Houston ISD has opened its ninth center for families in need at Worthing High School.

Since 2023, HISD has opened several off-campus Sunrise Centers across Houston to provide families with food, clothing, supplies and resources from community nonprofits. While the district has housed other centers within nonprofits, the Worthing facility marks the district’s first on-campus Sunrise Center. It is also the first for Houston’s Sunnyside neighborhood — where at least 10% of families have no access to a car, according to a study from Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research.

“When we started this journey with Sunrise Centers, we talked a lot about where we ought to be, what it meant to be in a community, what it looked like, what it should feel like,” Najah Callander, HISD’s deputy chief for family and community partnerships, said. “Today is an embodiment of all of the seeds that we sowed four years ago.”

The center’s opening ceremony included performances from the Worthing High School and Attucks Middle School bands, a Houston police helicopter and a slab — a customized car that’s come to represent Houston culture. The district wanted to welcome the entire Sunnyside community to celebrate the new center, Sunrise Center director Melanie Gomez said.

“Sunnyside is a community with proud history and people who deeply care about its future,” Gomez said. “We are grateful to become part of that story and to join the organizations, neighbors and leaders who have been showing up for this community for years.”

Sunnyside residents requested a Sunrise Center from HISD, Gomez said. Worthing Principal Tammy Russell said they converted some unused space at the campus, which serves around 650 students, into a meaningful space for the entire neighborhood.

HISD parent Stephanie Blackwell said she was referred to a Sunrise Center after she became homeless. The resource hubs have since provided her children with food, school uniforms and bus passes, she said.

Blackwell said having a new center nearby will make the program more accessible to her and to other families.

“Sunrise Centers have been a blessing to our lives,” Blackwell said. “I would definitely recommend it to any and everyone.”