Living Grace Homes By Brenda Damian
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Charity Spotlight with Kathleen Miller Living LArge LV
iving Grace Homes is an award-winning nonprofit organization who won “Outstanding Nonprofit” in the City of Henderson. Living Grace Homes provides a safe environment for homeless pregnant women between the ages of 14 to 24 and for up to 90 days after they give birth to their newborn baby. The mission of the nonprofit organization is “To ensure young mothers do not have to sleep on the streets tonight.” With over 6,000 homeless people in Clark County Nevada, having nonprofit organizations in our community can be a lifeline for young pregnant women seeking a safe environment to sleep at night. Without resources such as these, that provide crucial support, some women literally won’t survive. Kathleen Miller who has lived in Nevada for about 25 years, is the Executive Director for local nonprofit organization Living Grace Homes and made this organization possible through sheer determination to make a difference in the young women’s lives and in the community. Creating Miracles is a Family Affair Although bringing the vision and mission to life was driven by Kathleen Miller, she credits her family saying that Living Grace Homes would not have been possible without the love and support of her family, “There are two main families that made Living Grace happen and that is the Miller family and the Larmore family. Kathleen Larmore is the one that I refer to as my partner in crime because she and her husband purchased the house so that we could open Living Grace. Kathleen Larmore is still very much involved as a volunteer and sits on the Board of Directors. She’s the silent partner in the background, but it couldn’t have happened without her”. As if by fate, Kathleen Miller’s daughter, Stephanie Miller also became an integral role at Living Grace. Stephanie had a very busy career that required her to travel. She was very much active in political work when she was involved in a car accident causing her that required recovery time. Unable to travel and move about much, Stephanie became involved with Living Grace and began working and taking on aspects of the organization that allowed her to utilize her political skills, such as grant writing, keeping track of data, and reports. Work that is generally very detailed and much to Kathleen’s benefit, because this type of work is not her “cup of tea.” Inspiration As for what motivates and inspires Kathleen Miller to keep advocating for this cause, she said, “What inspires me most is, is to see a young lady really blossom. Oftentimes when they come here, they are at their bottom. They feel like they have no place else to go. Even though it’s a very nice home for them to live in, sometimes to them it feels a little bit like jail because there’s rules and there’s curfews. Things that they’re not used to but those things that they’re not used to are also the things that caused them to be in the situation where they needed a shelter, needed some guidance and direction. So to see them go from being hurt, angry
