El Campito Child Development Center

Begun in the Niños' home in the early 1970s — fifty years old by its own count in 2022

Founding: El Campito began as childcare in a home: Ignacio and Concepción Niño took in the children of migrant farmworker families in their own house, so that the children would be safe and learning bilingually instead of in the fields with their parents. The center's own statements date the beginning to the 1970s and mark the institution's fiftieth year in 2022 — the anniversary its federal grant report of that year records, naming Concepción Niño as the founder of fifty years before. It grew from the house into one of South Bend's oldest nonprofit child development centers, housed now at 405 East Dubail Avenue in the former St. Stephen's parish school, a building raised in 1925. It is the only licensed, nationally accredited bilingual child development center in northern Indiana, serves approximately seventy-five students a year in recent accounts, and stands among the United Way's funded agencies. Its garden is named for Concepción Niño — Mrs. Niño's Garden.

Sources:

1. Indiana Lawyer, 2023 — El Campito "grown out of a home-based childcare provider in the 1970s to aid immigrant families"; the only licensed NAEYC-accredited bilingual child development center in northern Indiana; approximately seventy-five students a year; the Barnes & Thornburg foundation grant.
2. Michiana Life, January 2016 — Ignacio and Concepción Niño forming El Campito in their home for the children of migrant worker families, forty-five years before.
3. USDA SARE grant report YENC22-176 (2022) — Concepción Niño, "who founded the childcare center 50 years ago to serve the children of migrant farmworkers."
4. El Campito (elcampito.org) — 405 East Dubail Avenue; the bilingual mission.