About us
Overview
Miracle Messages is an award-winning 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that helps people experiencing homelessness rebuild their social support systems and financial security, primarily through family reunifications, a phone buddy program, and basic income pilots.
Mission Statement
Miracle Messages is on a mission to end relational poverty on the streets and, in the process, inspire people everywhere to embrace their unhoused neighbors not as problems to be solved, but as people to be loved.
Vision
We envision a world where no one goes through homelessness alone, and where no one feels helpless on this issue.
Who we are
Our work
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Miracle Money
Miracle Money is a direct cash transfer program for people experiencing homelessness. In our proof of concept, we distributed $50K to 14 unhoused participants of Miracle Friends. 50% of recipients secured housing as a direct result of their $500 a month.
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Reunion Services
A person isolated by homelessness records a short message to a loved one (or vice versa). Then, our network of volunteer "digital detectives" attempt to locate the loved one and deliver the message. To date, we've reunited over 500 families worldwide.
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Miracle Friends
Miracle Friends matches unhoused neighbors with caring volunteers for weekly calls and texts, to provide general wellness checks and lightweight problem solving support. To date, we've facilitated over 150 new friendships worldwide.
Our core value:
We meet people where they are at.
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100% opt-in
If an unhoused neighbor does not want to reunite with their loved ones or participate in our phone buddy system, we accept that. “You know your relationships better than we do,” as we say.
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Zero expectations
If an unhoused individual wants to say, “I love you,” “I miss you,” or “I’m sorry,” but does not want to go live with that person, we accept that. We meet people where they are at in life.
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100% respect
We don’t commit to anything we can’t deliver. We don’t promise that we’ll be able to find a loved one, or that they’ll want to reunite. But we do commit to treat each person with the same respect we’d want for our own loved ones.
Photo of Mark
Photo of Kevin and his father at Mark’s gravestone
Backstory
Mark was my uncle.
He was the most family-oriented member of my extended family. He was the guest of honor at Thanksgiving and Christmas. He remembered every birthday: the year before he died at the age of 50, he gave me an eagle bandana for my birthday.
Mark also suffered from schizophrenia, and lived on-and-off the streets for 30 years.
In November 2013, for the first time since he died 10 years prior, I visited his gravesite in Santa Cruz. My dad and Uncle David had chipped in for a plot of ground to call his own, refusing to have Mark's memory forgotten.
As poignant as this was for me, I wondered if there was anything I could do for the people still living on the streets each day, whose lives we forget or ignore.
Like Mark, there are many people on the streets who suffer from mental illness, or drug addictions, or severe disabilities. Many people who have problems, just like the rest of us.
Some are mental illnesses; some are down on their luck, just divorced, missed payment, bad accident, mounting health care costs, debts, mistakes, chances that just didn’t work out. Many people who have families and people who miss them and love them.
I decided to do something about it. I started Miracle Messages to make an immediate and tangible impact in the lives of our neighbors living on-and-off the streets, to build empathy through person-to-person interaction and storytelling, and to use technology for social good.
Thank you, Uncle Mark, for inspiring the idea that led to Miracle Messages.
I always loved ‘em burritos, too.
I miss you.
Your nephew,
Kevin
Founder & CEO
Miracle Messages