Nonprofit honors founding families
Organization changes name to credit the women behind it
More than 100 years ago, a prominent Houstonian gathered a dozen women in her home to brainstorm creating a place where low-income families and immigrants could receive help in their community.
Alice Graham Baker wanted to replicate the settlement house movement, originally started in London, that placed houses in various neighborhoods, providing education and job training for residents.
Her dream of helping people find their way in a new city has evolved into a burgeoning organization, now referred to as Neighborhood Centers, with 70 sites that serve nearly 500,000 people.
The nonprofit announced Thursday its name is changing to Baker Ripley, to honor the contributions of the two families who conceptualized and funded the organization.
“A lot of people look at neighborhoods, they look at immigrants, at low-income families, and they see them in terms of their problems,” said Angela Blanchard, CEO and president of the organization. “We are driven instead by hunger that we find in each of those communities and those individuals looking for a place for themselves in the world.”
Baker, whose husband James
Baker served as board chairman of Rice University, was friends with Edith Ripley and her husband Daniel, a banker and civic leader.
The two prominent Houston families traveled in the same social circles and held similar convictions about helping the less fortunate.
When Ripley’s husband died, she funded the creation of Ripley House in the East End to honor him.
The house eventually became the headquarters for Houston’s Settlement Association. Blanchard recalls stories of Edith pulling up in a red Rolls Royce outside of Ripley House to drive kids to the movies.
‘Welcome mat’ needed
Through the name change, Blanchard wanted the public to understand how instrumental the two women were in founding the organization during its 110th anniversary.
“I was thinking people would say why are we called BakerRipley,” Blanchard said. “These two stories would get told, and they would be relevant because there’s nothing more relevant than welcome, than providing places for people to earn, learn and belong.”
Neighborhood Centers has become a pillar in the Houston community since its inception in the early 1900s. The organization has centers and schools dotted across Houston, including on the outskirts like Missouri City and Pasadena. It provides classes on job training, language and ways to get politically involved.
Susan Baker, granddaughter-in-law to Alice Baker, said her family is proud that her contributions to Houston are being remembered.
“It was a very caring and humanitarian effort on their part, but also they saw the city needed this,” she recalled of her grandmotherin-law. “[They thought] these people are a resource that can be productive if they’re given what they need to succeed.”
Blanchard said when Baker created the first settlement house in 1907, Houston was receiving an influx of immigrants from all over the world.
“People were coming, and they weren’t going home,” Blanchard said. “They needed a place to land. They needed a welcome mat.”
Giving dignity to all
Baker provided that welcome mat for countless new Houstonians trying to pave a way to a better life. The first center provided a nurse who could treat people on site but also visited others within the neighborhood. The program also established a day care and education classes for families.
More than 100 years later, the center’s values remain the same.
“Early on, we had language classes; we still do,” Blanchard said. “We taught people about financial matters, and we introduced them to banking. We had a credit union in the thirties. We have a credit union now.”
The organization makes sure to reach out to neighbors, going directly to them asking about what they want to see in their community and about their goals and dreams.
Townes Pressler, who serves on the board of the Ripley Foundation, said it makes perfect sense that the organization would merge the two names. He said the Ripley Foundation helps fund the buildings used as neighborhood centers located across the city. “I just think it’s a deal made in heaven,” Pressler said. “The Ripleys and the Bakers were interested in their fellow man. They were engaged in making Houston a welcoming place and giving opportunities to support people who wanted to work.”
Blanchard said it’s often forgotten that two women helped shape what became a pillar of community service in the Houston area. She doesn’t want their efforts to go unrecognized.
“(Alice Baker’s) idea was that every resident have access to education and work with dignity and healthy living surroundings,” Blanchard said. “That is so authentically American. That’s still something we can say that we’re trying to live up to.”