News Release

For Immediate Release

December 1, 2004

Community Family Centers to Launch Building Campaign in Honor of Barbara Bush

(Houston, TX)— Community Family Centers will announce the building campaign to construct La Casa de Los Ninos—Barbara Bush Early Childhood Education Center and the John P. McGovern, M.D. Community Sports and Recreation Building on Tuesday, December 7 at a lunch to be held at the Houston Club on 811 Rusk Street.

Hosting the kickoff lunch for this event will be Mr. and Mrs. Alfredo Brener, and Former First Lady Barbara Bush will be in attendance as well as Congressman Gene Greene and other community leaders.

La Casa de Los Ninos—Barbara Bush Early Childhood Education Center will be built on City of Houston property, the site of an abandoned health clinic and police substation. The John P. McGovern, M.D., Community Sports and Recreation Building will be constructed on abandoned Union Pacific Railroad property. Both properties are located in Houston’s East End and will serve children and families living primarily in zip codes 77003, 77011, 77012 and 77023.

As the second building named after Barbara Bush in the city of Houston, La Casa de los Ninos—Barbara Bush will include sections for Montessori and traditional early childhood education as well as classrooms for family literacy, adult basic education, ESL, GED and computer skills training.

The fundraising campaign was begun in 2004 to secure $4.5M for construction of an Early Childhood Education Center for 250 children ages 0-5 and a Sports and Recreation Center building with classrooms for tutoring 300 children ages 6-12. The campaign includes a $6M goal for funding services in family literacy, adult education, early childhood education, after school tutoring and year-round youth recreation and sports activities.

Founded in Houston in 1972, Community Family Centers (CFC) provides social services and education in the Hispanic East End where about 42% of families live on yearly incomes of $15,000 or less and about 25% speak little or no English. Within this area, there are only 2.3 licensed childcare facilities per 1,000 children, versus 161 per 1,000 children in Harris County. The new early childhood center, La Casa de los Ninos—Barbara Bush will be part of CFC’s comprehensive delivery of services within the agency’s continuum of care. Hence, the program not only provides childcare so parents can study, but also delivers quality education for preschool children. La Casa de los Ninos—Barbara Bush will be designed as a lab school for training college students majoring in early childhood education.

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