Preschoolers get a Head Start on education with help from local program
Enter the Head Start program. Children ages 3-5 can take part in this national school readiness opportunity. In Ohio, Head Start provides comprehensive educational, health, nutritional, and social services, actively working with parents to do so. Parents can also receive assistance with child care, and the Ohio Head Start Association encourages parents to also take advantage of Parent Leadership Institute trainings that develop both parenting and leadership skills. Locally, HARCATUS Tri-County Community Action Organization supervises Head Start.
Nancy Reed is the director of the area Head Start program.
“Our role is to work with the whole family to prepare the kids for public school. We have 82 staff members serving 383 children in the tri-county area,” explained Reed, who has been with HARCATUS for 22 years. “This includes teachers, classroom aides, special needs assistants, family advocates, and bus and food service assistants.”
Eligible children attend Head Start Monday through Thursday during the school year, and are do is incorporated into the instructional learning process. Even meal time is a huge learning opportunity, and we emphasize that with our teachers.
“It is important that our teachers know how a child learns,” continued Reed. She also emphasized the importance of community support, not only from the one or two ‘foster grandparents’ who help out in each classroom, but also from the HARCATUS Policy Advisory Council, which is made up of volunteers who are supportive of the HARCATUS and Head Start programs.
Head Start no longer receives any state funding, and federal funding has been flat-lined for a number of years. Budgets are tight, with little money for any extras.
“Our Head Start employees cannot help with any fundraising, so our policy advisory council steps up to help,” Reed noted.
Reba Allen, of Newcomerstown, is one of those policy advisory council volunteers. “I do it because I so appreciate what Head Start has meant for our family,” said Allen, who recently helped conduct a hot dog fundraiser at Baker’s IGA in Newcomerstown to benefit the program. The money raised from that effort will assist in providing playground mulch for Shawna McCune’s Newcomerstown Head Start classroom.
“We have custody of our two young great-grandchildren, and both of them benefitted from Head Start,” said Allen. “HARCATUS helps so many people in so many different ways, from the winter crisis heating and summer home cooling programs to teaching their children.”
HARCATUS also provides the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) that matches seniors’ skills and life experiences to community needs; a senior nutrition program at four county sites; a housing and weatherization program; youth training and employment; and many other services and referrals.
To learn more about Head Start or HARCATUS, go to www.harcatus.org or call 800-299-0933 or 740-922-0934 or 0935.