February 26, 2025 | Rebecca Chapman |
Talitha Koum doubling child development capacity in partnership with Lake Shore Baptist
Dozens of people pack the new Talitha Koum for their open house at Lake Shore Baptist Church.
Flooding from a heavy storm washed out the campus of Lake Shore Baptist Church’s child care center in 2023, leaving it barren and unused. But now, a rainbow of new life has emerged with the introduction of a community partnership that will fill classrooms once again.
Waco’s Talitha Koum Institute, which for years has maintained a long waitlist for its specialized child development services, will be able to double its enrollment by opening a second center at Lake Shore Baptist’s facility. The Talitha Koum Nurture Center on Clay Avenue has operated as an early childhood mental health therapeutic center for 22 years, providing a specialty form of daily child care for Waco-area preschoolers facing persistent external stressors in their homes and communities, according to the nonprofit’s website.
Tuesday afternoon more than 50 Talitha Koum supporters, client families, Lake Shore Baptist congregants and other community members celebrated the ribbon cutting of the new child care center inside Lake Shore Baptist Church’s former center.
Schmyra Dancer and her daughter Kha’mari Anderson, 5, were in attendance, enjoying the self-guided tour of the church’s nursery and five freshly prepared classrooms. Dancer has worked for Talitha Koum for 10 years, and her daughter spent two years as a student there before starting kindergarten.
“I love everything about them,” Dancer said.
The psychological impact of Talitha Koum’s teaching methods has stood out to Dancer over the years.
“(Kids) are able to hear their own words, and they help them understand,” she said. “We can listen to them and not brush them off.”
Volunter and donor Amy Lindsay, right, share a laugh with Executive Director, Susan Cowley, left after during an open house and ribbon cutting ceremony.
Talitha Koum Institute Executive Director Susan Cowley said the nonprofit has needed more classrooms for over 15 years, as need for affordable child care has grown in the community. Since the Talitha Koum Nurture Center focuses on mental health and therapeutic care, class sizes are limited to six children per two teachers, Cowley said. The existing Clay Avenue campus can only accommodate 30 students, despite operating in a community with an overwhelming need for low-cost child care.
“We get two, three calls sometimes each day,” Cowley said. “And these families are really desperate to work. They just can’t afford it.”
Other groups in the community that might typically recommend at-risk children to Talitha Koum have hesitated to do so in some cases, because they know the room for enrollment is just not there, Cowley said.
“There’s always 75 on the waitlist, and for one or two spots to open,” she said. “And (parents) can’t wait that long, so if they have to go back to work, the child may end up with an infirm grandma who can’t get around.”
In recent years, Talitha Koum raised $1 million of a $2.7 million goal to build a new campus complementing its existing Clay Avenue building. However, in addition to further fundraising, the eventual opening of a newly built facility could take up to three years, Cowley said. A new plan for expansion was needed. Fortuitously, the offer from Lake Shore Baptist Church has made all the difference.
“We’re a church. We’re not in the business of running child care centers very well,” Lake Shore pastor Nick Mumejian said. “So we’re very happy to support and offer them the space to do what they need to do.”
Lake Shore Baptist once had a fully registered child care operation, but in 2023, floodwaters from a rainstorm caused significant damage to the campus, Mumejian said. With the cost of repairs looming over the church, compounding existing staffing issues, church leaders made the ultimate decision to close the doors of their child care center the year of the flood.
As the church considered what to do with the empty building, a member made a suggestion to the pastor, which Mumejian said he approved of within seconds of hearing it: Bring in Talitha Koum.
“We were very intent on making sure we fix as much as we could before they moved in,” Mumejian said. “Because if we were bringing in another tenant, it would be on us to have everything fixed up to code and proper.”
Lake Shore Baptist offered up its multi-classroom facility without requiring any rent be paid by Talitha Koum. The nonprofit’s only facility cost will be its monthly electric and water bills. The church funded all flood damage repairs itself and donated classroom necessities to Talitha Koum. The church will cover all ongoing maintenance costs as well, Mumejian said.
“In our eyes this is a mission to give back to the community,” he said. “We have the space and we want that space to be utilized for good.”
Cowley said the partnership also will allow Talitha Koum to use the $1 million it already raised to fund teacher salaries. The new campus will require hiring 11 additional staff members before the year ends. The donations also will fund the creation of a new classroom on the original Clay Avenue campus, among other things approved by donors. With the new Clay campus classroom, Cowley hopes to offer a therapeutic teaching environment for older children who struggle to function in a standard elementary school.
Cowley plans to fill at least 20% of Talitha Koum’s new enrollment capacity with children who are considered “foster-to-adopt.” While the organization takes in children psychologically impacted by differing scenarios, such as impoverished living conditions and exposure to high-crime areas, foster children are a special focus for Cowley.
“Foster care children are some of the most trauma-affected kiddos in America,” she said. “It helps secure the parents’ belief that this can work if the child becomes self-regulated. And what they see a lot of is their trauma coming out in their behavior, and it causes them to be unsure if a family can weather this. So, if we help a child self-regulate, they’re more secure in the adoption process.”
Cowley said Talitha Koum’s leaders aim to open the new campus by the end of March with at least seven teachers to start, taking in students from all across McLennan County. It is a move Talitha Koum supporters, including Dancer, anticipate with hope.
“I feel good,” Dancer said. “I feel like we have been needing more of the community to come in, so this is good.”
The article on the Waco Tribune Herald website also includes a video.