Small Steps Nurturing Center Hope for Children Straight from the Heart

Small Steps Nurturing Center Hope for Children Straight from the Heart Small Steps Nurturing Center operates two preschools for economically at- risk students living in the First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth Wards of Houston, Texas. First Ward Campus: Students and Teachers

Small Steps Nurturing Center Hope for Children Straight from the Heart Fifth Ward Campus: Students and Teachers

Small Steps Nurturing Center Hope for Children Straight from the Heart The Small Steps program arose out of a clear need in the community: In 1995, van drivers picking up children for a church vacation Bible school saw children who were too young for the summer program being left at home in questionable or poorly supervised situations.

Small Steps Nurturing Center Hope for Children Straight from the Heart One of the van drivers was a college student who, on returning to school in the fall, designed a program to meet the needs of the children she had seen in need. Her work led to the founding of Small Steps Nurturing Center. Small Steps Nurturing Center’s program provides a high-quality education, a nurturing environment, transportation, nutritional meals, and social and emotional therapy to 116 economically at-risk children, ages two through six.

Small Steps Nurturing Center Hope for Children Straight from the Heart Small Steps’ mission is to provide an exemplary early childhood program to instill and foster the social, emotional, physical, intellectual, and spiritual growth of economically at-risk children and their families.

Small Steps Nurturing Center Hope for Children Straight from the Heart The program of Small Steps Nurturing Center fosters in its students: Intellectual growth Spiritual growth Physical growth Social and emotional growth; And the development of their families. Small Steps invests in the lives of these children through meeting their needs, intervening early, and setting them on a trajectory filled with greater opportunities.

Small Steps Nurturing Center Hope for Children Straight from the Heart Small Steps’ program fosters students’ intellectual growth. Research shows that the essential elements of a quality early childhood program include highly qualified teachers and small class sizes. Small Steps recognizes the importance of these factors, and requires that the lead teacher in each classroom have at least a bachelor’s degree in an early childhood related field. Also, the school maintains a teacher:child ratio of approximately one:seven. Additionally, due to the needs of the population we serve, language development is at the core of all learning activities.

Small Steps Nurturing Center Hope for Children Straight from the Heart Small Steps’ program fosters students’ physical growth. Small Steps offers two meals and one snack to each child every day, ensuring that each student’s nutritional needs are met. Small Steps also provides a safe environment with predictable schedules for students and makes sure that the students experience as few transitions as possible. Furthermore, Small Steps provides transportation in staff-driven vans to over half of its students, those whose parents would have no other way of bringing their children to and from school.

Small Steps Nurturing Center Hope for Children Straight from the Heart Small Steps’ program fosters students’ social and emotional growth. Being exposed to a nurturing, supportive, stimulating environment while young children are developing has a dramatic impact on their brain development and impacts success in school as well as the rest of the children’s lives. Small Steps has implemented a program, SET (Social Emotional Tools) for Life®, to facilitate the creation of such a nurturing environment and employs mental health professionals on site at both campuses.

Small Steps Nurturing Center Hope for Children Straight from the Heart Small Steps’ program fosters students’ spiritual growth. Small Steps provides our students with a Christian environment where each person is treated as a unique creation and deserving of God’s grace and love. Small Steps’ nurturing community demonstrates love to students through close relationships with their primary teacher and encouragement of students to take risks in a safe environment. Small Steps also incorporates Godly Play curriculum in the classroom to teach students about the wonder of God. Small Steps Nurturing Center was founded in the belief that we serve this group of children in need because of the love God has given us.

Small Steps Nurturing Center Hope for Children Straight from the Heart Small Steps’ program fosters families’ development. Small Steps is intentional in creating opportunities to strengthen relationships with the students’ families. Parents are required to volunteer a total of ten hours each school year and Small Steps families host teachers two times a year during home visits. Small Steps offers a Parent Education Program with monthly meetings (one during the day and one in the evening), which educates and encourages parents to be involved with their child’s learning and fosters a community of sharing, learning, and growing together with the Small Steps staff. One of our students and his dad at a Parent Education Event

Small Steps Nurturing Center Hope for Children Straight from the Heart Small Steps also serves as a support network in times of family crisis and often deals with issues such as domestic violence, incarceration, parental death, and job loss. The presence of staff therapists gives Small Steps the capacity to provide support needed in times of crisis. Parents at a December 2008 Parent Education Event Small Steps’ program fosters families’ development.

Small Steps Nurturing Center Hope for Children Straight from the Heart Several well known, long-term studies have demonstrated the long term benefits of early childhood education for economically at- risk children into adulthood for themselves and for the community at large. Lasting effects

Small Steps Nurturing Center Hope for Children Straight from the Heart Research shows that children in poverty who participated in high-quality preschool programs are more likely to: graduate from high school; more likely to be homeowners, earn greater pay and have happier and more stable family lives; less likely to be placed in special education programs in public school; less likely to commit crimes; and less likely to be dependent on government assistance as adults. Lasting effects

Small Steps Nurturing Center Hope for Children Straight from the Heart Small Steps’ Accomplishments Small Steps was successfully reaccredited in 2009 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), an achievement only reached by the top 6% of Houston’s schools and 4% of schools in Texas. Small Steps was also awarded Charity Navigator’s four-star rating (highest rating) for the fifth year in a row. Only four percent of charities have received this rating for five consecutive years showing, in Charity Navigator’s words that “Small Steps consistently executes its mission in a fiscally responsible way.”

Small Steps Nurturing Center Hope for Children Straight from the Heart Small Steps’ Accomplishments Departing kindergartners are tested using both an aptitude and achievement test. The 2009 graduating class scored higher on the achievement test as a group than they did on the aptitude test, showing that Small Steps is preparing our graduates to be ready to achieve in elementary school.

Small Steps Nurturing Center Hope for Children Straight from the Heart Small Steps’ Accomplishments Placement of our kindergartners in strong elementary schools is important to be able to build on the foundation we have created with our strong early childhood education program. Over the last three years, three quarters of our graduates entered magnet programs or enrolled in TEA recognized elementary schools. Students with volunteers on the playground

Small Steps Nurturing Center Hope for Children Straight from the Heart Questions? We’re happy to answer any questions and provide further information on how you can become involved with the mission of Small Steps Nurturing Center! Please feel free to contact Small Steps’ Development Directors, Lydia Jones and Verna Noack at ; or Small Steps’ Volunteer Coordinator, Retta Bravo at Or visit us on the web: We look forward to hearing from you!