new year, new look! the new mary’s place brand
We're excited to share the new Mary's Place brand, updated to reflect the evolution of our services for women and families, including our new mission statement!
Our Women's Day Center opened its doors more than 20 years ago as a first-of-its-kind resource for single women experiencing homelessness in Seattle. The familiar orange Mary's Place logo was introduced over 10 years ago. This beloved design featuring a house spoke to our efforts to address a previously unmet need in our community–providing emergency overnight shelter where families with children could come inside and stay together. The orange house became synonymous with a safe, warm, inclusive place for women, children and families of all kinds.
Since our founding, we have partnered with the community to pilot and incorporate best practices to address the crisis of family homelessness. Our services now include housing, employment, and wellness services, youth programming, focused care coordination for parents experiencing homelessness with a sick child, a mobile outreach team to meet unsheltered families in cars and tents, and much more. Today, Mary's Place is more than a safe place to come inside. It’s a place to find the resources and support needed to move quickly back into stable housing. Last year alone, we helped 549 families move to permanent housing.
But the need keeps growing. Shelters are full, and the impact of COVID-19, and the end of eviction moratoriums and pandemic supports, increasing domestic violence, and rising rents and inflation are causing many families to become homeless, while many more don't know how they'll pay next month's rent. We know more shelters are not the answer–we need to stop family homelessness by keeping families in their homes and preventing the trauma that leads to generational homelessness. Homelessness prevention strategies are key. Rental assistance and connecting families to stability resources is effective, and costs less than half of a stay in shelter.
In King County, only 6% of people identify as Black and .9% as Native American, yet 40% of families experiencing homelessness at Mary's Place are Black and 2% Native American. We know that racism and homelessness are inextricably linked. Through our recent strategic planning process, we have committed to addressing the staggering impacts of structural racism that lead to disproportionate numbers of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color among the families at Mary's Place.
Our updated mission is Ensuring that no child sleeps outside by centering equity and opportunity for women and families. It reflects a commitment to put the people furthest from opportunity as the focus of our efforts.
We're excited to introduce a refreshed Mary's Place brand that reflects the evolution of our services along with our new mission statement and commitment to racial equity and social justice. Our core belief is steadfast – that no one’s child should sleep outside.
We partnered with local design firm Civilization to update the Mary's Place brand in a way that reflects our innovative approach to addressing family homelessness and exudes the warmth, safety, and inclusiveness that has drawn women and families to Mary's Place since 1999. Civilization conducted surveys and interviews with current and former Mary's Place guests, staff, volunteers, donors, board members, and community partners as they began developing a refreshed look. "That little house," commented one interviewee, "if I see that anywhere, I think of Mary's Place." Keeping the safe familiarity of the house and the approachable, warm nature of Mary's Place in mind, Civilization created a modernized logo and colors that elevate Mary's Place identity to better match the evolution of our organization.
In 2023, we look forward to partnering with our community to reshape our homelessness response system by expanding and leading with homelessness prevention services, working together to keep families in their hard-won homes.