New Connections

Every woman deserves a second chance. Your gift makes it possible.

When a woman walks out of a correctional facility, she faces an impossible checklist: find housing, find work, rebuild relationships, stay sober — all at once, often with nothing but the clothes on her back and a bus ticket.

Most systems set her up to fail. New Connections refuses to accept that.

For more than 20 years, we've been there at that exact moment.

We meet women at one of the hardest transitions of their lives — and we don't let go. Through safe, supportive housing at Irma's Place and Annie's Cottage, personalized resource navigation, and deep community advocacy, we walk alongside women as they rebuild their lives with dignity and purpose.

We believe incarceration should be rare, brief, and non-recurring. That belief drives everything we do.

The cycle of poverty and incarceration isn't inevitable — but breaking it takes community.

Women leaving incarceration face barriers that are stacked and interconnected: no housing leads to no employment leads to no stability leads back to crisis. New Connections interrupts that cycle by addressing the whole person, not just a single need.

When a woman has a safe place to sleep, someone in her corner, and a community that believes in her — everything changes.

This Give Big, you can be part of that change.

To do this, we offer:

Women’s Shelters - Irma's Place & Annie's Cottage

Supportive recovery shelters for women experiencing homelessness who have recently been released from correctional facilities in Washington State, including a cottage for those with custody of children. 

Resource Navigation 

We offer advocacy and help accessing community resources for the women in our program through peer support and navigation.

Advocacy & Community Outreach

Partnering with others to increase community safety, reduce recidivism, and eliminate barriers to success for formerly incarcerated individuals and their families.

Washington's Give Big campaign is our chance to show up for women who are working incredibly hard to show up for themselves. Whether you give $25 or $2,500, your gift funds the furnishings and supplies, the case manager's time, the resource connection that opens a door she couldn't open alone.

She's doing the hard work. Will you stand with her?