In recognition of October as both Fire Safety Month and National Head Start Awareness Month, members of the City of Houston Fire Department paid a visit last week to the Houston Head Start Center.
Kids at the center were treated to descriptions of clothing and gear used by firefighters, and even got to touch the real thing. Making the verbal presentation to the children was department training director Joe Marsillo, while assistant chief Jon Cook donned his full firefighting suit, including mask and breathing apparatus.
Head Start centers each serve up to 20 preschool children. Houston manager Susie Lay also oversees centers in Licking and Summersville, each of which has a full-time staff of four.
“We would like to invite the community to learn about all the great things we do,” Lay said. “Head Start is ready to help you help your children get ready for school, while recognizing that you, the parent or guardian, are the expert on your child and his or her first and most important teacher. What you do now has a lasting impact on your children’s growth and well being.”
Houston Head Start is affiliated with Ozark Action, Inc., a Community Action Partnership (CAP) agency in West Plains whose mission is coordinating and providing services for people in a six-county area of south-central Missouri (including Wright, Texas, Douglas, Howell, Ozark and Oregon counties). Like other CAP organizations, Ozark Action is funded through various grants, mostly of federal origin. It has 15 Head Start centers in its region, which each operate from September through May from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday.
Lay, a lifelong Houston resident, said Head Start gives children their first opportunities in many areas of development.
“We’re here to teach them and help them with their social and emotional skills, and recognition of colors, letters, shapes, and even their names,” she said. “This way, when they go into kindergarten they won’t deal with the level of culture shock they otherwise might.
“We’re usually their first adult interaction outside the home. When we get them, a lot of times they’ve never been away from their parents, so this is the first pure interaction they get away from the family. That’s so important – learning to interact with other adults and other children. That way when they do go into the public school system, their interaction skills are so much better.”
Lay said the relationships Head Start staffers form with kids go way beyond the classroom, and include making sure children get what they need in many areas – including proper nutrition, and medical and dental attention – and making recommendations when needed. But those relationships are not the only ones workers build.
“We’re not just about the child, we’re about the whole family,” Lay said. “We do a minimum of two home visits a year, going in and helping the family with any needs they have and setting long term and short term goals. Then we help them follow up with those goals throughout the year. And teachers do two conferences each year with the parents to discuss how well the child is doing in the Head Start program.”
Lay said it’s not unusual for kids to make noticeable progress from the time they enter the program to when they move on to kindergarten.
“We do observations and make notations three times a year, and by the end of the year we can see how they scored at the beginning and the end,” she said. “It’s amazing how different those scores can be.”
Head Start curriculum and activities include frequent field trips, sometimes involving tours of local businesses.
To be eligible for Head Start this year, a child must have been 3 or 4-years-old on July 31 of 2012. Other eligibility considerations include family income, children’s special needs, family needs, and other factors, but Lay said Head Start is available to serve anyone.
“We have an income scale we go by, but we accept ‘over-income’ children, too,” she said. “They get points for being from a single-parent family and things like that, and we’re also required to take certain number of children with disabilities, but really anyone is welcome.
“Four-year-olds have priority, but we also have three-year-olds in the program every year. But we do always have a pretty good waiting list, because 20 is our maximum at each center.”
Lay said Head Start centers don’t have a competitive relationship with local day cares and preschools, and they in fact work together whenever possible. The Houston Head Start bus even transports kids to and from day care locations around the community.
“And at one time our waiting list was even bigger,” Lay said, “but with all these new day cares coming in, it has gotten smaller. They do a lot of teaching at the day cares in our area, too, and I would recommend any one of them. We’ve had dealings with all of them, and I feel like any one would be good.”
Head Start began about 45 years ago, and the National Head Start Association headquarters is in Alexandria, Va.
There is no cost for Head Start services. For more information, call 417-967-4111, or stop by the center in Houston.
Head Start believes that getting children ready for kindergarten is a big job, and that children should:
· Learn letters and sounds
· Learn numbers and how to count
· Learn to hold a pencil and start learning to write
· Learn to get along with others
· Behave appropriately
· Learn about music and art
· Learn about physical fitness
· Learn about foods that are good for them
· Be able to take care of personal hygiene needs
· Be creative
· Be curious
· Be persistent
· Be and feel safe and secure