After 31 years, Working Wardrobes CEO Jerri Rosen has some thoughts to share

Jerri Rosen steps down Friday from one of the best known non-profits in Orange County, Working Wardrobes, which she founded in 1990.

What began as a one-time event to help women coping with domestic violence, expanded into an ongoing operation to assist women and men overcome issues such as substance abuse, incarceration and homelessness. Over the past 31 years, Rosen’s organization has helped close to 115,000 people overcome adversity and secure jobs.

During that time, Working Wardrobes itself also has faced challenges, including a devastating fire last year.

Working Wardrobes offers workshops and other career services, including professional attire from some 500,000 clothing items donated each year. The non-profit has a donation center in Irvine, a career center in Santa Ana and four thrift shops: the Hanger Outlets in Costa Mesa and Garden Grove, and the Hanger Boutiques in Laguna Niguel and Tustin.

The organization serves clients in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, partnering with dozens of social service agencies, shelters and others to provide services.

“Our work is really around getting the clients work force ready,” Rosen said. “We’re working with residential shelters, recovery homes, wherever people are going through some kind of a challenge. It may be veterans who have come back from the service and fallen on difficult times. It’s a very broad spectrum of people.”

“The clothing is like the last piece of a really great puzzle when we put people back together,” she added.

Helping out are some 2,500 to 3,000 volunteers, including long-time volunteers. “We couldn’t do the work without them,” Rosen said, adding that it’s important to acknowledge and thank each one of them.

The Register recently caught up with Rosen to talk about the non-profit’s history, accomplishments and future. Here are highlights of that conversation.

After a Feb. 2 fire that destroyed the organization’s Irvine headquarters and amid the pandemic, Jerri Rosen, the CEO and founder of Working Wardrobes, rebuilt the organization and reopened in the early fall. “We are beyond blessed with donations, good quality donations,” Rosen said. “The community really rallied.” (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Jerri Rosen, the founder and CEO of Working Wardrobes in Irinve, will step down from the nonprofit at the end of the year. Her successor is Bonni Pomush, executive director of The Samueli Center for Progressive Judaism. (File photo: Cindy Yamanaka, Orange County Register)

Jerri Rosen, CEO of Working Wardrobes during a press conference in Santa Ana, CA, on Monday, Feb 3, 2020. Working Wardrobes lost everything in at their Irvine headquarters in a fire on Sunday. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Jerri Rosen, CEO of Working Wardrobes, left, gets a hug from the Justin Frame, Working Wardrobes board chair during a press conference in Santa Ana, CA, on Monday, Feb 3, 2020. Working Wardrobes lost everything in at their Irvine headquarters in a fire on Sunday. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Working Wardrobes Founder and CEO, Jerri Rosen at the new temporary Working Wardrobes location at the Goodwill of Orange County in Santa Ana on Thursday, February 20, 2020. The warehouse and offices of the nonprofit Working Wardrobes was destroyed by fire (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Q: You leave such a legacy behind that I’d like to back to the beginning, more than 30 years ago, when you launched a day of self esteem event that brought in 67 women. Why did you create Working Wardrobes?

It was going to be a one-time only event. Can you imagine? I did served on another nonprofit board. My background is in marketing and advertising. We did a lot of work for them, videos and promotions. They weren’t the most gracious with their appreciation. They thought volunteers would get their thanks when they got to heaven. It started to feel like a thankless job. And after a couple of years, several of my chums who were on the board resigned. We just felt we needed to do something. We loved volunteering. We wanted to make sure we could do something with our talents. We were mostly entrepreneurs and we wanted to give back.

One of my chums gave me an article about a woman in North Carolina who would provide clothing for women in an abuse facility if they needed to go to court or to an interview… I thought this is a group of people who really need a boost to their self esteem. So what could we do? Let’s do their hair. Let’s give them a makeover, so they could feel more confident and then maybe they won’t go back to their abusive relationship. And so we set about trying to figure out how to do an event…

Q: So the original mission was to help battered women. But you expanded in so many different ways. Can you talk about how the organization evolved?

We felt that women everywhere could use this help. And then I thought the men have to get the help they need, too, so that families aren’t at risk. We did expand over the years to serve women from a variety of different backgrounds, whether they were single moms, in college, domestic violence survivors, those in recovery, those who’d been incarcerated… And then I did the same thing with men…Once we could see that we could help somebody recover their self esteem, feel better about themselves, there was just nowhere to go but up for them. It’s incredibly exciting to see someone rekindle who they are.

Q: You’ve described last year’s fire, which devastated your Irvine building, as the biggest challenge the organization has faced. You have since rebuilt into two facilities?

We have a separate donation center in Irvine and a career success center in Santa Ana, which is set up to take care of the clients. I had to open two new buildings after the fire. We couldn’t find a facility all in one. And just like our clients, I had to reinvent us as well.

It was absolutely incredible how the community embraced us. They said, ‘We know you’re devastated. We know what you’ve done for 30 years, and we’re going to help you rebuild.’

Q: What’s your annual budget? And what percentage is made up by donations?

We’re about $6 million for the year. We have a staff of 42 people. We have four stores that help us bring money for the organization. …Donations are roughly 25 %; 30 to 35 % comes from our stores.

We also do an amount of grant writing and have contracts with the county and the federal government. It’s a diverse field of fundraising. That’s important to the organization. We’re not relying on just one source of funding.

Q: Can we talk a little about the pandemic? The last couple of years have been tough for everyone. What’s been the impact of the pandemic on the organization and on your clients?

Like many organizations we were already looking at doing virtual workshops. When the pandemic hit, we just hit the fast button, instantly started doing our workshops online. It was the very best thing we could have done for our clients because they needed the information. They weren’t always available to come in person, so this kept everybody safe. And it also helped us keep everyone busy, not just in Orange County but, because we went virtual, we were able to help people across the country.

Q: What has been the most gratifying thing for you?

It’s all about the people that I’ve met. The volunteers. The donors. The staff. People have just done incredible work. I made glorious friendships. I feel I’m the luckiest person on the planet to have met the people I’ve met through the years.

Q: What’s next for you? I read a book may be in the works?

Yes. I am writing a book. It’s sort of a picture of these 31 years. And because of last year’s craziness, the fire, I changed the title of the book. It’s going to be called ‘Pants on Fire’… (In the book,) I talk a lot about the heroes who helped me do so much over the years.

And there are some lessons people can learn. I’m not suggesting people start a nonprofit organization; there are way too many of those in our world today. It’s really about getting involved in something that moves your heart.

If more people volunteered, our world would be infinitely better. And you don’t have to start a nonprofit. Just find a cause that resonates with your heart.

Q: Anything else you want to share or want people to know?

I do. I want people to know we have an extraordinarily talented incoming CEO by the name of Bonni Pomush. She has the Jerri Rosen good housekeeping seal of approval. I know she’ll do a fabulous job.