NEST Empowerment Center provides safe, supportive space for Georgetown youth

The Georgetown Project started the Nurturing, Empowering, Supporting for Tomorrow, or NEST, Center in 2011 to provide GISD high schools students with a safe place to go after school. Many students visiting the center qualify for free and reduced lunch or are experiencing homelessness.

The center is located at the former Richarte High School campus in a house off Old Airport Road. Georgetown High School students can walk over to the center after dismissal while the district buses students to the center from East View and Richarte high schools.

Each evening, students receive a warm meal as well as access to a food pantry, and clothes and hygiene closets. The center also offers emergency shelter for students and their families.

The NEST Center provides programming on a variety of topics from community organizations, including financial literacy tips from local banks and mental health support from Bluebonnet Trails Community Services. Students may engage in arts and crafts, learn about podcasting or participate in equine therapy from the Ride On Center for Kids, NEST Coordinator CB Feller said.

The NEST Center had the following impact in the 2024-25 school year:

• 2,500 meals provided
• 1,819 total teen visits
• 828 volunteer hours
• 168 shelter nights provided
• 141 GISD high school students served
• 22 family members provided temporary shelter

Students served by the NEST Center may be experiencing instability at home, couch-surfing between their friends’ places or sleeping in their vehicles. At the NEST Center, students are welcomed into a consistent and reliable community where they can feel accepted and cared for, Dyer said.

“When they get out of school, they come here and this doesn't feel like a school. It feels like home,” Dyer said.

Many students who visit the NEST Center go on to find success after high school, Dyer said. The Georgetown Project’s Summer Youth Employment Program helps high school students and recent graduates explore new careers through working with local businesses.

“You can see them stepping into a career and they're going to college,” Dyer said. “They're doing something they might not have been able to do had they not had the opportunity to go through this program.”

Going forward

In the coming years, the NEST Center is aiming to help recent graduates receive post-secondary certifications in careers such as medical or HVAC industries, Dyer said.

“That's the difference between a $15 an hour job and a $40 or $50 an hour job,” Dyer said. “That's life-changing for people.”

Impact Coordinator Kristen Adams said she is working to partner with community organizations to provide more counseling and mental health services for students.

Dyer and Feller said they would like to have more consistent transportation to offer students programming during the summer.

Get involved

Community members can visit The Georgetown Project's website to volunteer or donate to the NEST Empowerment Center.