Taylor Harris is impacting Houston’s Northside community with the grand opening of Taylor’s House of Hope. This teen pregnancy shelter provides crucial support to pregnant teens facing adversity.
Founded in 2019, Taylor’s House of Hope represents Harris’s deeply personal journey and her unwavering commitment to helping others navigate similar challenges she once faced herself.
The launch of Taylor’s House of Hope marks a significant milestone for Harris and the Houston community. Located near the Hardy Toll Road and Little York, this maternity home fills a crucial gap allowing pregnant teens to receive the guidance and assistance they need to be self-efficient.
By partnering with her mother, Ashla Glass, who leads the Glass House Foundation focusing on young men’s roles in families, Harris has created a holistic approach to addressing the needs of vulnerable youth in Houston. She was 20 years old when she found out she was pregnant with her daughter.
During her fourth month of pregnancy, her child’s father left her. She eventually landed in a shelter as an unemployed college dropout. She stayed at Lighthouse of Houston up until two weeks before her delivery. Filled with resentment, loneliness and depression, the person she thought she would spend her life with abandoned her, and she didn’t want to return to her parent’s house, so Harris decided to take responsibility for her life.
“I’ve made poor decisions. I did reconnect with my child’s father and became pregnant with my son,” she said. “It was tough having him abandon us again, but I had to buckle down to work on my vision for Taylor’s House of Hope.”
Glass supported Harris’s journey to launch the organization. Glass struggled to raise her daughter and sometimes needed extra assistance as a single mother. Like her mother before her, she was also a single mother raising three children.
“It was like a generational curse that kept being passed down,” Glass said. “I worked so hard to try to get my life together during the time Taylor became pregnant. I was a recovering addict,” she said. “My daughter is very strong-willed. Once she decides, it’s final, but I wanted her to take accountability for her actions. It was tough, but she made it through, and I helped her understand the system and the resources she needed, especially as my only child.”
At Taylor’s House of Hope, there will be a facility where Glass will focus on teaching young men about the importance of their role in the family. Her father was absent and an addict whose actions hurt the family and the dynamics of a healthy family unit.
“When you don’t have that family structure, it’s detrimental to the quality of life for the kids. I’m not saying women can’t successfully raise children alone, but it’s tough, and it isn’t fair to the children, so it’s important to help our boys realize how important they are.”
Taylor’s House of Hope is partnering with Melina Healthcare for a nine-week “Journey to Motherhood” session focusing on maternal health and social discriminants of health. At the end of the session, participants will benefit from a community baby shower or maternity shoot.
