“I still have the original flyer that I made: 100 suits for 100 gang members. At the time I was working as a bank teller. My manager allowed me to put a collection box in the lobby. People donated so many suits that I had to move them to the staff closet. I got written up for that, so I moved them all to my bedroom. Nothing in there but a bed and one hundred suits. We handed all of them out that very first day. I brought a suit rack to where all the kids hang out on the corner. I gave each kid a hair-cut: line-up, fade, I can do it all. Then afterward I’d fit him for a suit. Take a young man without any hope, and put him in a suit jacket, and a tie. He’s going to change his opinion of himself. He’s going to feel like he’s CEO of the world. I brought along one of those cheap ten-dollar mirrors. I’d show him his reflection. Then I’d send him straight to the job development person. I had no idea what I was doing. I had no clue what it would grow to be. Over the last ten years we’ve given out 50,000 suits. Whenever a man needs a fresh start, we’re there with a suit. We’ve partnered with prisons, and parole, and gun buyback programs. I’ve learned a lot since that first day. The suit can’t be the end all. It’s just the carrot being dangled. We do a lot of leadership training. And job development. We have a peace room in our office. It is what it is. A space of zen. There’s a waterfall in there. When a young man loses a friend to violence, he needs to know it’s OK to cry. It’s OK to talk. I try to set an example. I’ll talk about my own trauma. There was an entire month in 2016 when I was homeless. Every night I slept in my car, in the parking lot of JFK. I was too embarrassed to tell anyone. But I kept doing what I do. We’d just started our partnership with parole, so I was doing a lot of suiting. Each morning I’d wash up in the bathroom of the travel center. I’d put on black pants, and a $5 black t-shirt. And I drove to work. I kept a single suit jacket behind my desk. First thing in the morning I’d slip it on, and I’d get a boost. No matter what was going on. No matter how low I felt. When I slipped on that jacket, for a moment I’d feel like CEO of the world.”
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