wfn.org | UMNS#0405-Clothing ministry gives women prisoners hope for future

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Clothing ministry gives women prisoners hope for future

Sep. 9, 2004	 News media contact:   Tim  Tanton * (615) 7425470*  Nashville
{0405}

NOTE: A UMTV report is available at umns.umc.org.
Photos and other resources related to this story are available at
http://www.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=2&mid=5634.

A UMNS News Feature
By Shanta Bryant Gyan*


The women walking into the quaint Montgomery, Ala., boutique are greeted by a
personal shopping assistant, who helps them select dresses, suits, shoes and
other accessories.

"Do you prefer dresses or suits?" the assistant asks. "So you need some office
wear?"

To most people, shopping in a boutique is not unusual, but these shoppers are
actually prisoners - convicts. And they are "shopping" at Kate's Closet, a
ministry of St. James United Methodist Church, in Montgomery.

Kate's Closet offers incarcerated women an opportunity to receive professional
clothes, donated by women in the community, in preparation for job interviews
after their release from prison.

"When the ladies walk into a job interview and they're dressed well, they know
they look good, they feel good about how they look, and when you have that
self-confidence, it comes across in an interview," says Kim Bullard, the
ministry's director.

Kate's Closet is named after Kate Richardson, an elegant African-American
woman who spoke to the women at St. James Church about Aid to Inmate Mothers,
a program that provides job training and life skills to help women in prison
make the transition to life outside prison.

Richardson testified about the difficult lives of women in prison and
surprised her listeners by sharing her personal story of once being
incarcerated. "There wasn't a dry eye in the place," Bullard says.

After learning from Richardson that many women in prison do not have basic
toiletries, the church women created baskets of shampoos, conditioners,
toothbrushes and toothpaste, and other items for the imprisoned women.

But Bullard and the women of St. James Church felt that more was needed to
support and build the self-esteem of women getting ready for the free world,
especially since most women leave prison without any clothing other than what
they wore into prison.

 "A clothing closet kept coming to my mind," says Bullard, who has a
background in retail. "I felt the Lord putting this (idea) on my heart. I knew
I needed to lead it."

So Kate's Closet opened in June 2002 in a refurbished barn in the back of the
church. The ministry outgrew its space and relocated last August, opening in a
house designed to look like an upscale boutique.

Each month, by appointment, about 20 women from the local prison arrive at
Kate's Closet to choose from a range of stylish clothes with the assistance of
a team of volunteers from the church. The ministry only accepts donated
clothes that the volunteers would wear themselves.

With the help of a personal shopping assistant, the women can select up to six
different outfits and accessories to match their clothes, including shoes,
jewelry, pantyhose, and undergarments. After selecting her clothes, each woman
is treated to a makeover.

"We don't judge them...we treat them like they're a customer in
Bloomingdale's," Bullard says. The shop is intended as a welcoming,
nonjudgmental environment for the women to shop in without fearing that they
will be peppered with questions about their past.

She added that the women arrive at the boutique not knowing what to expect and
leave not only with new outfits but hope for the future.

"These are really nice ladies. This is a good place, for people like me that
have come out of prison," says Julie Watkins, 37, who has been incarcerated
for two years. "They treat you like you're somebody instead of somebody that's
done something wrong. So I take a good feeling from here when I leave."

Donnetta Sanchez, 51, says she plans to get an office job once she is released
from prison, and the clothes from Kate's Closet are just what she needed to
start her new wardrobe.

"It's like a dream come true for some people who have never been able to go
out and pick from the best of clothing," Sanchez says.

Bullard explains that coming to Kate's Closet provides a head-to-toe
experience and lets women soon to be released from prison know that others
care about them.

Helen Herring, 29, says the volunteers at Kate's Closet inspired her to move
forward with her life. "We just felt very loved here today, and that's the
kind of love that we haven't had from the outside people for a while because
we've been incarcerated, you know."

"My hope is that they will leave here with an open heart," Bullard says, "and
that they will take their past and use it as a testimony for the future but
not something to fall back on - that they will continue to look forward."


*Gyan is a freelance writer in the Washington area.

News media contact: Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.


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United Methodist News Service
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