwork and other local partners are developing and bidding for funding support at a Greater Manchester level. We would like your feedback and thoughts on the proposed model and whether you would find it a useful service to refer local people to.
Working Wardrobe is an initiative to prepare people for interview by providing smart interview clothes and confidence building and interview prep. The Working Wardrobe shop in Bolton currently gets 70% of the people seen into jobs. Once they are successful in getting a job, they return to get clothes for once they start work to keep them going until they receive their first pay check. People attending also get follow up support and advice to help them stay in work. Further information on the Bolton Working Wardrobe is available here https://www.boltonathome.org.uk/working-wardrobe/
Partners in Trafford are working with Groundwork to bid for funding to get something similar set up in Trafford which would be available to anyone who is out of work and attending a job interview. People would be referred to the service by their Adviser/key worker/or work coach.
The two main elements of the service are:-
- Providing smart clothes in a boutique style shop where people attending get a personal styling session and select the clothes and accessories they wish to wear. Clothes are donated by local businesses and dry cleaned and displayed in the shop which is laid out as an exclusive high end boutique
- Wraparound services which include support from an adviser before and after interview and also once in work ongoing support with clothing and advice in things like money management and having a digital presence.
In order to gauge what the likely level of need and demand for Working Wardrobe would be, please could you spare a few minutes to complete a short survey using the link below. This should not take more than 5 minutes of your time and would be hugely helpful to us in shaping the proposed service.
https://trafford.citizenspace.com/governance-and-communities/ca7f5bc9
If you would like more information on the proposed Trafford Working Wardrobe please contact any of the following:
Nidi Etim or Becci Page at Trafford Council on 0161 912 4176 or Venetia Knight or Vickie Chambers at Groundwork on 0161 330 6877