Our Purpose
Work For All
The Edwing D’Angelo Foundation (TEDAF) exists to transform fashion, arts, and the creative industries into pathways of economic empowerment for women and youth historically excluded from opportunity.
We are a cross-cultural workforce development organization rooted in creative enterprise. Our purpose is to bridge artistic expression with real-world industry training — equipping young women, justice-impacted individuals, and students with tangible vocational skills, entrepreneurial literacy, and sustainable income pathways.
In New York City, we work directly with students with our W.I.N.G.S. program across multiple boroughs, delivering hands-on instruction in fashion design, garment construction, branding, production, and creative entrepreneurship. Our programs connect students to the broader creative economy — demonstrating that the arts are not extracurricular, but viable industries with measurable economic power.
In Buenaventura, Colombia, we are training 300 Afro-Colombian women — many of whom are heads of household — in professional sewing, tailoring, and small-scale production. This initiative transforms traditional craft into structured economic infrastructure, enabling women to generate income, stabilize their families, and strengthen community economies through creative trade.
What distinguishes our Foundation is our philosophy: creativity is capital.
Fashion is industry.
Art is workforce.
Culture is economic strategy.
We do not treat the creative sector as enrichment — we treat it as infrastructure for independence. By aligning artistic skill-building with entrepreneurship, leadership development, and sustainability practices, we cultivate creators who are not only expressive — but economically self-sufficient.
From classrooms in New York City to production tables in Colombia, our work builds generational impact by turning talent into trade, imagination into enterprise, and creativity into long-term economic freedom.
