Bethune Day Care

Company Overview:
We are a non-profit agency founded in 1942, providing high quality, affordable childcare for families from Corpus Christi and the surrounding areas.

Very early in the 1940’s a tragedy occurred in the city. The home of a local Negro family caught fire. The mother was working in another part of town and had left her two small children at home alone. One child was severely burned and permanently scared, the other died. That incident prompted community leaders, including the late Bernice Leonard, the late Mary Holdsworth Butt, Ernestine Bibbs, and many others to take immediate action. These women raised the requisite funds to establish Bethune. The center became the first center for Negro children in the area and the first integrated center.

This year, we anticipate serving over 300 children ranging in age from birth to eleven years, representing most of the ethnic and racial groups in the area. A large percentage of these children are from low income, single parent families. Through a collaborative effort, Bethune is serving the homeless children to help their parents secure job training.

Bethune’s impact on its children is immeasurable. Bethune offers children the continuity and stability needed during their formative years. Bethune teaches the children the loving relationships they can enjoy with children from different backgrounds. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the whole world could learn that we can get along?

Some of Mary McLeod Bethune Day Nursery collaboratives are: Coastal Bend Worksource-Child Care Services, Corpus Christi Independent School District Title 1 Program, Education Service Center Region II Training Program, Homeless Issues Partnership, United Way of the Coastal Bend, Del Mar College Special Populations Program and the United States Department of Agriculture - Child and Adult Care Food Program.