Home News & Features AH&LA, Dress for Success Partnership Launches with Suit Drives Across U.S.

AH&LA, Dress for Success Partnership Launches with Suit Drives Across U.S.

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NEW YORK—At its recent Women in Lodging (WIL) luncheon, the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) and Dress for Success announced a national partnership to build awareness of and solicit donations to support the organization’s primary mission of promoting the economic independence of disadvantaged women. Joi Gordon, CEO of Dress for Success Worldwide, and Vicki Gordon, chair of AH&LA’s Women In Lodging Executive Council, officially kicked off the new flagship initiative of AH&LA’s WIL Connect membership category, which will include a series of fundraising events and suit drives at hotels across the United States in 2009.

AH&LA will kick off their partnership with Dress for Success through a series of suit drives held by AH&LA’s WIL Executive Council, which is comprised of executives from more than a dozen hotel companies to support the organization’s most well-known program of providing women with a suit

for their job interviews. This partnership signifies the first unified hospitality industry move to support Dress for Success, which is already supported by industry partners including the Kimpton Hotel Group, W Hotels, and Loews Hotels.

Dress for Success is an international nonprofit organization that promotes the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support, and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life. To date, Dress for Success has assisted more than 450,000 women referred by approximately 2,750 diverse nonprofit and government agencies including homeless shelters, immigration services, job training programs, educational institutions, and domestic violence shelters, among others.

A Perfect Match

“AH&LA’s partnership with Dress for Success marries the natural compassion hospitality professionals maintain and the tangible resources they have available in order to assist those in need,” said Vicki Gordon, chair of AH&LA’s Women In Lodging Executive Council and managing partner of Collins Gordon Group, LLC. “Organizing this nationwide initiative with AH&LA’s motivated Women In Lodging members at the reins will provide Dress for Success a new level of visibility within the far-reaching, service-oriented hotel community and professional resources to thousands of women dedicated to getting their lives on track.”

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with AH&LA to build support for local Dress for Success affiliates across the country,” said Dress for Success Worldwide’s Gordon. “The Women in Lodging Executive Council is a powerful group of hospitality industry executives, and we are proud to be working together to help disadvantaged women achieve self-sufficiency.”

The announcement was made during the WIL luncheon, which allowed approximately 125 female lodging professionals time for one-on-one mentoring opportunities with the C-level hospitality professionals of the WIL Executive Council. The luncheon followed the keynote WIL session featuring Susan Steinbrecher, Embassy Suites’ youngest general manager in history, who discussed why women are uniquely qualified to lead in the lodging industry and offered insight on how to capitalize on their gender-specific traits. Both events were part of the 2008 AH&LA Fall Conference, which ran through November 11 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City in conjunction with the International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show.

WIL Connect is the first industry-wide forum exclusively for female hospitality professionals. WIL fuels the mission to promote women’s leadership into executive positions within the lodging industry and contribute to business development efforts, including women’s markets. Membership is free to all women employed at AH&LA property and allied member organizations, regardless of their position within the company.

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