Sowing Dreams: A Safe Place Child Enrichment Centers

Connecting to the community and education

Students at A Safe Place Child Enrichment Centers learn how to grow and care for plants.

Kimberly Shaw of Raleigh, NC, is a decades-long member of Self-Help Credit Union who owns and operates A Safe Place Child Enrichment Centers in North Carolina. Shaw opened the first of her four top-rated centers 27 years ago when childcare centers in the area were limited. In betting on herself, she filled an education vacancy that has served hundreds of families over the years with excellence in care and educational programs that support learning and social-emotional growth.  

A Safe Place Child Enrichment Centers provide valuable educational experiences to students with hands-on learning, small classroom sizes, and Kimberly’s visionary garden-based curriculum. Students tend to the community garden daily, where they learn not just about how to grow and care for plants, but also about nutrition, and all this while spending most of their day outside.  

The garden also helps provide fresh produce to students and families in need. Ms. Shaw’s ingenuity in creating a non-traditional learning space has helped students and their families make healthy lifestyle changes. Self-Help has a long relationship with Ms. Shaw, and in 2023 provided financing to support the acquisition of Shaw’s third center in Raleigh. We honor Kimberly for pursuing her dreams of making positive change, and her leadership in providing meaningful education.