Frequently Asked Questions
What is Miracle Messages?
Miracle Messages is an award-winning nonprofit organization that helps people experiencing homelessness reconnect with their loved ones, and with us as their neighbors. We believe that everyone is someone's somebody.
REUNION SERVICE: Our approach is simple, effective, and scalable: a person isolated by homelessness records a short message to a family member or friend, often with the help of a local referral partner, volunteer, or formerly homeless individual (whom we hire as community ambassadors). Then, our network of trained "digital detectives" attempt to locate the loved one, deliver the message, and facilitate a reunion. To date, Miracle Messages has reunited 325+ families, with an average time separated of 15 years, using our mobile app, 1-800-MISS-YOU hotline, and online and paper-based forms. 80% of delivered messages have been positively received, and dozens of reunions have resulted in getting a client off-the-streets, all at a fraction of the cost of other interventions.
BUDDY SYSTEM: A reunion service is appropriate for ~10-20% of the homeless population. But what if someone doesn’t have loved ones, or the family is part of the problem or as under-resourced as they are? Enter Miracle Friends, a first-of-its-kind virtual buddy system that matches 1:1 individuals experiencing homelessness with volunteers for daily 5-10 minute phone calls and texts, to offer general companionship and support. Miracle Friends is being piloted with funding from the City and County of San Francisco to support isolated, low-income senior citizens and homeless individuals who are being moved into hotels as emergency housing during the coronavirus pandemic.
We offer a humane way to help end homelessness: reconnect families, strengthen local relationships, shatter stigmas, and empower people everywhere to get involved. Our work has been featured in The New York Times, CNN, NowThis, on a billboard in Times Square, in a TED talk, and hundreds more. Founder and CEO Kevin F. Adler started Miracle Messages in honor of his uncle, who lived on-and-off the streets for 30 years. We are on a mission to end relational poverty on the streets and, in the process, inspire people everywhere to embrace their homeless neighbors not as problems to be solved, but as people to be loved.