Breathe, you are enough... you are a masterpiece

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Mirakles (aka Miracles For Families) was founded by Maria Lupita because she felt that too little was being done to offer Mental Health Education to adults who were brokenhearted or struggling.  She wanted to offer these people scientifically proven, evidence based and with biblical scriptures that they could apply these skills themselves.  Ms. Lupita was unable to sit by and watch people unnecessarily suffer when she knew Mental Health Education would help. Ms. Lupita’s life was dramatically transformed through Mental Health Education tools herself. 

Maria did not grow up with the best mental health education skills.  Most of her childhood was spent with her grandmother who had 9 children, and each had kids of their own. When everyone came over for dinner, it turned into a party, then the party turned into drinking, and the drinking turned into a fight. Very often, something got broken. This, for little, young Maria, was her normal life. Along with this, she was molested by five (5) of her uncles all through her childhood, from the age of memory until she was 11 years old. She thought there was no hope. She personally knows what it is like to grow up not knowing her biological father, experiencing divorce later in her adult life and attempting suicide twice (2) herself. When she found Mental Health Education, she realized that she had become a statistic of the Father Absent Crisis and that much trouble could have been prevented had she known what she knows now. 

The reason Ms. Lupita is so passionate about Mental Health Education is because, in spite of her brokenness and toxic past, this type of education gave her lifetime tools that gave, and give, her hope.  She knows of too many men and women struggling, hurting, crying, just longing to find a safe place, someone to trust and to guide them and hold their hand while encouraging them that everything will work out. She knows that the services of Mirakles change lives and empower adults to create healthy and loving environments. 

Ms. Lupita knows that struggling and heartbroken adults is not a “them” issue but, rather, “our social” issue.  She knows Mirakles can empower adults to be strong and stable, which, in turn, enables social stability. We must give hurting people hope and the right tools along the way, standing with them as she is doing through Mirakles. 

Mirakles was founded as a 501(c)3 nonprofit community organization with volunteers and partnering organizations serving community members.

Since our founding, Mirakles has achieved the following milestones:

· Raised over $170,000

· Developed an outstanding Board of Directors and Board of Advisors

· Effectively impacted and improved the lives of over 200 low-income, homeless, and unemployed and underemployed individuals and their families

· Won several grant awards for outstanding community service

Maria Lupita is a graduate of Austin College, Sherman, Texas with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Her major is in Philosophy and Spanish. She was born in Juarez, Mexico and moved to Fort Worth, Texas when she was 14 years of age. In 2004, Ms. Lupita went to Germany and stayed two years. Then, in 2008, she moved to Orange County where she fell in love with Laguna Beach and decided to make that her new home. 

Maria is a high-energy professional with over a decade of experience and the ability to leverage proven networking experience to positively impact her community. She is bilingual with verbal and written communication skills in English and Spanish.

Prior to founding Mirakles, Ms. Lupita worked with Relationship Research Foundation as Program Director where she trained under Dr. M.P. Wylie in Healthy Relationship and Marriage Education. Before entering the non-profit world, Ms. Lupita was a law firm’s Director of Business Development for over ten years. While there, she developed, implemented, and managed marketing strategies that expanded the firm territory throughout Texas, thereby increasing revenues by more than 20% and decreasing overhead by 25%. She managed all aspects of the firm, including employees, attorneys, advertising, payroll and marketing, resulting in consistent growth while securing new business. Through her efforts, many jobs were created in Texas within the legal system.

Ms. Lupita has also worked part-time domestically and internationally with world-published motivational speakers such as Pat Masity, T. Harv Eker and Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of Chicken Soup For The Soul.

Prior to joining the non-profit sector as a staff member, Maria Lupita volunteered in the non-profit world most of her life. She gained knowledge and insight from organizations serving populations such as underprivileged children and families, the homeless and people with AIDS, among others. Her deep passion for helping others and building stronger and more stable lives for children has led her to dedicate her life to this field.