Mutiya Vision How does a young woman go from being homeless to being a homeowner, a business owner and an award-winning author? Mutiya Vision faced huge challenges from the time she was a child. She was born with one hand and always had to fight to maintain her dignity. She had to deal with the emotional and physical trauma of being the child of an alcoholic mother who struggled with depression. Mutiya saved her mother’s life twice, once from suicide when she was 7-years old, and again at 15. Mutiya realized that her mom was an alcoholic and took her to her first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Shortly after her intervention, her mom checked into a residential substance abuse program. Her mom has maintained her sobriety for over 20 years. Mutiya, her sister and mother lived in an abandoned house for almost two years, yet she continued to attend school. Finally, her mother found out about Women In Need. They moved to a safe and clean WIN shelter for about a year. The experience changed her life. Today, Mutiya is a mother of eight children, a workshop facilitator, volunteer and the co-author of ten children’s books written with her husband. She has attained success against all odds, reminding us that with vision, determination, belief in self and planning, all things are possible.

Women In Need Last year, more New Yorkers slept in homeless shelters than ever before in history. It’s a startling and sad fact that 80 percent of the homeless in New York are women and children. Women in Need (WIN) offers transitional residential housing in conjunction with support services to help families address the underlying causes that contribute to homelessness. WIN residences in Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx provide on-site case management services, job counseling and connection to government benefits like food stamps and federal disability payments, and they provide something crucial to struggling young mothers: nurseries and childcare, so parents can train for work or go back to school. Last year WIN moved over 500 families from shelter to permanent housing. In doing so, WIN has served over 10,000 individuals, connecting more than 1,000 families to Medicaid, public assistance and food stamps.