I live in NY and my ds and I go. It is in my church. We are in one room and the kids are in another with babysitters(senior citizen). The kids have a great time, The seniors love being with the kids and the mothers get as you say a much needed break. We even have things like movie night, game night without the kids and we go on outings with the kids sometimes. We started going when my ds was 3 months old. He was with me in the room with the moms. That is also another good thing. If the kids don't want to be seperated from the mothers they can always come in the room with us. We talk about everything from daily routines to sleeping habits or problems to eating to just griping or raving about our dh.
Maby you can start one of your own. The only bad thing is it is only during the school year so in the summer we miss it.
I hope you find one by you. I would check out the churches and the librarys by you

Look for a Mothers & More group or a Moms Club near you. Both have playgroups and some have babysitting coops. Mothers & More has a website and it's more for parents at night to have time off, but during day each chaper decides what it wants to do. Princeton NJ has playgroups, toddler days, outings, dinners, with the kids.

We have a Mothers Day Out at my church. It is on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You can bring your children (no drop ins, you have to register) at about 9 am and you pick them up at 2 pm. I can't remember how much we charged, but it was a not for profit venture. Most children only came one day a week. It was just something we did locally as an outreach to children and parents in the area. The children were grouped by age and we kept them very busy and entertained. Also, we fed them lunch. They loved it and the parents had a few hours to get some errands and appointments taken care of. This is not a new concept and I am surprised that nobody in your area has heard of this!

Mom's day out programs are very common here. There are some that only take Preschool age children. And there are some that do teach some skills like a Preschool. Find out these details.
It would not be a great idea to have to many kids in one room that are different ages. Make sure there are enough staff members to watch the children also.
The ones around here have limits on the amount of children and are usually ran by churches. I think the "Y" has also had one.
In the area around where I live this is not new, it has been around for at least 15 or more years. But now there are more places (churches) that are operating a Mom's Day out, which usually consist of one or two days a week. Many have differnt amounts of hours that they keep the
I am sure there are some that are better than others.
Ask questions before enrolling your child in the program.