[ Head Start ]

Early Head Start

Early Head Start offers a center base, full day early childhood program for families with children six weeks to three years of age.  Services include programming in health, nutrition, early education, special services, family and community partnership. Transportation and meals are provided; income eligibility and age guidelines apply.

 

Early Head Start was launched in 1995 to provide comprehensive child and family developmnet services for low-income pregnant women and families with infants and toddlers ages birth to three years.  Early Head Start (EHS) programs were established to provide early, continuous, intensive, and comprehensive child development and family support services on a year-round basis.  The purpose of the program is to enhance children's physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development; to support parents' efforts to fulfill their parental roles; and to help parents move toward self-sufficiency.

Early Head Start principles include:

• An Emphasis on High Quality which recognizes the critical opportunity of EHS programs to positively impact children and families in the early years and beyond.
• Prevention and Promotion Activities that both promote healthy development and recognize and address atypical development at the earliest stage possible.
• Positive Relationships and Continuity which honor the critical importance of early attachments on healthy development in early childhood and beyond.  The parents are viewed as the child's first and most important relationship.
• Parent Involvement activities that offer parents a meaningful and strategic role in the program's vision, services, and governance.
• Inclusion strategies that respect the unique developmental trajectories of young children in the context of a typical setting, which includes children with disabilities.
• Cultural competence which acknowledges the profound role that culture plays in early development.  Programs also recognize the influence of cultural values and beliefs on both staff and families' approaches to child development.  Programs work within the context of home languages for all children and families.
• Comprehensiveness, Flexibility and Responsiveness of services which allow children and families to move across various program options over time, as their life situation demands.
• Transition planning respects families' need for though and attention paid to movements across program options and into and out of Early Head Start programs.
• Collaboration is central to an Early Head Start program's ability to meet the comprehensive needs of families.  Strong partnerships allow programs to expand their services to families with infants and toddlers beyond the door of the program and into the larger community.