Room to Grow
When Deziyah brought her newborn daughter, Ani, home from the hospital, that home was a living room.
No bedroom door. No privacy. Just a steady stream of people coming and going through a three-bedroom apartment shared by seven adults. She tried to breastfeed, but the lack of any private space made it impossible. Her only moment alone was pumping breast milk in the bathroom.
At just 22 years old, Deziyah was overwhelmed. But she was determined. “I just had to keep my head on straight,” she told us. “I have someone counting on me.”
That determination brought her to New Moms. Here she joined our Job Training program, learning to manufacture candles, build a resume, and develop financial literacy alongside a community of other young mothers. Soon, she moved into our Housing program, where she and Ani finally had a space of their own.
“When I first came, I was so in awe,” Deziyah said. “Me and my baby finally got our own space. It even made me a little emotional. I prayed for it, and God gave me this.”
Change didn’t just come from four walls. It was the people in her corner.
Her housing coach connected her to resources she didn’t know existed — job listings, community events, and essential household supplies. Her financial coach sat beside her at the tax office for hours. She budgeted with her, called creditors with her, and reminded her again and again: “Desi, give yourself grace.”
“I never had anything like that before,” Deziyah said. “It feels like a relief. They don’t judge my situation. They just help me figure it out.”
She also started therapy for the first time and joined the weekly parent support group. She learned what it meant – really meant – to ask for help.
Deziyah’s story is one of approximately 400 we walk alongside each year.
This year, we need to raise $40,000 by June 30 to sustain the programs that made Deziyah’s transformation possible.
The mothers we serve are finding and keeping jobs and stable housing – consistently beating national benchmarks – not because we hand them a checklist, but because we surround them with the community, individualized coaching, job training, and safe housing they need to build genuine stability.
Their children grow up fed, supported, and in calm homes. That’s the foundation everything else is built on.
Deziyah is already thinking about her next step: her own apartment. “This is the foundation,” she said. “I have faith it’ll only go up from here.”
She wants to give Ani something she didn’t always have growing up: emotional stability, consistency, and a mom who knew how to ask for help and wasn’t afraid to use it. “I’m becoming a better woman so I can be that support for her.”
Your gift makes that possible. It funds the coaches who sit with overwhelmed moms on hold. The job training program that gives young women their first real foothold. The housing that turns a living room into a place to start over.
Please make your gift before June 30. Every dollar brings us closer to our $40,000 goal and closer to a future where no mom has to raise her newborn in a living room.
With gratitude,
Laura Zumdahl
President & CEO
P.S. Ani will turn two this January. She is, as Deziyah puts it, “a true blessing” – happy, smart, and full of personality. Help us make sure she grows up in a home that reflects exactly that. Give today.
