Have you ever wondered what a day in the life at Smart Works is like? Ever wondered how an appointment works? Now you can get an inside look at how we deliver our service, click here to watch now.
If you’re a referrer and have a client with an upcoming interview, get in touch at greatermanchester@smartworks.org.uk to book an appointment.
Smart Works is a UK charity that dresses and coaches unemployed women for their job interview. We empower each woman by giving her the clothes and the confidence she needs to succeed.
Smart Works Greater Manchester opened in June 2015, the first Smart Works centre in England outside of London. Since then, we’ve helped over 1800 women in need, providing each with a complete outfit of high-quality interview clothes and accessories (hers to keep) and one-to-one interview training. We are proud that 70% have gone on to succeed at their job interviews, despite more than half having been unsuccessful in over 20 job applications, and a third having been turned down for more than 50 jobs
Our ambition is to continue to expand our service to help more women in our region. In support of this we are seeking an additional Trustee who shares the values of Smart Work’s mission, aims and objectives to join our proactive and hard-working Board.
The Smart Works Greater Manchester Board is responsible for overall governance and risk management, determining SWGM’s strategic direction, maintaining a long-term overview of the organisation and its work, ensuring SWGM’s financial health and compliance with legal obligations, including as employers of our small team of employees.
We are now seeking an additional Trustee with experience and expertise in the education sector, someone who can bring a deep understanding of how the sector operates across the North West and can lead on helping SWGM widen its reach in the sector and build uptake of our service particularly amongst unemployed young women and women from communities currently unrepresented amongst our service users. Experience at a senior level or of a similar role with another organisation or charity would also be welcome.
We are keen to ensure our board is diverse, inclusive and represents the breadth of women we support. We are therefore particularly interested in receiving applications from potential Trustees from a range of backgrounds, the BAME community or those with lived experience relevant to our cause.
More info and how to apply can be found here.
Please also complete and send an equalities and monitoring form with your application.
Please note this post is unremunerated.
Last week we received a donation of 200 organic t-shirts from Mantis World. These will be used as a base layer under a suit, shirt or blouse, completing an interview outfit enabling a woman to feel her best at a crucial part of her life.
We’re so pleased to have partnered with Clothes2order, an online destination for branded clothing and workwear. Similarly, as with Smart Works, Clothes2order understand the importance of sustainable practices and work with some fantastic sustainable brands to produce garments, such as Mantis. For 20 years Mantis have championed equality and are proud to be headed up by a female CEO and a majority female team.
“When I founded Mantis World in 2000, I never imagined that 21 years later we would still be the only promo-wear brand that is owned by women. Women make up the majority of our team, including senior management, and also make up the majority of the workers in our factories around the world. I’ve had the privilege and pleasure of working alongside so many wise, talented and dedicated women and this IWD we acknowledge the often unsung effort they make. We are always available to “pay it forward” – helping women succeed and gain the confidence to fulfil their true potential.” Prama Bhardwaj, Founder of Mantis World
From all the Smart Works Greater Manchester team, thank you for your support Clothes2order and Mantis.
It’s time to get on your bike and pedal for a purpose because Cycle for Smart Works is HERE
Create a team of five and collectively cycle a total of 500 miles between 1 March and 8 March 2021.
There are so many ways to get those miles in. Ditch your WFH desk for an indoor bike and start pedalling, or use your daily exercise to cycle locally in the fresh air – an excuse to get out of your pyjamas Each team member completes their miles independently, making it a safe and secure way to raise funds for Smart Works.
Now more than ever our clients need your support. Cycle for them and cycle to feel like a champion.
Please cycle sensibly and in line with relevant restrictions.
Has life for you felt somewhat trying recently? It’s been really hard for those who have been looking for work or who have lost their job through the pandemic.
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s tough getting a job out there, especially for young people. Smart Works Greater Manchester has been giving women the ‘gift of confidence’ since 2015.
Supporting unemployed women across Greater Manchester into employment, giving them the clothes and the confidence to succeed. Last year Smart Works supported 420 women – with an amazing 85% getting a job within just one month.
In lieu of buying a Secret Santa gift, an outfit for your work Christmas do or hosting a Christmas party – instead you too, can ‘give the gift of confidence’ this Christmas, so that Smart Works can help even more women on their journey to employment: click here to donate.
Be part of another woman’s future. Help transform women’s lives.
We are thrilled to be working with Lydia Tomlinson, a Manchester based fashion Influencer on our Give The Gift Of Confidence campaign.
With over 350k followers, Lydia makes fashion and styling content and runs The Millennial Girl’s Guide. Passionate about empowering women, Lydia speaks about Smart Works in her latest video and how being confident in your outfit is so important, how it has impacted her career and how you can help be part of another women’s success story by donating.
“With more women than ever being unemployed across Greater Manchester, together we are asking you to support their campaign #givethegiftofconfidence and donate interview-appropriate clothing as I’ve just done, and if you can spare £5, £10 or £25, please donate and support an unemployed woman on her journey into work.”
We are so proud to be working with Lydia and appreciate her support. Click here to watch the video on how to dress for an interview, which will be so helpful for our clients.
Together, we’ve got this.
As we head into a second lockdown, at Smart Works, we will continue to be here for any women who needs our support.
Our virtual service will continue. For women seeking an interview, our career coaching service will help them get to the next stage. For women with an interview, we will deliver one to one interview coaching and a bespoke parcel of wardrobe essentials, delivered to their door, so that they can look and feel great at their interview.
We are so grateful for all the support we have received, and never has our work meant more. Unemployment is at its highest level in three years and the women we support are disproportionately impacted.
This is a difficult time for everyone, but we have been through this before and like then, we will work together to come out the other side.
We cannot wait to welcome our clients back into our centres hopefully in December and in the meantime, we will be monitoring the situation closely and make changes to our service as necessary.
Get in touch via 0161 974 0669 / greatermanchester@smartworks.org.uk
As our doors opened (physically and virtually) once again, to welcome unemployed women from Greater Manchester, to be dressed by our trained stylist volunteers and coached by our outstanding professional interview coaches – we’d also like to extend our welcome to Victoria, our new Business Manager.
Victoria will be working closely with referral partners from across the region, so that we can support even more women gain employment. Connect with Victoria directly to discuss Smart Works in further detail via victoria.cronquist@smartworks.org.uk
We’re so excited to be launching our Young Women’s Programme, supporting more young women prepare for their job interviews.
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Smart Works Greater Manchester has received funding from the European Social Fund to help more unemployed 16-25 year olds. We’ll be contacting organisations who can help us introduce the Smart Works service to relevant young women, and organise dedicated days to help them “fashion their future” choosing high quality interview clothes and receiving one to one interview coaching.
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We would also like to take this opportunity to introduce Harley. Harley has joined the team to run our YWP and is already off to an amazing start. She recently spent a morning with our stylists finding an interview outfit and some clothes for her new role (swipe to see) experiencing the Smart Works magic first hand.
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We can’t wait to see more young women find their way to Smart Works, alongside still supporting all of our amazing clients we see every day.
For more information, click here to watch a short video on the service.
To refer a client, please call 0161 974 0669 or email harley.crolla@smartworks.org.uk for more info.
The theme of International Women’s Day 2021 was ‘Choose to Challenge’ and all of our campaign fund raisers certainly did that!
Our participants fervour and commitment this year has been spectacular and raised an astonishing amount of money. Collectively raising over £38k, plus gift aid, from 1,400 individual donors, which is way beyond our hopes and expectations. Nationally the campaign has been its biggest and best ever, with well over £200k raised.
These funds will be vital to our service delivery over the coming year. We look forward, enthusiastically, to opening our doors once again shortly to welcome women into our service, adhering to all our Covid safe procedures and practices. This year we will strive to support even more women than we have before, through both our in-person appointments and our remote services.
We feel both confident in our endeavours and unstoppable, you’ve made us feel like that. So, in the words of Tony Walsh, from his poem ‘This Is The Place’:
“You can live local, give local. We can honestly say
We do charity differently, that Mancunian Way”
So to those who have participated or given sponsorship, thank you for everything you have done for us and for the unemployed women we support.