A slender woman sits in the Starbucks at Midtown Village, surrounded by whirring machines, chattering customers, clicking keyboards and drink orders screeched at 30-second intervals. Tammy High seems completely unaware of the people around her, checking emails and text messages with the intensity of a high-profile CEO and the serenity of a monk in meditation. Glancing around the café, she makes a quick mental note of her surroundings and steals one last look at her phone while her world is uninterrupted, one final moment dedicated solely to herself.

Tammy owns three group homes in the Tuscaloosa area through the Alabama Department of Human Resources. She first began her service by working with her mother, who had a home for men with mental health issues. In 2009, her mother retired, and Tammy took over that home, later opening Atonement – a group home for girls ages 13 through 21.

“I just felt it was needed,” she said. “I wanted something better for them.”

Atonement is classified as a basic group home, which means girls who live there are often temporarily displaced from their own homes. Tammy and other hands-on staff members work with the seven girls living in Atonement. Their ultimate goal is for the girls to move either to a foster family, back to their own families or to start their own independent lives in college.

“The worst feeling is when a girl leaves and then comes back,” she said. “We don’t want them to come back. Go home; stay home. Go to college; stay in college.”

Tammy’s brother, Rodney High, also helps with the group homes occasionally. He travels to Tuscaloosa from Atlanta to allow his sister some time off when she needs it. He said the longest she’s ever been away has been a week.

“She’s very passionate,” he said, recalling how Tammy told him of her vision to open Atonement years ago. “She’s always been giving. So many girls leave, and they always call back because they just fell in love with Tammy.”

Tammy also owns a second men’s home in Tuscaloosa, similar to the one she took over when her mother retired. She said working with the men and girls has given her more patience and understanding, especially with teenagers.

“I always knew I wanted to help people,” said Tammy, who received a master’s degree in social work from The University of Alabama in 2006. “I just didn’t know what it was called until I went back to school.”

Tammy dedicates her life to the service of the people she works with, becoming a 24-hour call line for the girls, who are sometimes inclined to call her “mom.” Her biggest hope is that more people will become foster or adoptive parents, and she said she encourages people to be more loving and thoughtful when it comes to older children.

“There’s a need for teenagers, too,” Tammy said. “It’s not just the babies that we can shape.”

Tammy stands to leave the café, saying she prays for the girls all the time. She checks her phone again, then walks out, stepping back into the world she is helping to shape, one person at a time.