It’z A New Day, Inc. is an organization without walls.

We, our board members, have been doing outreach in the community for the last two years. We recently in 2009 became incorporated in hopes to establish a permanent residency. Being transient like the clients we serve, we minister to people where they are, whether they are in a shelter, homeless in a hotel, or in their own home. We have been more of a helping agency with feet. We have helped several individuals in the community to find resources to meet their needs.They range from homelessness, joblessness, clothing, food and financial assistance. We have served women, children and families.

Being an unknown organization, funding has been limited to the means we have from our everyday jobs, the kindness of individual donors, family and friends who believe in us and our unknown talent of coordinating a major fundraising event called Fashions Around the World. Our initial referrals came from members of our church and then people in the community who needs came to our attention because of the economy. We realize that during our out- reach there were more and more women who were homeless with children. Some impacted by the economy, others by domestic violence. We then started to narrow our focus and become a non-profit so that we could help more women with children.

Our founder, Maricia Harris, is a domestic violence survivor, and she wanted to give back to the community. We realize that with the recession there was an increase in domestic violence and the shortage of crisis beds to meet those needs. The average stay in most crisis shelter is 90 days. Unfortunately, this is not enough time for a woman with children who has been traumatized with no financial or family support to be able to reintegrate back into the community. Many times these women have no other choice but to go back to their abuser. To give supportive services to women and children and help the crisis shelters meet their goal of serving more families in need, by reducing overcrowding, we decided to focus on developing a transitional program.

Our mission is to provide outreach, advocacy and supportive services to women and children affected by domestic violence in order for them to become self-sufficient and transition back into the community. If you would like to learn more about our organization, go to www.itzanewday.org. Our vision is to have wrapped around services to meet the needs of our clientele to take them from homelessness to homeowners and to develop skill sets to build healthy relationships and strong families.