After the Tragic loss of his Dear wife Gloria of 31 years who was involved in a car accident caused by a speeding driver, Nick Silverio wanted to continue her memory and spirit through charitable works. He knew there was no better way to do this then to focus on the people she continually helped most in her life – children and the elderly. Gloria and Nick had two(2) miscarriages and therefore had no children of their own but they were Godparents to 14 children and nurtured all the nieces and nephews in their family. He researched and found that the Florida Legislature had passed a Safe Haven Law in July, 2000. Nick thought what an immeasurable work of goodness to help save little lives, the most innocent and helpless among us and knew this would be his new purpose in life. So, he created the Gloria M. Silverio Foundation, a 501(C)3 Florida not for profit organization and named the first major project “A Safe Haven for Newborns” in response to the tragedy of newborn abandonment in Florida.

The Foundation started in Miami and today thru a grass roots approach and our public awareness efforts, we now reach across all 67 Florida Counties. We have “Partnered” with the Florida Fire Chiefs Association, Emergency Medical Services, many Hospitals and many other organizations and agencies in the State.

The organization grew quickly by creating an advisory board; developing our 24/7 referral help line; establishing “Safe Haven” chapters by county; creating and producing materials/videos; focusing on “partnering” statewide; getting the media involved; establishing a volunteer network and developing our efficient administrative systems including our website.

The lifeline of the organization was and remains our 24/7 statewide multilingual help line, which was initially created to assist young mothers who were considering the “Safe Haven” option or wanted to know more about the law. It has grown into helping pregnant girls/women or mothers in crisis or need covering a wide variety of issues.
Many little lives have been saved as of this writing but there is so much more to do. We believed from the beginning, if only one life is saved, all of our efforts would be worthwhile.