A New Way of Life

In addition to offering housing, it offers various services to previously incarcerated women. Among those services are services to help women reunite with their children, help women apply for public assistance, help them deal with their addiction, help them meet the requirements of their probation or parole sentence, and helping them enroll in job training and helping them gain employment. ¹

In addition to work on reintegrating former prisoners into society, it also has an activism arm that advocates left-of-center criminal justice policies. It promotes more permissive laws and weaker punishments for crimes. It also works to register prisoners to vote and promotes things such as abolishing cash bail. ²

In March 2022, billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott announced that the organization was one of the recipients of a grant from her foundation. ³

Overview

A New Way of Life is a Los Angeles, California-based nonprofit that specializes in providing services to women who have been recently released from prison. The organization is most notable for providing housing services to women who have been just released from prison. ¹

The organization was founded in 1998 was by Susan Burton, who had been in and out of prison six times throughout the 1980s and 1990s. She formed the organization by saving $11,000, and she and two friends bought a house that would be used to house formerly incarcerated women. ¹

Services Provided

As of 2021, there are 10 houses in California that A New Way of Life owns. Each houses seven recently incarcerated women, who are provided with free housing for as long as they need it and are given action plans to get their lives back on track. There is a solid structure in place for the women, which includes curfews. ¹

In addition to housing there are other services the organization provides formerly incarcerated women. It provides help for women to reunite with their children. It also provides legal services to help with things such as regaining custody of their children. It also provides assistance to drug addicts to help get and stay clean. ¹

As of 2021, the organization has helped over 1,200 women. ¹

Expanding Nationwide

In 2018, the organization created the SAFE Housing Network, which teaches other people how to replicate the programs offered. As of 2021, it is active in 13 U.S. states and two other countries. ¹

Activism

In addition to providing services to recently incarcerated women, it also advocates for weakening laws and more permissive punishments for crimes. It supports things such as ending cash bail. ²

It sponsors an organization called All of Us or None which fights against the alleged discrimination former prison inmates face. ⁴

In addition, the organization registers prisoners to vote. It also helps formerly incarcerated women develop their political activism skills. ²

Grant From MacKenzie Scott

In March 2022, billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott announced that the organization was one of the recipients of a grant from her foundation. The amount of the grant was undisclosed, and it may have been awarded as soon as June 2021. ³

Leadership

Susan Burton is the founder and current executive director of the organization. She founded the organization in 1998 after her own experiences being in and out of the criminal justice system in the 1980s and 1990s. ¹

Finances

As of the 2019 tax return, the organization had $4,781,583 in revenue and $2,808,820 in expenses. It had assets of $5,849,691. ⁵

It has received grants from numerous left-of-center organizations including a grant for $50,000 in 2020 from the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles, ⁶ undisclosed grants in 2020 and 2022 from the Annenberg Foundation, ⁷ an undisclosed grant amount from the Omnia Foundation, ⁸ $400,000 in total grants from the Libra Foundation with the most recent one in 2020, ⁹ and undisclosed grants from the Liberty Hill Foundation ¹⁰