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The Path to Success Starts Here
As the largest organization serving homeless women and children in New Orleans, we are dedicated to creating a safe, secure and stable environment where classes, tools and resources build the pathway to success. Our wraparound programs keep families together and empower self-sufficiency—every step of the journey.
Your support makes all this possible!
Our Mission
Our mission is to enable women and their children to transition from a life of homelessness and poverty to one of stability and self-sufficiency. You can support us in this important mission by volunteering your time or donating to our efforts.
Our Story
The New Orleans Women & Children’s Shelter traces its beginning to a rudimentary women’s facility opened immediately after Hurricane Katrina. There was an immediate need for food, shelter and security, and we rose to meet the challenge—protecting women and children and keeping them together.
When funding of this temporary facility ran out during the summer of 2007, Jackie Silverman founded the New Orleans Women’s Shelter, to facilitate the establishment of a long-term program and settled in a newly-renovated housing facility. The program was revised with a greater emphasis on case management and increased support for helping women with small children achieve independence.
In 2014 the organization moved to its current main location in Central City at Liberty House, a facility originally developed by the National Council of Negro Women of Greater New Orleans, Inc. In the new location the New Orleans Women’s Shelter more than doubled its capacity, leading us to expand our name and the focus of our programs. Now operating as the New Orleans Women & Children’s Shelter, we support women and children equally, allowing families to stay together, grow strong and strive for success.
In 2016, the New Orleans Women & Children’s Shelter assumed operation of a second shelter facility in Central City, doubling our capacity again and enabling us to also serve intact and single father-led families and empower even more families to stay together.
Who We Serve
We provide for families from diverse backgrounds. These include women over the age of 18 who are accompanied by children under the age of 18 and women in all stages of their pregnancy. We also serve intact and single father-led families. Two-thirds of the people we serve are children. Many of our clients are homeless for the first time in their lives.