Seventy-two years of open doors.
One woman opened these doors in 1954. Seventy-two years later, they're still open — because people keep showing up. This is that story.
Chessie refused to look away.
Chessie Walker Harris grew up in Tuskegee, Alabama, shaped by her Seventh-day Adventist faith and an early, stubborn sense of what community was supposed to look like after. She spent years in Cleveland with her husband George before settling in Huntsville — and it was there, in 1954, that she turned a lifelong conviction into a house with a door that stayed open.
That first house became a foundation. Over the decades, Chessie expanded what started as basic foster services into therapeutic programs, educational support, and life-skills training — building, piece by piece, the kind of care she wished had existed for every child she'd ever met.
In 1989, President George H.W. Bush presented her with the President's Volunteer Action Award. By the time she passed in 1997, more than 1,200 children had called Harris Home theirs, even if only for a little while.
By the numbers.
- 72
years keeping doors open for Alabama's kids
- 1
only full-time licensed crisis program in the state
- 1,200+
children cared for in Chessie's lifetime alone
- 1989
President's Volunteer Action Award (George H.W. Bush)
Julian runs it now.
Julian Jude is a Huntsville native. He graduated from S.R. Butler High School and went on to earn both his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Social Work at Alabama A&M University — the same institution whose students now tutor Harris Home residents through our BOOST! program.
For more than two decades, Julian has worked inside the machinery of Alabama's child welfare system. He served as a Juvenile Supervisor at the Neaves Davis Center for Children. He spent years at the Alabama Department of Human Resources as a Child Abuse and Neglect Investigator, and then as a Supervisor in that same unit — the people who walk into the worst days of a family's life. He has also led as a Counselor Supervisor and Program Director at Behavioral Health Group, supporting adults in recovery from opioid addiction.
That's twenty years of seeing up close what happens when a system falters, and what it takes to build a better one. Today, Julian brings that experience home to Harris Home, carrying forward the same conviction that has driven his entire career: that every person, no matter how the world has treated them, deserves the chance to find their worth and reach their full potential.
Julian Jude · Executive Director
My greatest desire is to empower individuals to discover self-worth, embrace personal growth, and reach their fullest potential.
— Julian Jude, Executive Director
Seventy-two years. Because people kept showing up.
Every kid who sleeps safely at Harris Home tonight does so because monthly partners make it possible. Keep the door open for the next generation.
Become a Monthly Partner