#GiveLocal: 5 Questions with Milagro House

Milagro House is the Lemon Street Market #GiveLocal partner organization for the rest of February! When customers opt to round up at the register, all proceeds will be donated to Milagro House in order to provide education, housing, and support services for women and their children who would otherwise be experiencing homelessness. We spoke with Christina Duncan, Executive Director of Milagro House, about some of the non-profit’s history and upcoming projects.

Tell us about the history of Milagro House.

Milagro House has a 21-year history in our community. The organization began in a small rowhouse in the southeastern area of Lancaster City as a place where women experiencing poverty and homelessness could live with their children in a compassionate, supportive environment while they were working toward finishing their high school education and/or completing a post-secondary credential. In 2003, Milagro House opened an additional location at 669 West Chestnut Street. Today, Milagro House operates solely from the West Chestnut Street building where there is capacity to serve nine women and their children (on average we have 12-18 children living at Milagro House with their mothers).

Milagro House continues to experience a high demand for its services and currently has a waiting list of over 40 women. In 2018, Milagro House purchased a building on South Prince Street and is currently in a period of significant growth, with plans to enter a capital campaign and completely renovate and expand the South Prince Street location within the next two years.

What kinds of services do you offer?

Milagro House’s mission is to provide educational programming, housing and life-skills training for women and their children who would otherwise be experiencing homelessness. Our vision is to turn a woman’s goal of getting an education into an achievable reality by removing the barriers to betterment and self-sufficiency that women in poverty often experience.

Women living at Milagro House with their children are either working on completing their high school education through our GED program, or are enrolled in a post-secondary program of study at a local college or certification program.

In addition to education-based programming and opportunities, Milagro House supports women in their journey to sustainable independence through life-skills workshops that develops and strengthen skills and knowledge in areas such as parenting, basic financial management, nutrition, health and wellness and self-care.

In addition to our core educational and programming opportunities, we recently incorporated a Workforce Development program to prepare women for employment once they complete their education. This program is based on career workshops, job shadowing and developing  partnerships with local industry leaders and employers. In addition, to ensure women and children remain sustainable after they leave our program, we created the Beyond Milagro House Program to give women the same access to supportive programming and services for one full year after they complete the Milagro House program.

Milagro House is built on the foundation that an education opens doors to success; a catalyst that moves families from poverty into the economic mainstream. Empowering women to achieve their educational goals has a positive effect on the families we serve and on our community as a whole. Since 1998, Milagro House has helped over 2,200 women and their children achieve their dream of long-standing success and sustainability through education.

Why is there a need for nonprofits like Milagro House in Lancaster?

Milagro House is committed to helping women find long-term solutions to chronic poverty and homelessness through education. By removing the barriers that often prevent women in poverty often from pursuing their education, we are creating sustainable solutions that move women and their children into the economic mainstream and change the course of their day-to-day from surviving to thriving. Milagro House is not an emergency shelter; however, we are the only program in Lancaster that provides a longer-term, holistic approach to education for this demographic. Women are able to live at Milagro House with their children for as long as they remain enrolled in an educational course of study. Because each woman’s journey is customized, the length of time to complete the program varies from between six months to a year or more. Housing and programming are provided to women who live at Milagro House at no cost.

Our impact, however, does not end with the women and children we serve. The beauty of our program is the ripple effect we have in the community. By providing employers with an educated workforce, we add to the stability of the local economy. And, the women that finish the Milagro House program are prepared and trained to be valuable employees for the companies where they are employed.

Likewise, when we transition women into their first apartment, landlords benefit from tenants that have acquired the life skills necessary to maintain a household. And, because the women from Milagro House obtain employment at a family-sustaining wage, they make their rent payments on time. Moreover, the support services (counseling, parenting programs, budgeting, etc.) received at Milagro House increases a woman’s ability to care for her children, and decreases her long-term dependence on social services and financial assistance. These services also increase a woman’s chance that she will be able to remain in the economic mainstream.

Finally, Milagro House has a profound effect on the children that live here with their mothers. Studies by the Urban Institute indicate that the longer children spend in poverty and insecurity, the harder it is to graduate from high school, the less likely it is for them to seek a post-secondary credential or college degree and the more likely it is that they will continue the cycle of poverty and homelessness. The US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty’s 2017 study: Predictors of Persistently Poor Children’s Economic Success, found that less than half of persistently poor children have a parent that graduated from high school, far below the national average of 86 percent. The study concludes that improving the parent’s level of education can make a significant difference in their child’s success as a young adult. By improving the well-being and overall prosperity of the mothers we serve, and by raising their level of education, Milagro Houses achieves the added bonus of contributing directly to breaking the cycle of poverty for the next generation.

How can the community help or get involved?

– Volunteering: Milagro House welcomes volunteers as a vital aspect to overall program support. Volunteering opportunities include 1:1 tutoring in our onsite GED Classroom, GED test proctoring, career workshop facilitation in areas of professional expertise, evening babysitting to allow woman to attend life-skills workshops, transporting women to appointments or grocery shopping and offering general administrative support.

– Board and Committee Service: Milagro House relies on a group of committed volunteers willing to serve on boards and committees. For more information, please contact the Executive Director, Christina Duncan, at 717-509-1401 or chris@milagrohouse.org.

– Financial Support: Milagro House programming is supported solely through private donations from generous individuals, corporations and foundations. Gifts may be made by sending them directly to Milagro House at: 669 West Chestnut Street, Lancaster PA 17603 or through online giving via our secure website at www.milagrohouse.org/donate.

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