Spring Branch Family Development Center

The SBFDC's presence and mission to actively seek out and provide services that meet and respond to our community's expressed needs, making Houston a stronger, more equitable city. We are a one-stop site where low-income families can access bilingual services in education, recreation, health and social services. Services include: public PreK, early childhood development parenting classes, after-school activities, adult ESL classes, enroll in Medicaid, CHIP, and food stamps, federally qualified health clinic, WIC clinic, case management, and speech therapy – all on a weekly basis. We have a strong network of on-site providers, along with episodic programs, which improve community health. To continue our strong track record, we need to invest in our programs, materials and structures. The SBFDC is strategically poised to continue to grow the breadth and depth of our impact to benefit families and enable them to obtain greater levels of stability and health.

Collaboration is the essential component of how the Spring Branch Family Development Center operates. Every partner that joins the SBFDC is expected to collaborate with all of the SBFDC's partners; in doing so, each agency accomplishes greater things than working independently and generates a more holistic impact. Providing a “hand-up" to our community, we serve as stewards of an inviting, functional physical environment and as facilitators of long-term collaborative partnerships.
At the SBFDC, clients can flow from one provider to another with minimal disruption and great ease. All services are available in English and Spanish. To support the full-time on-site programs, the SBFDC brokers, develops, and maintains rapport with key community stakeholders who have access to resources and networks that increase the impact and extend the reach of the services offered at the SBFDC.

Since opening our 3-building complex in 2001, the SBFDC has worked to better our community and strengthen our families by procuring best practices, from around Houston, to provide essential services from our site. The site selected for the buildings is a historically under-served area of Spring Branch, composed primarily of young, Spanish-speaking, Hispanic families. A community assessment, conducted in 1998, gave the community a voice; their voices combined to form the guiding principles that define the scope of the services of the SBFDC. We are distinctive in our strategy to recruit best practices and pool resources, which allows us to have the flexibility to adjust our structures and programs when the community needs change. Our approach of bringing only relevant best practices also allows us to remain financially lean, we are able to promote the quality services that already exist in Houston, and we further the impact of each donor's dollar - $1 multiplies 30 times.

The SBFDC serves 12000+/year with $11.5M worth of programs. A local community leader calls the SBFDC an “oasis" because of the many ways that the SBFDC provides a valuable public good. Keeping independently-operating agencies engaged in the broader vision takes intentional leadership, which the SBFDC faithfully provides. In 2013, the SBFDC launched “Family U" to more intentionally reach a large segment of its population – children under age 3, and their parents, serving 40 families/year with hands-on learning, 4 times/week. Since 2006, each August, 5000+ people attend the SBFDC's Back-to-School Health Fair, the largest one-day vaccine event in Houston. Over the past 12 years, the SBFDC's leadership of the Health Fair resulted in the immunization of 6500+ children and the distribution of 25000+ backpacks. The SBFDC believes that meeting essential, community-identified needs through collaboration will bring about powerful results and is committed to the vision and process.