About Us

In 1995, Step by Step shifted its focus to working with communities to support children to prevent and heal trauma, to work toward a world where children can thrive at home.  We created West Virginia Dreamers, a framework to follow children until they graduated high school, that was recognized as a national model by the Pew Partnerships in 2003.  We also opened up the Big Ugly Community Center, reclaimed from an abandoned four classroom elementary school, and the only public building for a 30 minute drive in any direction, at the intersection of Lincoln, Boone and Logan counties.

Big Ugly has served as the launch pad for Step by Step’s now continuous ongoing programs including our first community education effort (hosting a circuit riding Pre-K teacher in 1995), after school (since January 1996), and full day summer programs (since June 1996).  Big Ugly served as the West Virginia site for 2000’s Artists and Communities: America Creates for the Millennium (resulting in an original musical theater production, Bridge of Dreams), the songwriting, oral history, photography, and quilting project (resulting in the publication Patchwork Dreams (2008)), and numerous STEM, arts, music, and entrepreneurship projects.

The relationships we have built through the decades in our now 19 sites in Lincoln, Logan and Kanawha counties allowed us to pivot during the Covid pandemic to continue to serve our families.  We distributed over 70,000 meals in the first six months of Covid alone, accompanied by family learning packets to provide stress busting joyful family activities during hard times

Finally, Step by Step has served as the incubator for many community development projects. Since 1995, we have sponsored over 300 full year and 200 summer VISTA members, over 200 AmeriCorps members, and several National Civilian Community Corps groups. We sponsored the first national service teams in West Virginia to work on veterans issues, to combat substance use disorder, and to organize support systems among those suffering collateral damage from the opioid epidemic: brave grandparents, older siblings, foster and adoptive parents and even landlords stepping up care for children who are unable to live with their biological parents.

We have helped after school partners start over 30 after school and/or feeding programs, and developed the models for two AmeriCorps direct service programs (the family literacy initiative APPALREAD and our own StrengthsCorps). We also helped launch and served as the initial fiscal sponsor for the Lincoln County Family Resource Network, the Lincoln County Starting Points Center, and the WV Foster, Adoptive and Kinship Parents Network.