Many young children in Waco are subjected to more than extreme poverty. They also often face violence, unstable living situations, and fear of abandonment. The desperate tasks of surviving poverty leave many families in physical and emotional chaos that leads to toxic stress and severe disruptions in brain development in the first four years of life. Since 2003, Talitha Koum Institute’s Nurture Center has brought hope and improved outcomes through an intensive care, trauma-informed program that combines: • Mental health, therapeutic nursery for birth to five year olds, serving year-round on weekdays. The multi-layered approach includes: o Evidence-based HighScope® cognitive curriculum o Sensory Diet for each child, developed by Occupational Therapist, Carol Salvesen o Play therapy for older children • Child Trauma Academy’s Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) developed by psychiatrist, Dr. Bruce Perry, M.D., Ph.D. • Mentoring program for children from Kindergarten to College or Career • Weekly Parenting Meetings Talitha Koum holds a goal to send each child to public school Pre-K or Kindergarten able to self-regulate and ready to learn from the calm-alert state. TKI also intends to help schools take a NEW TAC (Neurologically Effective Ways for Trauma-Affected Children) thereby decreasing suspensions and much reducing those who enter the "School-to-Prison Pipeline," which often has its roots in early-grades suspensions. New for Talitha Koum in October 2019 was a Foster-to-Adopt program that brings therapeutic assistance to children exhibiting out-of-bounds behaviors that threaten the adoption process. In 2020, Talitha Koum also began receiving fosters who were already adopted in a fee-for-service program subsidized by Child Care Services and a grant from Baylor's Philanthropy & The Public Good class.