A $1.9 million dollar grant will help kick start an expansion of Early Head Start services in the Picayune area.
The funds come from the Child Care Development Partnership grant, and will allow Picayune’s Early Head Start program to bring their services into local day care centers. Early Head Start Director Dr. Pamela Thomas said several local day care centers will be participating in this program, slated to start next school year.
The participating centers include McCarthy Learning Center, Pearl River Community College’s child care program, Annie’s Day Care and Linda’s Family Child Care.
In all, an additional 72 children will receive care similar to that provided at the Early Head Start Center through the grant. Currently Early Head Start provides services to 120 children in the area, 80 of which attend the center on Rosa Street, while the remaining 40 attend the newly constructed center near Nicholson Elementary on U.S. 11.
In preparation for the launch of the program, Early Head Start staff will train staff at each participating day care to familiarize them with the services Early Head Start provides.
Thomas said the training will include curriculum development and teacher based coaching. Children in the Early Head Start Program receive instruction in the areas of social and emotional development, literary skills through recognizing numbers and letters, potty training, language skills, fine motor skills and how to properly interact with other children such as sharing.
“The basic things children need to know,” Thomas said. “You’re just getting them ready for the next step.”
In addition to the additional slots the grant will create for children, Thomas said up to 30 new jobs will also be created as a result of this program. Some of the jobs will be certified personnel in the management roles, or those with specialized training, while the rest will be classified positions in the district, such as those who will conduct the training.
The aim of the program, much like Early Head Start, is to provide young children in disadvantaged homes the skills they will need to enter kindergarten on the same playing field as the Early Head Start students, Thomas said.
According to the Head Start website, the funding could be provided for up to five years, but a budget must be submitted each 12 months, and awards could stay the same, increase or decrease based on available federal funding set forth by Congress and the president.