Suite Success Stories

Lu-Ann Patrick: Reversal of Fortune Leads to Suited for Change

When a counselor at a social services agency told Lu-Ann Patrick about Suited for Change, she thought it might be a thrift store.

The counselor assured her that Suited provided beautiful career clothing to low-income women looking for jobs.

Still, Patrick was a little skeptical. “Honestly speaking, I had no idea what Suited for Change would do for me,” she says. “The only thing that I understood was that they would allow me to have some good suits so I could go out on a job interview.”

Patrick’s road to Suited began after an 18-year history of employment at Georgetown University, where she had worked in various jobs since she was 20 years old. In 2005, in a quest to advance, she took a transfer to a job as an executive assistant at the university, a move that required her to go on employment probation. After three months on a job that “was not a good fit,” she was let go. She applied for unemployment benefits and was denied. She appealed and lost.

“I had never been in a position like that,” says Patrick. “You sit down for a while. You shed tears. I sat in the middle of the floor, saying ‘I can’t believe this happened.’ “

Patrick is from Trinidad, where “you deal, you don‘t ask anyone for anything,” she says. Still, she had a seven-year-old son, Kelvin, to support, so she found her way to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). She describes taking the few steps into their door as one of the most difficult journeys of her life. “I am in the social services building applying for needy benefits. We’re talking about food stamps. We’re talking about cash benefits,” she says. “I really wanted to get out of there.”

From TANF, she joined a job club, where she received a referral to Suited, and arrived for her appointment very discouraged.

“If you get into a situation like that, not only are you really embarrassed, but you’re prideful because you don’t want to go into this kind of place,” says Patrick. “When I got there, the fact that they were really supportive and nice, it just made me feel really good.”

The process of “suiting” encouraged Patrick. “They matched beautiful pieces together and made me feel so good. … I had this professional look about me.” Patrick left with a grey pantsuit, several shirts and scarves and ear rings. “Suited for Change didn’t make you feel like you’re just coming in from the welfare program,” she says.

Patrick loved her new look. “I wore my little pastel scarf and my nice blazer and my comfortable shoes and I was glowing with no job and on public assistance,” she says.

Patrick’s determination kept her on the job hunt and landed her several jobs, many of them temporary or contract positions. She was a business outreach development specialist with the Marshall Heights Community Development Center until June 2006, when her position was abolished. Back out of work, this time with unemployment benefits, she again visited Suited. “Not one time did they say to me, oh, you’re back here,” she says. “They have never been judgmental.” She walked away with a burgundy pants suit, again feeling good about herself.

Patrick also attended Suited’s Personal and Professional Development Program, which she says helped her increase her professional skills. “It’s not just your look, but your character, who you are as a person,” that Suited helps, she says. “It made me realize that there are still some things to learn and you can always add to what you were already taught.”

In 2006, Patrick landed a temporary job working with a Montgomery County, Maryland, welfare-to-work program, where she became a mentor to other women who were looking for jobs. When that contract ended, she worked in temporary contracts with the federal government. She was laid off from her last job in March 2008 -- just before her graduation, magna cum laude, from Sojourner-Douglass College. In September 2008, she landed a full-time job as coordinator of education and training for the D.C. Children’s Trust Fund.

Patrick says that her reversal of fortune led her down a difficult but ultimately rewarding path. Losing her job led her where she needed to go. “Something had been missing in my heart,” she says. Now, she is using her talents, skills and life experience to teach and help others, and her heart is full.

Suited for Change © 2006 . All rights reserved.