The basement of the library at Spokane Falls Community College isn’t the place you’d expect to find a small clothing boutique. However, visit that basement and you will find the New to You Boutique: a real clothing, footwear, and accessories store complete with mannequins, mood music, and helpful staff. While it looks and feels like any boutique thrift or vintage store in Spokane, the New to You Boutique offers one major difference.
“It’s all free,” said Zack Reiber, SFCC’s Basic Needs Navigator and manager of the boutique. “Students can just come in, grab what they need, check out without handing us any money, and be on their way.”
For business students wondering how they make that idea work, the New to You Boutique is part of SFCC’s Basic Needs programs, funded by student fees, and for the benefit of all students.
“Basic Needs is about making sure that every student is supported in whatever way they need, whether that be housing, or food, or clothing, or other resources, we really want to make sure that each student is supported,” said Reiber. “One of the ways we do that is by helping students navigate both on and off campus resources.”
From his home base at the boutique, Reiber and his staff help students find, organize, and connect with resources that can support them while they’re focused learning and achieving their goals.
“When we think about basic needs, one of the things we can relate to is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs,” Reiber said. “If the basic needs are met, then students can start to go up that ladder to be able to get academic achievements and go on with goals. But if those needs aren’t met, it makes it hard to focus on school.”
The Basic Needs team helps students access the Skitch Food Pantry on campus, while the college also maintains a directory of community food resources. Students experiencing housing instability can receive help navigating shelters and housing organizations, and eligible students may receive assistance with issues such as deposits, eviction prevention, and crisis mitigation when funding is available.
The program also connects students with health and mental health services, child care and family resources, transportation assistance, and other community organizations. For students in Pullman, the resource network includes services available through SFCC-Pullman and Washington State University.
Support services can be complex, but Reiber and the Basic Needs team are master navigators.
“We help students navigate both on and off campus resources,” Reiber said. “We really want to see where we can provide students support ourselves, but also, when we don’t have support here on campus, how to reach out to community partners and make sure that they are supported and that they have the referrals and the warm handoff to get the needs supported.”
The New to You Boutique demonstrates how that approach can work in practice. What began as a much smaller clothing closet has grown into a real store where students can shop for clothing and shoes, along with toys and some household goods. Students can browse on their own or ask the staff for help finding something specific, including clothing appropriate for a job interview or workplace.
The store is intentionally designed to feel less like a social service office and more like a place where anyone would be comfortable shopping.
“It really takes away that stigma of, ‘Am I going to ask for clothes?’” Reiber said. “Anyone can go shopping, and it feels like it here, with layout and our music playing. It feels like an actual thrift store.”
That atmosphere can also make it easier for students to ask for help with needs that go beyond what is on the clothing racks.
“I wish more students would understand that it’s OK to ask for help,” Reiber said. “Not all the time do we want to ask for help. It can be hard to even get past that barrier of, ‘I know who to talk to, but I don’t want to say anything.’”
At the boutique, those conversations can happen naturally.
“It’s not just, ‘Oh, I need to go ask for help. I’m walking to an office to say I need help,’” Reiber said. “I’m walking to a store, and now I get to talk with the store clerks and see, ‘OK, what are the things to provide or who can I talk to about this?’ And it’s a natural conversation.”
That context is ultimately what makes the Basic Needs program more than a collection of individual services. The goal is to help students address whatever is standing between them and their education, whether that means finding a meal, locating stable housing, getting the right clothes for a job interview, accessing health care or finding support for their children.
“If one person is doing Basic Needs, Basic Needs doesn’t always work,” Reiber said. “What really helps with Basic Needs is making sure that everyone has a say, everyone can collaborate, because we’re all there to support our students, our community, and each other.”
For students who aren’t sure where to begin, Reiber has a simple answer: start a conversation.
“They should come to the boutique,” he said. “They can talk to any professor. They can reach out to myself or any faculty member or any staff here on campus. We’re here to support each other.”
The New to You Boutique, which is also the home base of the whole Basic Needs network, is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Building 2, Room 001, in the basement of the SFCC Library.
“They are always welcome,” Reiber said. “We have clothes, we have incredible student employees, and we’re really there for students.”