Where compassion meets the community

Compassionate Links is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in north Houston. We serve families living in poverty, children in foster care, young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and seniors — from one building, on one street, in one of the highest-need neighborhoods in the city. We don't turn anyone away.

 

The neighborhood we serve

Our doors are at 15600 W Hardy Road, in ZIP code 77060. Rice University's Kinder Institute identified this as the most distressed majority-Hispanic ZIP code in the Houston region, with a poverty rate of 33.6% and a median household income of $30,300. In Aldine ISD, which serves our families, 86.9% of students are economically disadvantaged.

Houston now has the highest poverty rate of any major American city. Nearly a third of its children live below the federal poverty line. Those numbers describe the families who walk through our door every week.

 

What we do

Basic essentials. Every month we distribute more than 3,300 diapers in every size from newborn through size 6 — over 40,000 a year — along with period hygiene products, period underwear, and underwear for men and women. We provide clothing as our supply allows. Every distribution is tracked, and everything is free.

Benefits assistance. Compassionate Links is a Community Partner with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Our trained staff help families apply for and manage SNAP, Medicaid, CHIP, and TANF benefits — the difference, often, between a family getting what they're entitled to and giving up on a form.
 

Technology access and training.
Our computer center is open to the public. Anyone in the community can use a computer here, free. For many of our neighbors it's the only reliable access they have, whether they're applying for a job, completing a benefits application, or helping a child with homework. We also teach digital skills classes, including classes designed for seniors, who are too often left behind as more of daily life moves online. Through our Media Makers program, young people learn digital media production, storytelling, podcasting, and graphic design.

 

The Day Center and community life.
Open Monday through Friday, our center is a safe and engaging space for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, seniors, and community members seeking connection. We build toward autonomy through life skills and workforce readiness. And four times a year we host social dances for our IDD community — because belonging isn't a service you deliver. It's something people need, and adults with disabilities are too rarely invited anywhere.

​

Foster care support.
We provide therapeutic support and essentials to children in foster care, working to give kids in an unstable moment something steady to hold onto.

Community resource fairs. Several times a year we bring services, supplies, and neighbors together in one place.

Why it matters

A mother can come to us, sit down with a staff member, apply for SNAP, and walk out with diapers for her baby and period supplies for herself. Her seven-year-old can join a computer class. Her father can spend his weekdays at our center instead of alone at home, and dance at our next social. That's the point. Not one service, but a place where a family can be met whole.