Denise Louie Legacy

Denise Louie Education Center is named after a young Chinese-American activist who played an integral role in revitalizing Seattle’s International District before her tragic death. At the time of her death, Denise was heavily involved as a board member of Inter*im (International District Improvement Association), a community planning agency, which was spearheading the effort to revitalize the International District.

Our first board of directors was led Bob Santos, former executive director of Inter*im. Bob recognized the need for a child care center in the International District when one of the buildings in the ID burned down. A resident of this burned out apartment needed to work and left her child at the Inter*im offices and the idea for the International District Child Care Center was born. That was 1978.

Today, Denise Louie Education Center serves over 300 children (prenatal to five years old) with quality, mutli-cultural preschool service, comprehensive home visiting services, and Play and Learn groups. These services are funded by Head Start/Early Head Start, Step Ahead, Working Connection Child Care, United Way, USDA, and grants from foundations and donors.

Thank you Denise and Bob, for helping us get a Head Start!

Want to read more about Denise Louie? Read the National Examiner's article.