The HISD Sunrise Centers serve as a community hub, offering comprehensive assistance to students and families beyond traditional education boundaries, especially in high-need areas.

Sunrise Centers offer morning and afterschool care, address food insecurity, provide clothing, transportation, tutoring, enrichment, and promote family engagement through workforce development, resource fairs, medical support, counseling, mentorship, and community-driven services.

The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is the largest school district in Texas with 187,000 students. The HISD population is 61.9 % Hispanic 21.7% Black 9.6 % White 4.8 % Asian 1.7 % Native American 1 % 2 or more races. According to Rice University’s Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC) about, 1/3 of older students reported some difficulty accessing medical services. The HERC study states, the top barriers reported were time, language barriers, medical insurance and not understanding the health care system (HERC). Also, Sixty-seven percent of younger students and 54% of older students reported having at least one unmet basic need (HERC).

The Sunrise Centers will provide services that are customized for the community they are located in. Sunrise services may include morning and afterschool care, address food insecurity, provide access to clothing, offer transportation solutions, encourages family engagement through programs like workforce development, medical support, counseling services, mentorship programs and other services based of community needs.

By targeting locations within a 5-10 minute commute to feeder schools, we aim to establish centers that are conveniently accessible to our students and families, thereby enhancing the efficacy of our support network.