About

Our Mission

Making Miracles Group Home helps young mothers break the repeating cycles of poor choices while learning the skills to build a life for themselves and their children. To teach the values and skills necessary for a successful life filled with caring, contribution, and commitment.

We empower each young mother at our home with:

• The vision to see opportunity within adversity
• The value of setting goals
• The courage to succeed
• The value of accepting obstacles as challenges and not barriers

Our Vision

Since 2010, Making Miracles has helped women create a better life in Christ. Making Miracles Group Home is a one-year, live-in program designed to support young mothers and teach them how to live independently and care for themselves and their children.

We help young mothers break the cycle of abusive relationships, early motherhood, drugs and alcohol, and incarceration— a repeating cycle of bad choices in which women often find themselves because they simply cannot discern a “door in the wall” for an exit.

Today’s youth are on the threshold of unprecedented risk. The future of our country depends on the condition of our children. It also depends on the quality and strength of their families.

Many children in our country are deprived of support. They are deprived of life skills and proper guidance from their families.

Making Miracles Group Home is dedicated to helping young women reach their greatest potential. Our emphasis is on providing quality care and love.

We provide an opportunity to experience a stable foundation empowering women to build wholesome and healthy lives.

Our goal is that at the end of one year, each young mother is financially able to support her children, pay for a deposit on new living arrangements, and move out of the home to begin a new life.

Our Founder

“I didn’t want to be a statistic.” — Debra Harris

Debra Harris, Founder of Making Miracles Group Home, is no stranger to adversity. 

Debra’s Story

Growing up in New Orleans, Louisiana, she and her four siblings were taken from their mentally ill mother and placed in foster care when Debra, the oldest, was just eight years old.  The children spent more than a year in foster care before custody was awarded to their maternal great-grandmother. 

It should have been a happy time, but Debra and her siblings endured years of physical and mental abuse before finally being returned to their mother.

For two years, Debra was once again part of a poor yet happy family. But when her mother stopped taking her medication, Debra and her siblings were split up again.  Debra moved in with her aunt and finished high school, becoming pregnant shortly thereafter.

The baby’s father stayed around but rarely held a steady job.  The couple had a second child.  Despite being the family’s sole supporter, Debra refused to go on welfare. 

For herself and for her children, Debra wanted more.

She ultimately married the father of her children, but it was not a happy union.  He’d turned to drugs and was abusive.  Debra worked even harder to pull her family out of poverty.  When she was finally promoted to a management position and given a raise, she discovered she was no longer eligible for food stamps. 

Debra was stricken by what she saw as the unfairness of a system that rewarded those who gave up and penalized those struggling to get out of the cycle of government assistance.

Debra finally left her first husband and married Perry Harris, her husband of 24 years.  With Perry’s loving support, Debra went to school to become a medical assistant, working full-time all the while.  The pair had two children together and shortly thereafter took in one of Debra’s aunt’s children as well.

The growing family moved to Tallahassee in 1999. Debra got a job working a full-time position in the lab at Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare, working 10-hour shifts, eight days on and six days off. With her family provided for, Debra started thinking about how to give back. Foster parenting seemed an obvious choice.

Intending to foster only one child, the first call Debra received was about three sisters. Recalling her own childhood, Debra couldn’t say no. The Harris family immediately fell in love with the 6, 5, and 4-year-old girls, legally adopting all three.

Despite the many blessings in her life, Debra still felt as if something was missing.  She started laying the groundwork for a group home. 

She found a suitable house and, with the help of Kenna Bridges, organized a Board of Directors.  She and Perry worked tirelessly to prepare the space that would fit as many as five residents at a time – the Making Miracles Group Home was born.  Debra’s vision was to help the women become self-sufficient to take care of their families.

Since 2010, MMGH has helped more than 100 women, either pregnant or with a child under the age of two (2), move up and move out. Many of the women have been in foster care or on welfare. Most have endured some type of abuse. All want a better life for themselves and their babies.

Referencing Titus 2, Debra says, “As educated women, we have to equip our children to succeed in the future. We need to help those that are trying to improve.”

Until 2012, Debra and Perry ran MMGH without outside financial help.  Today, still running on a shoestring budget, MMGH relies on donations, volunteers, and the prayers and support of Canopy Roads Baptist Church and other local congregations to keep the home running. 

For the women served by MMGH, the home is a fresh start and a chance to become independent. 

For Debra, it is the realization of one more dream on a long road of giving back.

Invite Debra to Present at Your Event

Debra’s story is a powerful example that God can and will work in the lives of all who seek Him. Invite Debra to speak at your next event to inspire people to live a life after God’s heart and support His work in the community.