It was a little black skirt, a floral top, boots and a jacket that helped give Cheryl-Ann Henning the confidence boost she needed to turn her life around.
The North Vancouver resident tried on that outfit on a rainy day in 2013 at Dress for Success. She had dipped into her son’s milk money earlier in the day so she could take the bus to the downtown office of the non-profit organization, which helps women achieve economic independence by providing support, professional attire and development tools.
At that time, Henning was emerging from a difficult time in her life. In 2006, she had fled domestic violence and moved up to Squamish. She lost the businesses she had helped build, she lost custody of her son, and she was suffering from an eye injury.
“I was desperate. I had to get a job and I had to get a job quickly,” she recalls.
Unfortunately, re-entering the workforce as a mature woman who had previously been self-employed wasn’t easy. “You’re not actually welcomed with open arms,” she says. “I figured out that without a degree, it made it worse.”
To fill that missing line on her resume, Henning enrolled at Simon Fraser University to complete the degree she had started many years earlier. In 2012, she proudly graduated from SFU with a bachelor of arts in psychology.
The YWCA referred Henning to Dress for Success, which not only provided her with business clothing to wear to interviews, but also assigned her a mentor, and gave her access to workshops on interview skills, resume writing and more.
“I don’t know where I would have been if it wasn’t for Dress for Success,” she says.
Thanks to networking with a neighbour in Squamish, Henning landed a job at the Capilano University bookstore five years ago. And thanks to the help of non-profit organizations, she was able to secure tuition to study one year of business at CapU and move from the bookstore to the registrar’s office. Today, Henning is working in a job she loves as the supervisor of student recruitment and transition, she’s back in North Vancouver, and she’s living with her son Ben, now 16.
Dress for Success asked Henning to speak at its annual fundraising gala last spring and she was happy to share her story.
“I’m just one of the women that they’ve helped, and thanks to all the help that I’ve received I now am successfully employed, I have my son, and I have the opportunity of building a new life together with Ben.”
She also wanted to remind the audience that hard times can befall anyone.
“Domestic abuse is happening everywhere, and it’s happening in places where you least expect it to happen,” she says. “Be ready to help somebody.”
Henning no longer dwells on that dark period in her life, but focuses on the positives.
“What I really want people to know is that no matter what adversity you are thrown, you are able to overcome it.”
That said, she couldn’t have achieved the success she did without help from community members and non-profit groups.
“It’s a huge climb overcoming adversity and we didn’t do it alone.”
Henning still relies on Dress for Success for professional clothing and she encourages people to support the many charitable organizations that provide so much help in the community, if not with their money then with their time and talent.
“I would just love people to understand the importance of volunteering and the importance of compassion and understanding that there are many, many stories in our community and we really need to help out the non-profits whenever we can.”
She hopes her story will serve as inspiration to others.
“Having the courage to share your story, you never know when one sentence of yours might change a chapter of somebody else’s.”
