HRF announces Wear Your Values mentorship program with support of Fashion Incubator San Francisco

NEW YORK (April 3, 2025)  — The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is pleased to announce its new Wear Your Values (WYV) mentorship program, with the support of Fashion Incubator San Francisco (FiSF), for designers seeking to deepen their commitment to ethical practices.

Wear Your Values fosters dialogue about human rights in the fashion industry through innovative public awareness campaigns and consumer education on ethical, sustainable fashion. The one-year program supports designers in ensuring that their supply chains and final products are free from forced labor. Forced labor is widespread across every stage of the garment supply chain — from sourcing raw materials to fabric production and garment manufacturing. Limited global supply chain transparency and weak regulations addressing forced labor in the fashion industry makes it extremely difficult to ensure all aspects of the supply chain are free from forced labor.

The mentorship program is made possible thanks to the generous support of FiSF. For 12 years, FiSF supported the fashion industry in the San Francisco Bay Area and globally by accelerating emerging fashion designers with an entrepreneurial, innovative approach to business development. FiSF utilized a best-in-class forum of mentors for thought leadership, education, and innovation in a rapidly changing industry. FiSF also convened a dynamic collective that provides our global community with support, opportunity, access, and inspiration.

“Our new mentorship program will elevate designers to make the global fashion industry more ethical for all stakeholders involved,” HRF President Céline Assaf-Boustani said. “This mentorship program will fill a much-needed gap in the industry that will ease the burden placed on designers to evaluate and scrutinize all aspects of factories, suppliers, and subcontractors, among others.”

The mentorship program will support designers through all aspects of their business, including sourcing accessories, ensuring the cotton used is free from forced labor, and marketing and branding. By creating a network for designers to ask questions, receive advice and support, and learn from one another, we believe ethical fashion can become the norm.

Six renowned experts in supply chains, manufacturing, and design will join as mentors: Sean Scott, co-founder of COMUNITYmade and former founding member of TOMS; Jo-Ellen Dutcher, head of product at Cuyana; Shirin Hashem, CEO of Fashion Community Week; Diarra Bousso, a Senegalese designer and FiSF designer-in-residence alumna; Kate Fisher, a product and merchandising expert; and Shannon Scott, co-founder of COMUNITYmade and the former VP of marketing at Asics.

FiSF has transitioned its operations and donated to HRF’s WYV program, which, like FiSF, aims to elevate ethically and sustainably minded designers and brands, build a supportive community, and advocate for better practices within the fashion industry.

“The decision to re-envision FiSF by supporting a mentorship program with WYV sits squarely within our original mission: empowering creative professionals to do what they love for a living. The WYV program will enhance our vision by guiding designers to manufacture in a more ethical way,” FiSF Board President Jeanine Barnett Silberblatt said. “FiSF is proud to support the WYV mentorship program for emerging designers.”

If you are interested in partnering or collaborating on the program, please e-mail [email protected].

The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies.

HRF’s Wear Your Values program engages the fashion industry in the human rights movement, promoting transparency in the supply chain and raising awareness of the hidden social costs of the industry through educational articles, events, exhibitions, panel discussions, and talks. If you are interested in collaborating, please e-mail [email protected].