D.C. Dress for Success helps women return to work; now the program needs a new space Davis, 51, of Upper Marlboro, is getting ready to return to work after being without a full-time job for more than two years. She was fitted one recent afternoon in the make-shift boutique of the D.C. chapter of Dress for Success, a program that helps women obtain job and interview skills and write resumes - and also outfits them in suits, shoes, jewelry, blouses and even makeup. The nonprofit program, with a $250,000 annual budget, relies solely on donations in clothes and funds. It's helped 12,000 women from the D.C. area over the past decade, but now the organization is facing its own challenge. At the end of the month, D.C. Dress for Success will be without a permanent location. The lease on its 1,850-square-foot office in the 100 block Q Street NE is up, and the landlord has rented the space to another tenant who is able to pay more. Until it finds a new home, D.C. Dress for Success has stopped accepting clothing donations, and workers are boxing up clothes, shoes and purses for storage. The organization will continue to offer classes on skills such as résumé writing and job hunting, as the new tenant has agreed to allow the organization to use one of its conference rooms. Kim Whatley, the program's board president, has been scrambling trying to find a new space. Many buildings she's tried to look at are used by government contractors and have been closed because of the federal shutdown. "It's like "Groundhog Day," we've been close four times in getting space, but there has been some wrinkle that resulted in not finalizing the deal," said Whatley. She joined the D.C. Dress for Success board a year ago, and she works during the day as executive director of the Judicial Nomination Commission, a group of local judges and lawyers and residents that selects judicial nominees for D.C. Superior Court and D.C. Court of Appeals. Whatley said D.C. Dress for Success - the local chapter of the organization, which operates in more than a dozen countries - has a lot of support in the community. In September, it received more than 1,400 clothing items through the Women's Congressional Staff Association's annual donation competition among women in the House and Senate. "With Capitol Hill, D.C. has a significant population of highly educated and financially secure people to help support those women who are less fortunate and who have had obstacles in their lives that have resulted in an economic crisis," Whatley said. D.C. Dress for Success works with women who have been out of work for a long period of time, either due to layoffs, illness, incarceration or drug use. They also have many clients who are seeking to reenter the workforce after staying home to raise children. Clients are referred from some 160 local agencies including America Works, the Prince George's County Department of Social Services, Goodwill and the Homeless Children's Playtime Project.