About TC X

What is Taylor’s Closet?

Taylor’s Closet
bringing love and hope to girls in need.

What happens in Taylor’s Closet is remarkable. Girls who have been abused, injured or who are just basically suffering from a lifetime of hopelessness, come in to our store and find out that someone cares – that all these beautiful new, designer clothes are there for them – completely free.

And then something happens to them.
Walls start to drop.
Attitudes become softer.
Conversations take place.
Prayer happens.
Love happens.

You almost have to see it to believe the transformation.

Taylor’s Closet provides love and hope to girls in need through a shopping experience. Each girl can come to our store once a month and leaves with 3 pieces of brand new designer clothing, valued at $150. But even more she leaves feeling loved and valued.

2010 – New store, new year, new goals!

This year, we moved into our new store! Since we have more space and more capacity – we have opportunity to reach more girls! Here are some of our existing and new programs we’ll be committed to in 2010 – one step closer to reaching all 32,000 girls at-risk in South Florida.

The store

In 2010 1,500 Girls will come into the store.

Girls come into the store and shop through a variety of brand new clothing. We provide amazing service and personalized shopping, so that the girls feel and understand how worthy they are!

The girls are allowed to come to Taylor’s Closet once a month. Every appointment, girls will leave with 3 items of clothing. On an average, what they leave with is worth $150.

In our new building, we plan to expand a mentoring program for girls 18 and older. We will focus on life skills, cooking, sewing, art lessons, & discipleship.

Bundles program

Through the bundles program, we will reach 1,500 girls in 2010.

Taylor’s Closet partners with other organizations that specialize in helping girls at-risk, by providing hand selected and wrapped bundles of clothes for their community of girls.

Taylor’s Closet International

We provide clothing to local churches & other organizations for their outreach to other nations.

In addition, Taylor’s Closet brings a temporary store to a country overseas, for the purpose of serving the needy of that country. We set up a beautiful, store like environment – equipped with brand new clothes, racks, and high quality service.

We will reach 1,150 girls through both programs in the international

division.

Sister Stores

We encourage other women and girls to start a store of their own – modeled after Taylor’s Closet, just with their own name, heart, vision, etc.

We provide consulting and training at our new headquarters for those interested in modeling what we do. 12 stores are now open across the US who have all been inspired by the idea of Taylor’s Closet.

In 2010, we will have a hand in reaching 1,420 girls through our sister stores.

We will see 5,700 girls, in 2010. One step closer to reaching all 32,00o hurting girls in South Florida.

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How it all started.

Lindsay Giambattista began praying about an outreach – some sort of ministry she could participate in – some way to utilize her unique gifts for God’s glory.

So after considerable prayer and debate, the idea was born. Taylor’s Closet would allow girls in foster care to come into a store-like environment and “shop” for whatever clothes they liked – completely free of charge. The idea was just to put a smile on their face for a moment and let them know they weren’t alone.

Taylor’s Closet had its first outreach in early December, 2005. We set up a mini “shop” on the salon-deck of a large yacht in the Pompano Beach Holiday Boat Parade and invited girls from local foster care programs to come by and shop. There were some 30 girls on the cruise that night who were blessed with new clothes, and a handful of parents, kids and program administrators who got to see the love of Christ in action as well.

Since then we’ve seen God bless this ministry in some huge and wonderful ways. In December of 2006, we opened our first permanent “store” for foster girls. Several local businesses have put aside their business agendas to come alongside and help out. One in particular, RCC, designed and paid for the cost to build the store. We’ve had clothing donations from all over the world.

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Who We Are (the team)

[Show as slideshow]

Lindsay Giambattista
Lindsay is the founder of Taylor’s Closet. In 2005, she started the ministry with the intent of simply giving of her own clothes to girls in need. But soon found out her intention and more had been on Gods heart for quite a while. Lindsay just recently graduated from high school. She will continue her work as founder and Communications Director of Taylor’s Closet, until she will leave the organization for awhile to attend design school and perfect the craft of fashion.

Linda Giambattista
Linda serves as director of Taylor’s Closet. Her background is in the retail industry, where she worked for such companies as Guess Watches, Liz Claiborne, Calvin Klein, and Fossil. Linda gave up her career 5 years ago when God called her to home school Lindsay and Justin. She shares the vision and the burden for providing hope and love to girls in need.

The Staff
We have an outstanding group of girls that serve on our Staff. These girls do a variety of different jobs. Without their volunteered efforts we would not be able to run Taylor’s Closet at this point. They were each chosen because they share in our vision to provide hope and love to girls in need. They have all become close friends to Lindsay and the family, and every girl has a deep relationship with Jesus Christ. Also, our staff works regularly alongside our other volunteers in the store to minister to the girls that visit Taylor’s Closet.

The Staff consists of:

*Ashley Romig – Church Coordinator & Events

*Celine Souza – Volunteer Coordinator

* Shannon Reed – Designer & Artist

* Shannon Adams – Agency & Outreach coordinator

*Manuela Boynton – Administration

*Sandi Keller – Scheduling of appointments

*Teresa Cook – Cafe Manager

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Our Vision

To bring the love of Jesus to girls in need, throughout this country and the world, by providing places for them to shop for clothes – for free.

Our Mission

To build a worldwide community of people and companies who will give of themselves in order to care for girls in need.

To create a network of “stores” where these girls can come in and feel safe, where they can feel special, and where they can encounter the love of Jesus in that place.

To facilitate and empower these “stores” so that they can focus on their primary mission, which is to love-on, and minister-to, every girl who comes there.

Core Values

* We believe that Jesus has a love and a divine purpose for girls in foster care, and girls in need, in general.
* We believe God has called us to use shopping as a vehicle to bring them into contact with Him.
* We believe that every city where foster kids live is an ideal place to demonstrate God’s deep love for them through Taylor’s Closet.