After two years of scraping by with minimum funding a Westfield shelter for women and children will finally be back up and running.

The YWCA New Beginnings program offered shelter for victims of domestic violence in Westfield for 20 years. But in 2007, funding was cut and the program could no longer offer a safe-haven to battered women and children. But that's all about to change. The program has just received $380,000 in federal funds which will allow the YWCA to reopen a new live-in shelter right in Westfield.

Mary Reardon Johnson, the YWCA Executive Director says, "What we know is that women want to stay in their community and what we know is that they want to be safe and they want to minimize the consequences to their family and themselves as they seek safety and as they seek support."

In the past two years the program has served over 800 families in Westfield and the hilltowns but there was no shelter for the women and children in crisis.

Lindsey Maxwell is a YWCA Support Specialist and says, "It is a safe haven for them if they need to leave a home due to domestic violence or a crisis and it's confidential we don't tell people who is in our program for women and their children even women without their children."

Right now YWCA officials are in the process of setting up a new shelter in town. For the safety of the women and children who will use it, we're keeping the exact location private, but the 24 hour hot-line is up and running at 733-7100