New Reach Receives $2.5 Million Bezos Day 1 Families Fund Grant to Help End Homelessness for Families in Connecticut

Fund grants $123.45 million to 40 nonprofits across the U.S. to move the needle on re-housing and supporting families experiencing homelessness

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – (November 22, 2022): New Reach, a nonprofit organization committed to making homelessness in Connecticut rare, brief and non-recurring, today announced that it has received a $2.5 million grant from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund—the largest private gift in the organization’s history. Launched in 2018 by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the Day 1 Families Fund issues annual leadership awards to leading organizations on the frontlines that are employing compassionate, needle-moving work to help families move from unsheltered homelessness and shelters to permanent housing with the services they require to achieve stability.

“This grant award is truly transformative and will allow New Reach to make an even greater impact in Connecticut in the fight against homelessness,” said Kellyann Day, chief executive officer at New Reach. “We envision a world in which the need for shelter is minimal, where families can stay in their homes and those who are struggling to make ends meet can get the help they need.”

This one-time grant will help New Reach in its tireless work to support families as they reel from skyrocketing rent costs, limited services and insufficient incomes. New Reach plans to use the grant funds, which will be distributed over a five-year period, to increase capacity of their prevention, crisis and affordable housing tier programs by incorporating more staff with lived experience of homelessness, as well as clinical staff. This approach will provide more consistent and responsive support to individual family needs and strengths, as staff will be able to meet families where they are and support them through the system to accessible and stable housing.

New Reach was selected as a Day 1 Families Fund grant recipient by a group of national advisors who are leading advocates and experts on homelessness and service provision. National advisors brought expertise on housing justice, advancing racial equity and helping programs employ resources effectively to assist families out of homelessness.

Over the past five years, the Day 1 Families Fund has provided 170 grants totaling more than $520 million to organizations around the country working to combat homelessness and help families gain housing support and stability. This year, the Fund issued a total of $123.45 million in grants to the following organizations: Carpenter's Shelter; CATCH, Inc.; Catholic Community Services of Southern Arizona; The Center for Women and Families; Changing Homelessness; Chapman Partnership; Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County; Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo County, Inc.; Community Services & Employment Training (CSET); Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO); Family Promise of Hawai'i; Family Promise of Northern New Castle County; Family Services of Tulare County; Flagstaff Shelter Services; Gateway180; Heartland Alliance; H.O.M.E. Inc.; Homeless Alliance; Hope House of Milwaukee; Housing First, Inc.; Housing Forward; HRDC; Ka Hale A Ke Ola Homeless Resource Centers, Inc.; LA Family Housing; Mother Nation; Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter, Inc.; New Reach; Oglala Sioux Tribe; Partners for HOME; PATH; The Salvation Army, Denver Metro Area; Samish Indian Nation; San Diego Regional Task Force on Homelessness; Sojourner Truth House; Solo Por Hoy, Inc.; Start Corporation; Strategies to End Homelessness; The Wellspring; YWCA Cass Clay; and YWCA Missoula’s Housing Programs.

The Bezos Day One Fund made a $2 billion commitment to focus on making meaningful and lasting impacts in two areas: funding existing nonprofits that help families experiencing homelessness, and creating a network of new, nonprofit tier-one preschools in low-income communities. The Day 1 Families Fund issues annual leadership awards to organizations and civic groups doing compassionate, needle-moving work to provide shelter and hunger support to address the immediate needs of young families. The vision statement comes from the inspiring Mary’s Place in Seattle: no child sleeps outside. For more information, visit www.BezosDayOneFund.org/Day1FamiliesFund.

About New Reach
Since 1990, New Reach has implemented best practices across the region to develop a continuum of housing interventions and supports—helping thousands of vulnerable households and families achieve stability and self-reliance. Today, the agency provides a full spectrum of housing services that meet the varying and complicated needs of at-risk families, youth, and individuals. From eviction prevention for public housing residents, to the development of affordable and supportive housing, and everything in between, New Reach serves thousands each year throughout Fairfield and New Haven counties. https://newreach.org/