The Wardrobe at Broad Street Love: Better Together

This spring, Broad Street Love and The Wardrobe teamed up to provide Broad Street Love’s guests a new level of service and hospitality in our clothing boutique.

The Broad Street Love boutique, which was previously managed exclusively by BSL staff and volunteers, has been a highly sought service for many years. However, the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly increased demand for clothing (an increase that was sustained after the health crisis) and the skill sets needed to manage inventory, planning, and retail presentation required a new level of logistical sophistication. Meanwhile, The Wardrobe, which historically focused on career and job readiness clothing, was suddenly faced with newfound demand for casual clothing and the challenge of serving a constituent base with more diverse needs.

Discovering complementary needs and expertises, the partnership became a perfect match. And, after several years of planning, The Wardrobe at Broad Street Love at last became a reality through a generous innovation grant from the Sarah Ralston Foundation, which serves older Philadelphians, who make up the majority of Broad Street Love’s guest population.

Kicking off the partnership offered the opportunity to launch a reset on our clothing program: clearing out backlogged inventory; redesigning the boutique for greater accessibility, comfort, and navigability; and leveraging The Wardrobe’s inventory management infrastructure to match clothing to the unique personal needs of the BSL guest population. With the boutique’s reopening in April we doubled shopping open hours, offer a more curated selection of clothing that rotates more easily with the seasons and immediate needs of our guests, and offer a more spacious, open boutique to meet the physical and navigational needs of our guests.

“Our partnership with The Wardrobe is a perfect example of how we, as a community in Philadelphia, can leverage the very best of our respective skills and expertise to better our shared goals of making more resources more accessible for our neighbors,” says Otis Hackney, CEO of Broad Street Love.

Mars Sharrock, program director for The Wardrobe, adds: “The Wardrobe believes clothing is a basic need necessary for all walks of life, and we’re so glad to partner with an organization who also understands that we can meet those basic needs for our community with respect and dignity.”

Clothing donations for Broad Street Love can now be taken to The Wardrobe’s Philadelphia facility at 413 N. 4th Street, where inventory will be processed and prioritized for the immediate needs of BSL guests. Where there is more inventory than fits demand, or where material is deemed unusable for BSL’s guests, donations will be shared with other constituents served by The Wardrobe, ensuring that all donations make an impact where needed in the community.

We’re ready to help our guests: but to do it, we need your help, too! The Broad Street Love clothing boutique needs donations that suit the personal needs of our guests. Urgently needed items include men’s and women’s:

• T-shirts
• Athletic pants
• Shoes
• Underwear (new, never-used)

Read full details here on how you can support The Wardrobe at Broad Street Love by donating clothing and more.