The women we serve haven't had a place to call their own for a long time. To provide a sense of home and security, Fresh Start plans to renovate the women's bedrooms. Funding from The Big Give will purchase bedroom furniture and furnishings for 24 women to provide a feeling of home. Their bedrooms need new mattresses, bed frames, comforters, sheets, pillows, dressers, bookshelves, rugs, and a fresh coat of paint. This will transform the bare-bones, worn-out accommodations into a personal space that is hers.

When a space feels special, when you can call it your own, even if you know it's only temporary, studies show that women are more likely to gain confidence, more apt to allow themselves to learn how to enjoy and care for their possessions. It's no exaggeration to say that many of our women have felt the sting of neglect and abuse — some for many years. How must it feel to be in a place where those threats are in the past and they can focus on the future? These women bloom. When they can gather to make a meal together, accept responsibility for preparing those meals to share with others, make friends, talk about their day, new hope is often born out of those friendships and responsibilities. We see it happen every day.

There are five levels in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs pyramid. From the bottom of the hierarchy upwards, the needs are: physiological (food and clothing), safety (job security), love and belonging needs (friendship), esteem, and self-actualization. 

Fresh Start is the place where women can rise in that pyramid to find self-actualization when basic, fundamental needs are met, job skills are learned, friendships develop, soon self-worth will follow. The women at Fresh Start are willing to work hard, pull themselves from shattered lives and lost dreams. It's all right there in the walls of the old church on Havelock Avenue where women look for opportunity, to right past wrongs and start fresh. A homey space to call their own can make all the difference.