Champions For Change

From the Inside Out: Deborah Egerton

Deborah Egerton started volunteering at Suited for Change in 2000 to help give "heart" to the Personal and Professional Development (PPD) Program.

A psychologist, Egerton works with corporations as an executive coach. She also designs training to keep "the work place balanced and moving in a good direction." She has long been devoted to working with at-risk populations. "My life has been a journey of doing the same type of work in very different venues," she says.

She was introduced to Suited by Deni Mineta, an advisory council member, who told her that Suited's clients needed her skills. Egerton was immediately interested. "My roots are way into the empowerment piece and recognizing that in order for a woman to stand on her own two feet, it begins on the inside out," she says.

When Egerton got involved, Suited was already teaching clients how to write resumes and build business skills. Her vision was a program that would take Suited clients into a deeper exploration of who they were and what motivated them as people. She designed a series of workshops to help them become "phenomenal women by becoming confident and hopeful and literally learning how to visualize the future in a different way."

She began with the marketing of the new program. "A lot of the women are women of color, and the way it was being marketed was not appealing to them," says Egerton. "I designed a much more colorful marketing campaign to get the women to come to the workshops."

Once they were in the door, Egerton worked to help the clients talk openly about their personal lives. "I would give them exercises to do and then ask them to come back and talk," says Egerton. "It was more drilling down into the core of the women. …We were really touching on what made them tick, what motivated them, what really moved them. This was much more of a heart piece than a head piece."

Some 20 to 30 women attended Egerton's Saturday morning workshops. She had them bring writing that inspired them, write their own dream journals and create visions of their futures by assembling collages from photos that appealed to them in magazines. She also had the clients do role plays of "good" and "bad" job interviews. And she encouraged them to explore their anger. "We'd do work on anger to get them to talk about what their triggers were and what they did when they got angry," says Egerton.

"My goal for Suited for Change at that time was just to create an environment, an atmosphere and a place where we could come together and bond and comment. I think that when you have any population that's at risk one of the most important things to do is to create an environment where people can really know that they're not alone, that there are other people that are going through it just like they are and that they can support one another," says Egerton. "{The clients} aren't coming to Suited for Change for therapy, but at the same time, in order to put that suit on and carry that resume into an office, you've got to have just enough confidence in yourself to feel like, ‘I can do this.' It doesn't take a lot sometimes. Just the right person on the right day giving you a few words of encouragement."

Egerton worked with Suited for Change for three years. When she moved on, she left behind a template so that Suited could continue the workshops. She says that the PPD was a very important addition to Suited's core mission of providing professional attire to women re-entering the workplace. "When you have women who are at risk and are down on their luck, it takes more than a suit," she says. "Granted, it's wonderful that Suited has been so good at providing the suits, but to also put the empowerment piece in place as well, I just think they go hand in hand."

While Egerton played a key role in helping Suited, Suited also played an important role in Egerton's life. "{Leading workshops} always reminded me of what was important," says Egerton. "There would be times when Saturday morning would roll around and I would be really tired because the week had been stressful … but I never, ever had to really drag myself out of bed to go and meet with the women. I always had the energy because this is the work of my heart," she says.

Egerton also remembers the "spirit of gratitude" evidenced by the women from her workshops. "I see people all the time who have so much and who are grateful for very little. What I remember most about Suited for Change and the women was that some of them had so little and were grateful for so much."

Suited for Change thanks Kathleen Currie, a Washington, D.C. freelance writer for writing the profiles and Dara Walsh, a freelance Washington, D.C. photographer, for photographing some of the profilees.

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