Small Steps Nurturing Center
Fifth Ward Campus

Small Steps is a pre-school center serving 190 students in the Fifth Ward and Gulfton/Sharpstown communities in Houston, Texas. The Center provides early education to at-risk (Latino and Afro-American) children and their families at zero cost. They provide all their students with a safe, nurturing and intellectually stimulating learning environment. Small Steps was founded in 1995 when van drivers for the local church’s bible school observed younger siblings being left at home in unstimulating and unsupervised situations.

Maestro Cares Foundation will partner with Small Steps Nurturing Center in Houston to Fund the expansion of their Fifth Ward Campus. This expansion will serve an additional 60 children ages 2-5 years old. This expansion will include an additional 4 classrooms, 2 Therapy rooms, a new covered vehicle - drop off and waiting area, a new addition on the back of the building with a large multi-purpose space, 8 additional parking spots. This will be Maestro Cares Foundation’s third project in the United States and its first project in Houston.

In the neighborhoods that Small Steps serves, more than 50% of the children live below the poverty level. Small Steps is looking to close the gap between poverty and early education opportunities. It is a known fact that a child’s development occurs in the first few years of his or her life, however public state funding is focused on education for K-12 grade, leaving this ages group at a disadvantage and unprotected. There is an importance to early education that Small Steps is looking to address especially with at-risk and low-resource children.

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