Our House Baltimore
2025 Early Stage Venture Award Recipient
About Our House Baltimore
Our House Baltimore is an intimate sliding-scale play space and cafe offering culturally affirming programming and open play for children and their caregivers. Owned by Maureen Nicol, Ed.D., a mom who created the space she wanted her own child to enjoy, Our House serves as a safe haven where children engage in play-based learning while caregivers take time for themselves. The space functions as a cultural hub that fosters community engagement among families and promotes caregiver well-being through relaxation and social opportunities, ultimately contributing to healthier family dynamics.
Our House Baltimore is designed as a multigenerational space that offers belonging and affirmation for everyone, centering arts and play-based programming led by facilitators and educators at sliding scale for families and children. The initiative honors creativity, culture, community, and play while supporting local educators and facilitators by hiring and compensating them for their expertise. Our House Baltimore strives to be a comfortable space for children and their caregivers, and particularly for families receiving SNAP, WIC, Medicaid, or experiencing financial insecurity.
Maureen is a creative director, digital storyteller, and educator with a doctorate in curriculum and teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University, who previously founded Mamas Who Dream after observing the lack of accessible spaces for women of color. Her work consistently focuses on creating transformative spaces for caregivers and children of color, and with this award's support, she anticipates bringing on additional teammates to help grow Our House Baltimore.
Plans for the Program Year
This funding allows Our House Baltimore to launch and stabilize their community space with the infrastructure needed to serve families from day one. Having already raised about $275,000 through crowdfunding, local donors, and micro-grants, this award enables them to:
Complete their sliding-scale play space buildout.
Hire early childhood educators and staff rooted in community care.
Subsidize programming for low-income families.
Cover critical startup costs including insurance, licensing, and utilities, while investing in long-term sustainability through technology and marketing assets that will allow them to scale their reach and impact.
During this program year, Maureen is looking forward to "opening [their] doors and growing, learning, and having fun alongside the community."
She adds, "I'm excited to flex my entrepreneurial muscles and bring my vision to life. What brings me the most joy is imagining the smiles on the faces of caregivers and children as they make new friends, relax, and play."
"I'm deeply grateful that I can now say: I set out to open Our House Baltimore—and I did. Creative problem-solving and finding thoughtful solutions fuel me, and I'm eager to discover what gaps I can fill within the space and in the broader landscape of early childhood education and community building."
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