A Look At How Far We Have Come
1973
New Horizons for New Hampshire, Inc., formed to assist low income persons to address social issues facing them.
1979
Inspired by a visit to a Connecticut soup kitchen, Dick Shannon of NH Catholic Charities and Sister Angie Whidden, a Religious Sister of Mercy, along with Msgr. Phil Kenney and the leadership of New Horizons investigate the feasibility of establishing a soup kitchen in Manchester.
December 1979
The Manchester Soup Kitchen begins serving sandwiches and soup from a borrowed Winnebago camper in the parking lot of the Carpenter Center.
July 1980
The soup kitchen moves to a home at 115 Nutfield Lane. Word spreads quickly and the number of diners grows.
February 1981
Seeing a need for shelter for many Soup Kitchen patrons, a 12-bed shelter opens at 73 Manchester Street above the St. Vincent de Paul Store.
1982
The number of shelter beds increases to 42 with aid from City Welfare.
August 1983
New Horizons addresses needs of low income families by starting a Food Pantry at St. Anne's Parish Center on Merrimack Street, providing groceries to qualified families on a monthly basis.
September 1984
Local businessman Gerald Allard donates the former Girls Club building at 199 Manchester Street to New Horizons which had outgrown its Nutfield Street location. Henrietta Charest is hired as the first Executive Director.
1984-1985
Full scale capital campaign to raise $500,000 to renovate the Girls Club building.
March 1985
Facility at Nutfield is completely destroyed by fire. Nightly meals are temporarily served from Grace Episcopal Church and then from First Congregational Church.
May 1985
The soup kitchen and food pantry move operations to 199 Manchester Street.
December 1985
Renovations are completed. A 72-bed shelter is opened upstairs at 199 Manchester Street.
June 1986
With donations from various churches, New Horizons begins to offer basic health care services to its patrons with assistance from the Mobile Community Health Team. The project is sponsored by the Visiting Nurses Association.
April 1989
The Day Program is born from the Religious of Jesus and Mary, a Catholic order of nuns, serving as the first case managers. The goal of this program was to help people obtain self-sufficiency by assisting with applications for benefits or employment and providing information and referral services as well as monitoring progress of shelter guests.
December 1991
Library is opened in basement of 199 Manchester Street for shelter guests.
1991
New Horizons was named "Non-Profit Business of the Year" by Business New Hampshire Magazine.
August 1993
The Day Program gets a boost with the hiring of three full-time case managers.
April 1998
Seeing a need for seniors to eat at a quieter time, the Senior Hour is created. 510 meals are served to seniors in the first month.
June 1998
With a grant from the Bean Foundation, New Horizons' building undergoes a major facelift. The $60,000 grant provides for sandblasting, sealing and a new paint job.
2000
With a grant from the Greater Manchester Area Charitable Trust, New Horizons purchased property at 434 Union Street from the Sisters of Mercy for a women's shelter. Board of Directors named the property Angie's after Sister Angie Whidden, one of the founders of New Horizons.
April 2002
Angie's opens its doors to 26 homeless women.
2003-2004
With funding from the Citizens Bank Foundation and the Norwin S. and Elizabeth N. Bean Foundation, the Tier Program was implemented to motivate clients to work toward self-sufficiency. Case managers, the Greater Manchester Mental Health Center, and the Mobile Community Health Team work with clients to aggressively address issues that may be contributing to chronic homelessness through program referrals and goal setting.
2006
Program changes at Angie's to fill gap in services for homeless women leaving addiction treatment centers who are in need of continued support as well as housing.
2007
New Horizons launched a new website www.newhorizonsfornh.org. New Horizons also engaged in a strategic planning initiative to strengthen programs and services through the next five years. New Horizons Alumni Program developed, giving former clients who have achieved self-sufficiency an opportunity to remain connected with services and providing them opportunities to mentor those who are still homeless.
2008
TFMoran Engineering completes the Facility Assessment Study of New Horizons Shelter and Food Pantry recommending capital improvements as part of the our ongoing strategic planning. We further develop and implement the Tier Program.
2009
Expanded medical clinic, office and exam room space to accommodate increased hours of mental health care, nursing, street, outreach and health education. Added showers for street homeless. Upgraded windows and improved bathroom facilities.
2010
New Horizons soup kitchen expanded dinner offering to children and their families. Evening case management begins to offer shelter clients immediate one-on-one service.
2011
New Horizons completes HVAC system conversion from oil to natural gas and solar.
2013
New Horizons installed a full-size greenhouse, generouslt donated by Rimol Greenhouse Systems, with the goal of increasing self-sufficiency by growing our own produce for the soup kitchen and food pantry.
The Bean Foundation funded a complete kitchen remodel at Angie’s Shelter for Women.
2015
Food pantry indoor waiting area and remodeling project completed. Indoor waiting area and entryway was constructed. Pantry set up was reconfigured complete with new shelving, seating, HVAC system and new loading dock. Suporters for the intitavie were Singer Family Foundation, Merchants Automotive, Hannaford Supermarkets, Kevin Scott Dalrymple Foundation, Longchamps Electric, Art W. Rose, Anagnost Family and Agnes M. Lindsay Trust.
2016
Food pantry hydraulic loading dock was installed thanks to a donation by NH Healthy Families.
Partnership formed with Families in Transition's Family Place Resource Center and Shelter. New Horizons will be staffing and running their kitchen which provides dinner seven days per week.
