May 24, 2010

Looking Back: Celebrating 45 years of Head Start

May 18th, 1965 – excerpts from a speech delivered by President Lyndon Johnson in the Rose Garden

This is a very proud occasion for (Sergeant Shriver) and for us today, because it was less than 3 months ago that we opened a new war front on poverty.  We set out to make certain that poverty’s children would not forevermore be poverty’s captive’s.  We called our program Project Head Start.

The program was conceived not so much as a federal effort but a neighborhood effort, and the response that we have received from the neighborhood and the communities has been most stirring and the most enthusiastic of any peacetime program that I can remember.

This means that nearly half the preschool children of poverty will get a head start on their future.  These children will receive preschool training that will prepare them for regular school in September.  They will get medical and dental attention they badly need, and parents will receive counseling on improving the home environment.

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President Johnson himself received his early education in a one room school house in rural Texas during a time in our nation when poverty was at a stunning rate.  He believed that children and families living in poverty needed a different kind of support to overcome the insipid hold of poverty on their lives.  One which focused on preparing them for school, but additionally assisted families, insured that children with hearing and vision problems received early identification and supported families in having their children immunized.  Head Start is much more than people realize.

Head Start is an amazingly comprehensive neighborhood based program geared to target the impact of poverty on multiple levels.  At Children’s Friend, we experience this every day.  While our classrooms are focused on providing high quality educational supports to children, our nurses are helping families identify their children’s health needs and assisting them in navigating a complex health system.  And our family support staff work closely with parents to help them buffer and lessen the impact that poverty has on themselves and their families while supporting them in obtaining their educational goals and realize their goal of being their child’s first teacher, while our  family engagement team helps parents take a governing role in the program and learn skills that help them obtain and retain employment.

The indicators of success reach beyond the classroom and into the lives of families.  It is not as easy to quantify the impact of the comprehensive approach of Head Start.  How do you measure this….a mother dies unexpectedly from a previously undiagnosed illness since she did not have access to health care growing up or as an adult.  She leaves behind a husband who has struggled to support his family on an income of $18,000, facing a potential lay off and four children under the age of seven, one whom has medical problems.  They live in an apartment which is poorly managed by its landlord, where the family frequently struggles with infestations and unsafe circumstances.   The children cannot play outside because of the trash that is piled up and the gun shots that ring out in the neighborhood.  They were already living month to month and they are now facing a bill of $6000 to simply bury a mother and wife who held things together for the family.

These are the stories of the families that we serve.  This is the picture of poverty in the 21st century. 

We are committed to telling that story and providing the data which proves the effectiveness of Head Start services. 

And this week – we celebrate the vision of President Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson and Sergeant Shriver.

-Aimee