Educate & Enrich A Child in Houston's 3rd Ward

First of all, we hope and pray that everyone is doing their best to stay safe and healthy.  The coronavirus pandemic was definitely not part of our plans for 2020, but we could not be prouder of our community response!

Although our programs came to an abrupt halt during the shutdown, your help allowed us to immediately change course.  Since we provide services to disadvantaged communities, we were deemed essential and allowed to continue operations.  Our youth program enrollment dropped to 5-15 children whose parents were essential workers.  Even that aspect was short lived because we ran out of resources such as sanitizer, bleach, and thermometer covers.  With the help of donations like yours, we were able to restock those items and purchase two touchless thermometers; however we were not able to resume child care as restrictions tightened.  Instead, we became a resource center.  SHAPE provided hot meals for over 1,000 families and individuals.  In addition, we were able to provide more than 500 masks, cleaning supplies, online academic support, and 15 laptops to needy school-age children.  Along with the rest of the country, we have seen an increase in incidents of child abuse, trauma, or neglect.  But, your help has allowed us to work with psychologists and social workers to help families get much needed support.  

As restrictions relax, we hope to see risks decrease, and we anticipate re-opening child care in June.  We are committed to following all State guidelines, CDC recommendations, and our own additional guidelines to ensure the safest return to programs.  Thank you so much for your continued support.