About Us
Harmonious Home helps prepare and design living spaces for clients who are moving from transitional homes or shelters to apartments or small homes.
The process of moving is hard enough, but a creative team of Harmonious Home designers and volunteers help facilitate a smooth transition.
The team thoughtfully:
- assesses the clients' needs
- acquires furniture and home accessories
- designs and plans each room
- arranges furniture deliveries and placements
- collect and review client feedback
In the end, clients are able to walk into well-designed and fully-furnished homes, giving them more time to focus on other aspects of rebuilding their lives. Harmonious Home is a Texas-based grassroots 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation, and all donations to us are tax-deductible. Learn more here.
The People Who Make It Happen
Leslie Beckoff
Leslie is originally from Ottawa, Canada, and has lived in El Paso for the past 36 years. She has an extensive horticulture and landscape design background and when she isn't spending time with family, she volunteers for many community nonprofits. Leslie lives by the motto of
"Pay it forward."
Melissa Maese Goldberg
Mel Goldberg is a native El Pasoan who enjoys spending time outdoors with her family. She has three pizzerias where she spends much of her time managing. Mel is passionate about helping others, and believes that Harmonious Homes changes lives.
Shea Marcus Herman
Shea was born and raised in El Paso, but spent the majority of her teens and twenties away from home. She spent ten years in Los Angeles decorating movie sets. She moved back home and now works in marketing, and is also involved with many non-profit organizations. Her most important job, though, is being a mom to her 4-year-old son.
Marisa Barreda Lipscher
Marisa has lived in Austin, Texas, for more than 20 years and works as a community advocate with several civic organizations. Marisa spent a wonderful year living in El Paso in 2008.
Elisa Panetta
Elisa loves design and believes that it is important to surround oneself with beauty to create a more peaceful inner life. She is a mother of three and has been a successful entrepreneur for over 10 years.
Judith Gaskin Ross
Judith has lived in El Paso for 26 years and considers it home. She supports, and is involved in, non-profit foundations that support the arts and the culture of the border. She enthusiastically supports Harmonious Home.
Hannah M. Plesant
Hannah is our first intern at Harmonious Home. She is from El Paso and is currently a candidate for a Masters Degree in Architecture and Construction Management from UTSA. She is passionate about helping others and bettering the community through design.
How We Make It Happen
Harmonious Home partners with community agencies such as The Center Against Sexual and Family Violence and The MacGuire Center to identify clients who are emerging from shelters, transitional living centers (TLC's) and the foster care system.
After receiving counseling, resources and maybe even temporary housing from these agencies, they set out to piece their lives back together, all the while juggling responsibilities like full-time jobs, school-age children, and elderly parents. A life-changing household move is hard on all families, but particularly, on strained families like this. Harmonious Home enters the picture here.
- We carefully assess spaces in the new living space and learn as much as we can about the needs and wishes of this client, his or her family, etc.
- We engage our partnerships with locally-owned companies that value eco-friendly and responsibly-made products and sources. Our highly experienced and creative volunteer team also scour local thrift shops for gems that could work well in the client's new home.
- Our priority is creating spaces in the home so that our clients feel safe, respected and inspired.
- We arrange pickup and delivery of all goods and get to work.
- Our final and favorite step: our clients walk into a newly furnished and beautifully designed home!
Harmonious Home is a Texas-based grassroots 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation, and all donations to us are tax-deductible. To see all the different ways you can help, click here.
Harmonious Home is committed to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), and does not discriminate based on the basis of race, sex (or gender) or ability in its activities or programming.
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El Paso, Texas
Unique challenges in a border town
Harmonious Home is based in the thriving city of El Paso, Texas, which sits at the farthest corner of West Texas where Mexico, Texas and New Mexico meet. It's home to the sprawling Franklin Mountains, almost a million people and a complex border city environment. Six area border crossings facilitate the U.S.-Mexico border movement of privately operated vehicles, pedestrians, buses, commercial trucks and rail cars.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 81 percent of the population is Hispanic or Latino, and almost 68 percent speak another language besides English at home. Almost 81 percent graduated from high school, but 22 percent live without health insurance. In 2020, the median household income was $48,866 and almost 19 percent of the population lives in poverty.
As of July this year, 809 people were homeless in El Paso. Another several hundred were living in shelters to escape sexual and/or family violence. These shelters provide invaluable resources to help these people get back on their feet again and at the end of this process, Harmonious Home steps in.
