MIAMI
Safe Families of Miami
Since September 2020 as part of the statewide effort, the Miami Chapter has started to mobilize churches in Miami-Dade County to join the movement to keep children safe, families together, and communities transformed. The Church volunteers are ordinary people with a compassionate heart who give of their time, skills, and resources to the parents and children they walk alongside. They become the extended family support for a family in crisis and help them find stability and thrive.
Our Chapter is also fortunate to be a pilot site for a partnership with Every Mother's Advocate (ĒMA).
What is ĒMA?
ĒMA is a court approved, prevention program designed to advocate for moms in crisis to preserve their families. We pair moms at-risk of losing their children into foster care with an ĒMA Advocate who builds meaningful relationship and provides holistic support, ensuring every mother has an opportunity to thrive. This outcome-based program empowers families to achieve stability and stay together.
To make a referral, click the following links:
Self-Referral: Moms can chose to request an Adovcate
Community Referral: Community Partners can send a request
Advocate Interest Form: Volunteer to serve moms as an Advocate
Desiree Perez
EMA Coordinator
Desiree M. Perez started with Safe Families for Children as the Intake & Family Coach Supervisor for Safe Families for Children back in October 2020. She has been completing intakes, coordinating circles of support around families in crisis, partnering with different organizations to serve families in urgent distress, and equipping the volunteers. In May 2023, Safe Families for Children became Every Mother’s Advocate Affiliate and Desiree took the role of the EMA Coordinator by leading the court- approved parenting program in Miami. As a Licensed Foster and Adoptive Parent since the year 2016, she has fostered 6 vulnerable children in her home and was blessed to adopt her daughter along the way. She is married with one biological son. In Desiree’s free time, she loves to be with her husband and children, family and friends, worship, and attend church activities.
HOW TO
HELP
Our motto is Everybody can do something!
No act of kindness is too small. For instance, you can transport a parent or child to the doctor’s appointment, or go out with a parent for a coffee and good conversation, or meet parents and children at the park to befriend them, or mobilize your peers to provide clothing/ food for a family, babysit a child for a single mom to rest or work, or perhaps take them to your church event or Sunday service, pay a mom’s hair cut who has a job interview, and the list goes on.
There are creative ways you and I together can do something to our neighbor that will make a difference in their lives and bring us so much joy, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35). Whether you are a volunteer and/or a supporter, you are impacting one family at a time and changing our community.
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We are thankful for each one of our individual monthly donors. Every penny counts!
We appreciate local businesses/organizations that have been supporting the Safe Families Movement in Miami either financially or by providing their services:
Bright Lighthouse Insurance
Columbiettes Incorporated
Creative Currency
Mennonite Central Committee
Petkovich Law Firm
Santos Dental
Snap a Dent
Zonta Club of Miami Lakes