Tulsa Day Center

☀️ Summer is here, and our clients need your help staying comfortable! And while recent rain has kept it cooler, it's also helping mosquito and biting bug populations thrive.

We are currently collecting donations of the following items:

🦟 Insect repellent (Cutter or similar)
💧 Bottled water
🕶️ Sunglasses (Dollar Store finds are perfect!)
🩴 Flip-flops (Medium and Large)
🩲 Men's and women's underwear (Any size)

Drop off donations anytime at the Tulsa Day Center, 415 West Archer or order on Amazon and have it shipped!

Every item makes a real difference for our neighbors this summer. Thank you for your generosity! 💙

‼️Deadline EXTENDED‼️

We were able to extend the deadline for our $40,000 match, giving you another opportunity to double your impact for the men, women, and families served by Tulsa Day Center. 💙🎉 If you haven't donated yet, you have until June 20 to help us MAX OUT our matching donor. 🔥 Even $5 gets us closer to the goal, so contribute what you can and help us reach more people than ever this year.

Your support helps provide immediate relief while creating pathways to permanent housing and stability for our most vulnerable neighbors.

We are incredibly grateful for everyone who has already contributed. 🙏 If you have been considering a gift—or would like to make an additional contribution—now is the perfect time to maximize your impact.

Please help us meet this challenge and unlock every matching dollar available.

👉 Donate today at tulsadaycenter.org.

We love a good news day and here's some: For the first time in three years, the annual Point-in-Time survey showed that homelessness in Tulsa has stabilized.

Not only that, the number of unsheltered individuals dropped by 31% in the past year.

As part of the City's Safe Move Tulsa initiative, the Tulsa Day Center continues our 40-year effort to ensure people receive the services they need to feel stable and secure as they start the next chapter of their lives.

Thank you to all the agencies involved in making positive change for our most vulnerable Tulsans. We are honored to be a part of this work.

https://zurl.co/RSu8I

Tulsa’s homeless population stabilizes after years of rising Tulsa’s homeless population steadily climbed after the expiration of pandemic-era federal funding. The 2026 count is six less than the previous year.

Golly gosh darn! We goofed! Our postcards for the Taste of Change event mailed before they were supposed to and before the QR code was live. If you are trying to RSVP, here's the spot.

And if you're not…you should be! Join us on August 8 for food and wine pairings from some of Tulsa's finest chefs, all benefiting the Tulsa Day Center!

Sponsorships are available. Email Monica at [email protected] for more info.

Taste of Change Join us for Taste of Change, a fun in-person event where bold flavors meet fresh ideas!

Our next honoree in :

David Poarch

Board Member

Sometimes your neighbor comes over to ask for a cup of sugar. And sometimes they ask you to help transform lives.

In 1995, David Poarch's neighbor Sandra Lewis, then Executive Director of the Tulsa Day Center, asked his wife Carol to consider joining the board. Carol was busy with two young kids and a full career, so David stepped up in her place.

Over nearly three decades of board service, David served as Vice President, President, and Treasurer of the Tulsa Day Center. But he really secured his legacy at Tulsa Day Center when he chaired the effort to build Hudson Villas, the $6.5 million, 60-unit supportive housing complex that opened in 2013 and has given formerly homeless Tulsans not just shelter, but a place to truly call home. Hudson Villas remains one of TDC's most powerful tools for ending chronic homelessness, with 95% of residents maintaining stable housing year after year.

David has said his life is better for the people he has met through this work. We think Tulsa is better for the work he has done.

This weekend! Saturday, May 16 the City of Tulsa will host the Rising Together: Tulsa Recovery Summit - a free public event focused on recovery, mental health, resources, and education.
Details below. 👇👇

City of Tulsa Saturday, May 16, 2026 | 8 a.m. – 1 p.m.Tulsa Tech - Lemley Memorial CampusClient Service Center (1st Floor)3638 S. Memorial Dr., Tulsa, OK 74145

Next in our series of 40 Faces of Tulsa Day Center -

Maxine & Jack Zarrow
Founding Philanthropists

The ground beneath the Tulsa Day Center tells a story. Before a single brick was ever laid, Maxine and Jack Zarrow, together with the Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation, donated a full square block of land to make this place possible. Before there was a building, before there were clients served or lives changed, there was a family that believed the land itself should be dedicated to caring for Tulsa's most vulnerable neighbors.

Jack Zarrow joined his father and brother in building Sooner Pipe and Supply into one of Tulsa's great enterprises, and that success fueled a lifetime of extraordinary generosity. Maxine served on numerous community boards spanning mental health, education, and social services, and like the rest of her family, she showed up in ways both grand and quiet; volunteering, identifying needs, and doing whatever it took to help. Together, their family helped launch Building Tulsa, Building Lives, a campaign to end chronic homelessness, which ran from 2007 to 2012 and raised an extraordinary $57 million, financing more than 500 affordable housing units across Tulsa. Jack passed away in February 2012, and Maxine in 2021, and their family continues their legacy by championing the needs of the Tulsa community to this day.

Their foundation continues to carry forward their belief that those most at risk deserve transformational support, not just temporary relief. The Tulsa Day Center stands today, in every sense of the word, on the foundation they helped build.

Want to learn more about mental health and recovery in our community AND see Tulsa Day Center staff in person? We've got the event for you!

The Tulsa Day Center will have a booth at City of Tulsa Gov's "Rising Together: Tulsa Recovery Summit" on Saturday, May 16, and we would love for you to stop by, meet our team, and learn more about the work we do every day for our neighbors experiencing homelessness.

Recovery and mental health touch the lives of so many people we serve, and this free event is for anyone who wants to learn more. Join us at Tulsa Tech Lemley Memorial Campus (3638 S. Memorial Dr.) from 8:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. for a resource fair featuring more than 40 community partners; free workshops on addiction, overdose response, First Aid/CPR; and even a free light breakfast.

We hope to see you there!

For more information, visit cityoftulsa.org/recoverysummit26.

The 2026 Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits Nonprofit Excellence (ONE) Awards were held at the end of April, and we want to take a moment to congratulate all of this year's winners and nominees. We were nominated in the Self-Sufficiency category, and it is truly an honor to be recognized along with so many other nonprofits doing incredible things across our state.

A special shoutout to Our Daily Bread Stillwater, this year's overall ONE Award winner, and to every organization recognized across all categories. Oklahoma's nonprofit community is doing extraordinary work, and we are proud to be part of it. 💙

Read more about the nominees at https://zurl.co/RQzNh.