Dress to Succeed celebrates latest addition at CCA

By Bruce Walton | March 28, 2017 at 12:05a.m.

Dress to Succeed opens up new shop at CCA

YOUNGSTOWN

The Dress to Succeed Minis- try celebrated its latest expansion with the grand opening of its showroom location at the Community Corrections Association building on the South Side.

Elder Rose Carter, founder and director of the ministry; Lola Simmons, executive director of the Home for Good Re-entry Resource Referral Center; David Stillwagon, chief executive officer of CCA; and Mayor John A. McNally, cut the ribbon Monday for the latest boutique-style showrooms inside the Graphics Building of the CCA facility, 1507 Market St.

“The city of Youngstown fully supports these initiatives because once people come out [of prison], we don’t want them to come back in, and we want to give them the help they need,” the mayor said.

The ministry has been dedicated to providing donated clothes, shoes and other accessories for Youngstowners, with an emphasis on people returning from prison, since 2010. Carter said this addition further helps the goal of providing something for people who need it the most.

“We’re not just handing you something. We want you to have dignity,” Carter said.

Since the ministry’s relocation in August to St. John Episcopal Church on Wick Avenue, it has dressed 300 people as well as another 150 men since its expansion at the Ohio State Penitentiary in October.

Funded by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction and U.S. Bureau of Prisons, the CCA provides residential, vocational and substance-abuse rehabilitation services to probationers and former prison inmates.

Stillwagon said he approached Carter after the grand opening of her additional location at the state penitentiary at 878 Coitsville-Hubbard Road on the East Side and asked to get help expanding to another location.

At any given time, Stillwagon said the resident population at CCA is at least 217 men and women. With the crucial aspect of employment needed to help residents move up, he said an organization like this, and the service it provides, would be a perfect fit.

“This goes to show the need of collaboration and to be able to combine the resources of agencies with one common goal in mind,” Stillwagon said.

After Carter, Stillwagon and Simmons sat down to discuss the idea, they came up with a location at the CCA Graphics Building, which is scheduled to open from 9 a.m. to noon Friday.

Since August, the ministry’s growth has exploded with a new headquarters on Wick Avenue, an expansion to the state penitentiary, and its first charity fashion show in February.

Carter said the reason behind her organization’s recent success is the passion she and her people have, as well as the reputation her organization has received.

Carter hopes to have another collaboration in the near future with the Trumbull Correctional Institution in Leavittsburg and the Toledo Correctional Institution.