Living and Leading by Example: An Interview with Trang Green
FACT FINDER
Trang Green is the founder of Dress for Success in Oklahoma City, a charity providing support and professional attire to help women thrive in work and life
She also sits on the boards of numerous other nonprofit organisations
Her passion for helping others started when her family immigrated to the United States from Vietnam
‘It’s okay and possible to start over’ - this advice is one Trang Green leads with as the founder of Oklahoma City’s Dress for Success. In 2020, after their building was burned down, they had to action what they advocate. Trang speaks on not allowing challenges to make us stagnant and the reality of living out faith.
PRACTICING WHAT WE PREACH
You founded Oklahoma City’s Dress for Success in 2013, how was it getting the vision off the ground?
We run our nonprofit like a for-profit business. In the beginning, God opened the doors. I got emails from people asking how they could help so we were able to build our board really fast. Writing grants has been a challenge because some people don't get the vision. They think what we do is run a thrift store for women coming out of prison looking to start over, but the clothing just opens the door. Once they’re in we ask, 'How many kids do you have? Are they in the foster system? What is your real goal? Where you're starting is not where you have to be.' As a believer, we have good intentions to say, ‘This is a Christian organisation’, but when someone’s being released from prison, they don't want to hear about Jesus. They want to know how to find work and get their kids back. I want to be like Jesus and meet them where they are. We know that in any given circumstance or time, we could have been them. So we're not better than them.
Dress for Success teaches its clients it’s okay, and possible, to begin again. In 2020, the organisation had to live by its motto after the building was burned down. What was the impact of this on the organisation and you as a founder?
The crazy thing is, [it happened during the Black Lives Matter protests, so] you see the world hurting. Being prayerful is one thing, but when that happened, I knew that action was going to speak louder than words. I remember getting the phone call. It was 3:00 AM. The police and fire department said we needed to go down and board the building up. So we showed up in the morning and news crews were there waiting for us to say something. I knew this was a moment for our community because a lot of the people hurting were our clients. I don't think God was like, ‘I'm going to have someone burn down your building’, but He was like, ‘This is your moment’. So I just said, ‘Obviously, this is devastating but, like the Church, our love for the community isn't confined in this building. We can come back better, but we want you guys to know we love you and are so sorry you’re hurting’.
What did leadership look like for you during that time?
My Mum always taught me any time there's tragedy or conflict, you can either become fearful or compassionate. So we had to choose compassion to encourage the board, volunteers and clients. We had a suiting the next morning and the client called to say she assumed we couldn’t go ahead. I said, ‘No, meet me at the mall, you're still going to get this job’. It was in the middle of the pandemic so everyone was getting laid off, and she had an interview so we had to make sure she got that job.
REBUILDING PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY
It can be easy to want to hide away when it feels like life isn’t just. How did you ensure to keep moving forward?
Moving forward is better than staying still. It's easy to become fearful and put up walls because we know we don't know everything. Recently, we’ve been broken into twice. Do we get upset? No. If they're stealing something, they're needing something. I ask, do we have resources to help? I think when God rejects your plans, it's because His plans are always better. I had a 10-year business plan for Dress for Success. That literally burned up with the building. It's not there anymore because that was not God's plan. So yes, I hesitate a lot, but for me, I just tailor everything to what Jesus would want me to do.
Trang wears a denim suit by VALENTINO
‘I had a 10-year business plan for Dress for Success. That literally burned up with the building.’
In times of tragedy, we can feel hurt by God and have questions for Him. What was your experience of this?
The question I did ask a lot was, ‘Why did this happen to us?’. There were no other buildings that burned down. I think we ask God ‘why’ all the time. God said to me, ‘Why not you? If I called you to do something and you're obedient to my calling, I will always make a way through’. That's what I had to believe because we didn’t know how we would find a new building in the middle of a pandemic when we couldn’t afford half the things in the area. So I just said, ‘God, if this is the end of Dress for Success, then we did what we had to do for the time you gave it to me. Just let me know what you want to do’.
How did you see God answer that prayer?
I got an email from a real estate developer, saying he saw what happened and wanted to meet up. We had lunch and after, he showed me a building and said, ‘Do you want it? You can have it. You don't have to pay me rent or utilities'. I looked at him like, are you being serious? He said, ‘No, seriously, and here's a cheque for $10,000. My wife and I saw what happened’. That was one thing checked off. Thank you, Jesus.
Then I get a call from a construction company saying they saw what happened and wanted to know how they could help. I explained our budget was really small. He said, ‘Meet me at the building’. So we did and he asked what my dream was for it. I was telling him, and he said, ‘We probably need to work with an architect, but we'll do what we can for free’. So another check. Thank you, Jesus.
I was like, this is wild. Then I get an email from an architectural firm asking if we need help with interior design. Another check. So the three of us got together, and the new Dress for Success was born within four months. That's how God works. It makes no sense. You don't have the answers for everything and there are days where all you can do is follow God and trust Him to get you out the other end. And he did.
‘There are days where all you can do is follow God and trust Him to get you out the other end.’
Personally, what lessons did you learn from that time?
When you're in a nonprofit organisation, so much of what you do is being the helper. When the tables turn, how do you receive help when you're not used to it? God taught me a lot about humbling myself and saying, ‘You're tired and weary but it's okay. I'm going to help you because you cannot do it on your own’. We did what we did and are here now because God brought us the right people at the right time - His timing is perfect.
Trang wears a leather dress and earrings by BOTTEGA VENETA
A HEART FOR IMPACT
What led you to launch Oklahoma City’s Dress for Success?
After I graduated college, I started working for nonprofits and it felt like sometimes [in certain instances] the priorities were wrong. So my husband encouraged me to start my own nonprofit. So, in 2013, I researched what challenges were facing the community and found we're number one in the world at incarcerating women at the rate we do. We’re ranked as one of the worst states for women to live in too. So I researched what nonprofits were out there to help combat this recidivism. A lot of the crimes that put these women in prison are non-violent, so I wanted to know how I could help. That’s how Dress for Success came about. It's an international organisation founded in New York in the early 90s, and I thought, why don't we have one here? It seems pretty simple, just giving women clothing to go to work.
What moments in your early life sparked your passion for nonprofits?
My parents fled South Vietnam and, after two weeks on a boat, landed in Malaysia. My Mum was eight months pregnant with my older sister and she was born soon after. They were waiting for paperwork when they found out they were pregnant with me, so they couldn't go anywhere. My parents immigrated to the US when I was 10 months old, and they chose Oklahoma. Churches, charities and government agencies were a big help in terms of learning the language, finding work and helping us get acclimated to this culture. I was always around charitable people and grew up in church, so I saw firsthand what it was like to receive love, grace and help.
Evidently, your main aim with Dress for Success is for it to have a genuine impact. How have you seen God play a part in achieving this?
One of the greatest Board members for Dress for Success was our client in the first year. She had just been released from prison – non-violent charges – and when she came through our door, she was living in a halfway house and trying to rebuild her relationship with her family. She worked her way up and bought a car within the first year and put a downpayment on a house within two years. I heard God say, ‘This girl needs to be on your Board. She needs to show you a different perspective of who you're helping’. So, she's been on our Board for four years and she can speak to the clients in a way that I never could. It's crazy to see that come full circle. For her to once be in prison, get out, do her due diligence and then say, ‘God is telling me to go back into prisons and tell others there’s a chance to get back on your feet’, I'm just in awe. So God gives me the abilities, and if I don't have them, He sends the people that do.
KEEPING MOMENTUM IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY
In a role that means giving outwardly constantly, it can be tiring. What motivates you to keep going?
The success stories. I know we can't help everybody, but we do our best because we know since we have free will, it is our will whether or not we rise or fall today. Our prayer is that if you fall today, you keep getting up, because if there's still breath in you, God is not done. One lady was referred to us from a shelter. She’d had a mental breakdown and she lost everything. She just wasn't there. When she came to us, she did her duty, went to counselling and got a job. One day I asked, ‘What is your dream?’, she said it was to study architecture and design tiny homes for the homeless.
From her vulnerability, we started a scholarship programme and gave her $1,000 to start vocational school. Throughout the first semester, her professors praised her, so we continued it in the second semester. While this was happening, she built confidence and started applying for more scholarships. At the end of her first year, she said, ‘I want to give back the $1,000 because I have a full ride now’. We said, ‘No, you deserve to keep that’. Her response floored me. She said, ‘No one wanted to give me anything. When I wanted to go back to school, people laughed. I was in a homeless shelter but you guys believed in me. I tithe to church, so let me tithe this to you [Dress for Success]’. In Galatians it says, don't be wary of helping people, but there are days I'm very wary. I can feel like we're doing everything wrong. But moments like that [with our clients] motivate me to keep going.
When facing setbacks along the way, it can be hard to remain grateful for the journey and how far we’ve come. How do you remain grateful despite challenges?
If my core is grounded in faith, whatever happens, happens. I do my best to wake up and be grateful that I get another day. There is one story that reminds me to be grateful. I was driving to the office, it was raining and I remember just complaining. I pulled up to the office and a woman was standing outside our door, soaking wet. I knew we didn’t have any appointments so once she was inside, I asked her if everything was okay. She replied, ‘I heard a Dress for Success opened here. I live in the Salvation Army shelter with my five-year-old. Someone's watching her, but I wanted to walk here to see if you can help me find work’. That shut me up. I'm driving in a vehicle to an office and this woman is walking from a shelter. You don't have to look far to see someone that's hurting. Ever. So even if I'm having a bad day, I know there's always good. What we complain about is what somebody else wants.
‘What we complain about is what somebody else wants.’
How do you hope Dress for Success continues to lead by example for its clients?
The fire was in June 2020 and we reopened in October 2020. People all the time would ask, ‘Are you upset about the whole thing?’. My answer is, who am I to say if it was wrong or right? Our first client in the new space thought she was in the wrong place. She was like, ‘I don't have to pay for this?’. I said, ‘No, because you deserve this. If you are genuinely trying to start over, then who are we to say you can't?’. I don't want to change people's lives, I want to grow their lives because change is temporary but growth is permanent. I'm just going forward with Dress for Success and if it burns down again, it burns down again. We tell our clients all the time that they can start over. So, when it comes for us to start over, are we really not going to practice what we preach and give up? Absolutely not. We're going to come back better than before.
AS TOLD TO Ellie Dalton
CREATIVE DIRECTION BY Ruth Yimika Afolabi
PHOTOGRAPHY BY Obidi Constantine Nzeribe
STYLING BY Katie Peare
MAKEUP BY Manuel Espinoza
HAIR BY Jenn Lagron
PRODUCTION ASSISTING by Miguel Velasquez
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