Southwest Oklahoma Community Action Group recently received a $1,536,580 federal stimulus grant to start a new Early Head Start program for the seven Head Start centers in Jackson, Harmon, Greer and Beckham counties; the program will enroll 72 participants from low-income families and employ seven new classroom teachers and home visitors.
Neil Montgomery, executive director of SOCAG, said the grant funds are available over a two-year period. “We are talking about the expansion of Head Start opportunities (currently for 3- and 4-year-old children) by offering services from pre-natal to 3-years old; the potential there is for over 4 years of Head Start services,” Montgomery said. “We’re very pleased to able to offer this service, a program that we honestly feel will have true effects on children and help move low-income families toward self-sufficiency.”
Sheila L. Clark, Head Start program director, wrote the grant application for SOCAG, one of 600 grant recipients out of 1,800 applicants nationwide. With the application, Clark received 25 letters of support from area school districts, Sooner Start, and other entities. We also had collaborative discussions with Parents As Teachers. The funding came through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Slots for the 72 participants are divided into three categories: 24 for pregnant women who will receive home visits and information needed to deliver healthy babies; 24 slots for children from birth to age three that will receive home visits, focusing on individual development; and 24 classroom slots for 2-year-olds for half-day services, four days per week, at three current Head Start centers. Just as the Head Start program, lower-income families have priority and 10 percent of the slots are reserved for children with disabilities.
Parent Committee meetings and family socialization activities will also be provided each month to offer information to the families served. “It’s a way to bring in speakers to increase their knowledge,” Clark said. “If they’re staying at home and really don’t know anyone, they don’t have a support group. Parents can meet other parents, and it’s a way to get them involved in the community.”
Clark hopes to start the new program in February. To enroll children or to apply for employment as teacher or home visitor, contact the current Head Start sites: Altus--Lincoln Head Start, 900 S. Carver Rd. (580-482-3080); Bailey Head Start, 201 S. Lee (580-482-1919); Wilson Head Start, 905 N. Willard (580-482-2720). In other counties, contact Hollis Head Start, 902 E. Vivian (580-688-9177); Mangum Head Start, 571 E. Lincoln (580-782-3712); Granite Head Start, 208 Main (580-535-4571); or Elk City Head Start, 1700-2 W. 8th (580-225-4101).
Applicants for teaching and home visiting positions must hold a degree in early childhood development or must be a child development associate (or willing to obtain the national credential within one year). Western Oklahoma State College offers the college courses needed.
Early Head Start classrooms for 2-year-olds will be set up at Wilson and Bailey Head Start sites in Altus and the Hollis Head Start. To achieve a low teacher-student ratio, two teachers will be assigned to eight children in each classroom. Home visitors will be based at each of the other Head Start centers; Mangum and Granite will share one home visitor. Early Head Start home visitors will spend 90 minutes per week in visits with approximately 12 pregnant women or families with infants and toddlers to listen to needs and provide activities to help the children. Home visitors will receive on-going in-service training for support in the nurturing of Early Head Start families.
According to Michael Balderas, assistant Head Start program director, “It will help having the low teacher-student ratio. The younger children need more one-on-one time because each child will be doing something different, due to different skill levels. With that age group, you can’t just sit down and do structured lessons; you have to be more flexible and build the lessons around the individual children. One of the big changes is the tiny classroom furniture—quite different from walking into a 3-year-old Head Start classroom.”
Clark said Early Head Start uses no highchairs or feeding tables, “because the children need freedom to make their own choices.”
Early Head start began nationally with 68 programs in 1995 and expanded to 708 programs. “The last new Early Head Start grant was awarded 15 years ago,” Montgomery said, “but I would fully expect that a successful new program would continue to be funded in future years.”
Clark said SOCAG’s goal is to assist families living in poverty, to help the infants and toddlers build on strengths and be prepared for Head Start, then kindergarten and life. “The children are sometimes behind because the parents either lack skills or do not have the resources,” she said. “What we often see is that a 3-year-old comes to us not potty trained, because the parents didn’t know how to deal with it; and so they start off behind in Head Start. Some families really do need many services to get the child and the family ready to do well in kindergarten. Our thinking is that if we have the children at a younger age, they will be on level with the 3-year-olds coming into Head Start, then on level with the kindergartners also.”
Balderas will be in charge of the day-to-day operation of the Early Head Start program for SOCAG and can be contacted at 580-482-1919, ext. 100.
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