“The future of any society depends on its ability to foster the healthy development of the next generation.”
— Harvard University, Center on the Developing Child
 
 
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Treasure the Past. Invest in the Future.

Our NExt Step

Over the past 20 years, we have served over 10,000 families across Pierce, King, and Snohomish county. Together, we can take our next big step in building healthier and stronger families and communities.  

Our Opportunity

The former Van Lierop Bulb Farm was a part of our community for over 79 years. Together, we can preserve this beloved place and begin a new legacy.

Our community

Together, we can create a vibrant place that celebrates our heritage, serves our community, and makes a lifelong positive investment in the families that will define our next generation.

We believe that healthy moms leads to healthy babies,
which leads to healthy families and communities.

 

For the past 20 years, Step By Step has worked with the most vulnerable women and children in our community. 

We come alongside at-risk pregnant women, many of whom are facing poverty, homelessness, domestic violence, abuse, and other serious risk factors that put them and their babies at risk.

Our mission is to transform the lives of these women so they will deliver a healthy baby, embrace positive parenting, and establish a safe home.

For the past 18 years, we have helped moms break out of the cycles of poverty, abuse, and neglect that they suffered and fight to provide a better future for themselves and their children. Every day, we help moms take positive steps so they will have a healthy pregnancy, deliver a healthy baby at a healthy birth weight, learn to parent positively, and establish a safe home for their children.

“Protecting young children from adversity is a promising, science-based strategy to address many of the most persistent and costly problems facing contemporary society, including limited educational achievement, diminished economic productivity, criminality, and disparities in health.”
— American Pediatric Society
 
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Our next step

One of the greatest barriers to the families we serve is an economic one. For disadvantaged women with young children, it is difficult to break out of the cycles of poverty and abuse that so many of them were brought up in. We want to help them obtain the skills they need in order to provide for their family and reach a place of self-sustainability.

Many of the mothers we serve are talented and determined, but they lack the opportunity to develop their skills and abilities. 

We have long sought the opportunity to expand the Step By Step program, in order to provide mentorship and job training for the women we serve.

This project will provide a place that celebrates family, encourages positive relationships and connections, and provides a vibrant place that will not only be a unique resource for the community, but will also leave a lasting legacy and improve the quality of life for all our families.

Preserving a Family Heritage for the Next Generation.

 

Owned by the Van Lierop family since 1934, the former Van Lierop Bulb Farm was a treasured destination in the community and across the region for over 79 years. The flowers on this farm were cultivated and developed over 5 generations.

Today, Neil and Lore Van Lierop are the last in the family line to operate the farm. Nearing retirement and faced with selling their beloved farm, the Van Lierop's stand by as the fate of their family legacy remains uncertain.

The farm is one of the last agricultural open spaces left in the area that has not succumbed to industrial development.

 
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A Familiar Place with a New Vision

 
Imagine a place that preserves a legacy, cultivates hope,
invests in families, and brings pride to a community.

 

The farm today comprises land and multiple buildings fronting Pioneer Road and set at the gateway to downtown Puyallup. Step By Step has purchased approximately 6.5 acres of the property, including the 1900’s era house, 18,000 square foot retail and gift shop and multiple outbuildings. 

The property will provide a permanent new home for Step By Step, while allowing for future program expansion.

Our New Home

The farmhouse will serve as Step By Step's main office. It will operate as our administrative headquarters to provide management and oversight for the organization as well as for the new project and expanded programs.

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Gift Shop & Event Space

The previous gift shop is housed within a large building that offers over 15,000 square feet of useable space. Our vision for this space is to create a community gathering place that maintains the heritage of the bulb farm and provides a variety of job training and program experiences for the women we serve, in a beautiful and family friendly setting.

A range of services for the community will be offered, including:

- Restaurant & On-Site Catering Services
- Meeting Space & Event Venues
- On-Site Childcare Program
- Retail & Flowers
- Foothills Trailhead Services: bike rentals & racks, boxed lunches, etc.

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Courtyard

The courtyard and garden spaces are beautiful and ideal for outdoor seating and smaller scale events. 

The "Industry" Building

This huge space has many potential uses. In the future, it could be developed into an on-line store center or industry space. We are exploring ideas and partnerships with local businesses to determine how to make this space functional and how we can best incorporate the work done here into an element of our job training and mentorship program.

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Gateway Building

This building will function as a gateway to the site. It will also house a small satellite kitchen, be available to rent for small events, and will offer concessions and coffee to the adjacent Van Lierop Park and ball fields.

Farm Land & Open Space

We want to see flowers growing here once again.

We are exploring opportunities to partner with individuals and organizations within the sustainable farming community to determine how we can help preserve and utilize this land for agricultural purposes. We also envision establishing a Community Garden that could grow into a potential resource for our local food bank partners.