The Mission of Milagro House

Milagro House is a long-term, education-based program committed to restoring the lives of homeless women and children. We provide shelter, support and guidance to our families, promoting personal integrity, self-reliance and social responsibility.

A Short History of Milagro House

Milagro House was started in 1998 as a long-term shelter for homeless mothers and their children. Over the years, our program has changed and, while still a residence for women desperately in need, we now operate as a residential learning center for women and their children. Milagro House serves up to seventeen families at our S. Christian St. facility; nine more families reside, dorm-style, at our new facility – The Stoudt Center, which opened in the Spring of 2005. All women living at our new facility are attending our GED/Remedial classes or are enrolled in post-secondary school (HACC, Consolidated School of Business, Stevens College, one of the Technology Centers, Lancaster General School of Nursing, etc.).

Initially, Milagro House was located in one rented row house in Lancaster’s 7th Ward; the houses around us were condemned, our neighbors were drug dealers, addicts and the homeless. Since 1998, Milagro House has purchased five additional properties on that same block on South Christian Street. Our facilities now include room for fourteen families in our houses; three apartments where families who are ready to graduate from our program can test their independence and, in what used to be a true corner “drug” store, a school where GED and Remedial Education classes are taught.  We also have a give-away shop where we distribute, at no cost to our neighbors, donations over and above what our residents need. The drug dealers never visit our block; our street is quiet, peaceful and clean.

Milagro House has an annual operating budget of approximately $480,000. We are funded solely by the private donations of the Lancaster Community – individuals, social and service groups, businesses and churches - as well as the grant monies we receive from local foundations and corporations.
    
In eight years, we have provided services to nearly three hundred families (including over 600 children). Women who complete our program are welcomed back, whether they come to do volunteer work or are in need of support and counseling. The success of our residents allows us to operate a program that continues to grow and improve at a steady rate.

A Description of Milagro House and the Purpose of our Program

Milagro House is a long-term (1-2 years or longer) residence for women who are homeless as the result of their inability to make good choices for themselves and their children. We focus on creating healthy, safe families who, with education, guidance, hard work and love, are able to break the cycle of poverty and dependence that has, for many of them, been generational. We serve mothers who are open-minded and willing to try a new way of life free of the negative influences that have made it impossible for them to succeed.

Milagro House is a program that has provided measurable improvement in the lives of scores of women and their children. Our program offers women and their families the time it takes to achieve success. We offer the education, counseling and financial direction all women need to escape the dysfunction of their former lives and to become successful women and good mothers.

The statistics we have gathered, the support of the many agencies we work closely with and the high visibility of our program in the past seven years indicate clearly that Milagro House is a program that makes a difference in our community as well as in the lives of the women and children we work with. Click HERE to view the 2006 resident evaluation.

In eight years, fewer than ten percent of the women who have lived at Milagro House for six months or more have “relapsed” into homelessness. Those women who do make a commitment to our program – and a commitment to change – gain the skills and determination to support themselves and their children and to manage their lives after they leave the protective environment of our program.

With the establishment of The Stoudt Center, we continue to positively impact the lives of women and children who have no permanent place to call “home.” We are able to increase the number of people we serve by over fifty percent and the women who move to the Stoudt Center have the best possible opportunity to succeed in the new lives they have chosen for themselves. We provide them with:

• A clean, safe place for them to live with their children until they are fully prepared to become, and remain, self-sufficient;
• An organized environment with limitations and rules that promote responsibility as well as independence;
• A focus on education and training that will lead to sustainable employment that pays a living wage;
• Intensive, individualized counseling and case management designed to promote personal and spiritual change; and
• Parenting and life skills workshops designed to promote successful independent living and family harmony.