Donate
The Stoughton Area Resource Team, Inc.
(START) provides a safety net for those in crisis. Recently, a 30-year old single father of two struggled to find work, to pay for daycare for his children and to secure a home; so much time was spent homeless and hopeless.
View Stories
Stoughton Clothing Center
1525 Van Buren St
Stoughton, WI 53589
Phone: 608212663
Contact Name: Elizabeth Menzer
Director
|
Organization Profile
|
 |
| Clothed for Success - 2025 |
Amount Funded: $2,200.00 |
| The purpose of Clothed for Success is to ensure that no person or family within our greater community lacks the clothing they need to secure employment, succeed in school, maintain a healthy and hygienic life, and be socially accepted.
During the project year, we will replace worn or broken equipment and materials used to create a welcoming, safe “store like†atmosphere, and to optimize storage space. We will be allowed to store more off-season winter clothing and will purchase totes to accommodate bulky winter clothing. We will hold an annual Winter Wear event that will provide at least 100 area families with winter essentials. We will partner with local schools and day cares to provide warm clothing and extra sets of clothing for children in need. We will also collect and donate gently used sports shoes such as soccer cleats, for distribution through local programs.
We will also replace worn and damaged signage with new, more visible signage to make it easier for people to locate the SCC.
The SCC operates year-round. We would like to expand evening and weekend hours to better accommodate working families who want to shop or make donations.
|
| SCC removes barriers to a happier and more productive life by providing clean, quality clothing to anyone who needs it. During this grant period we seek to: provide areas school children with clothing that is similar to the apparel of their peers at school; maintain a safe, clean store like environment for our shoppers; partner with other groups and organizations to create awareness and to better serve our community; and protect our environment by keeping hundreds of pounds of clothing out of landfills.
To meet those goals, we will use SCF funds to
maintain and enhance our website, social media platforms and create multi-lingual outreach materials to generate awareness of the SCC for shoppers, volunteers and donors; replace worn and unsafe signage; procure peer appropriate clothing for school agers to supplement donated items; purchase shopping bags, hangers, large totes to store winterwear, metal ranking to replace wooden racks and poles that are bowing under the weight of clothing; quickly purchase essential clothing items for individuals/families in emergency or crisis situations; purchase winter wear to supplement donated items.
During a typical week, 40+ families plus individuals visit the clothing center. This has increased 400% since 2022 and continues to grow. Additional outreach would help us attract more individuals in need of clothing, as well as volunteers, donors, and partners.
SCCs hours of operation, customers served, and volunteer ranks have tripled in the past two years, as the SCC is open Tuesday through Saturday, select evenings and by appointment. Some donated clothing is outdated, and we tend to receive twice as much adult clothing as childrens clothing
|
|
