Head Start Sandbox R7 Summer 2014

SUMMER 2014

HEAD START

SAND BOX Where Young Learners Play to Learn

Sunny

days

On the Road to School Readiness www.R7HSA.com Summer 2014 | Head Start Sandbox

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Head Start Sandbox | Summer 2014

Director’s Letter

From the Executive Director

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Summer 2014

What’s Inside?

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Meet the R7HSA President

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Celebrating 50 Years

he Head Start Sand Box is

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Head Start to Harvard

now entering its second

8 Engaging Parents through Data Sharing

year of production and continues to gain visibility as a resource demonstrating the impact of Head Start across Region VII. The magazine is distributed to members of Congress by Region VII Head Start Association

10 2014 Outstanding Missouri Head Start Collaboration 14 Where’s Baby?

Look Before You Lock.

Representatives to the National Head Start Association (NHSA)

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Board of Directors, on Hill visits in Washington, DC while attending NHSA events.

16 Region VII Head Start Association Reaches Family in Ecuador

With Head Start entering the fiftieth year of service, it is more

18 History of the Head Start Logo

important than ever to tell our stories and inform readers of

Reading to the Max Program

Box includes articles on how data is used across program

20 Washington, DC through the Eyes of a Region VII Head Start Parent Representative to the National Board

planning to make decisions and guide classroom instruction

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who we are and what we do to change and shape lives every day of the year across the four states. This issue of the Sand

Upcoming Events

and meet the needs of families and communities. Please take a few minutes to read through the pages of articles written by former students, parents and staff from local programs.

Donna Veatch, Executive Director R7HSA@comcast.net

Contact us at: R7HSA, 233 SW Greenwich Dr., Ste. 105, Lee’s Summit, MO 64082 Phone: 816.718.2260 Fax: 816.524.3719 Email: R7HSA@comcast.net | R7HSA.com Head Start Sandbox™ is published by Region VII Head Start Association. Articles and advertisements do not necessarily reflect R7HSA’s opinions. No portion of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without written consent. R7HSA does not assume responsibility for statements made by advertisers or editorial contributors. Information in Head Start Sandbox™ is gathered from sources considered to be reliable, but the accuracy of all information cannot be guaranteed.

R7HSA.com

Summer 2014 | Head Start Sandbox

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Meet the R7HSA President Linda Bleything, Head Start Director of the Douglass Community Services (DCS) Program

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inda Bleything, Head Start Director of the Douglass Com-

ensuring appropriate monitoring to meet local, state, and federal

munity Services (DCS) Program is the current President of

regulations. Under Linda’s leadership, the DCS Program received

the Region VII Head Start Association (R7HSA). Linda has a long

the Region VII Office of Head Start Leadership Award in April

history of service with R7HSA having served on the first official

of 2013.

Board of Directors of the Association in 1997 and then after sit-

She also serves as a Director Coach for New Director Coaching

ting out for several years ran again becoming the Vice President.

Initiative through the National Center on Program Management

On July 1, 2013 Ms. Bleything was seated as the R7HSA President.

and Fiscal Operations conducting program visits at the site of new

Linda is responsible for the overall operation of thirteen Head

Head Start director’s and maintains coaching contact with new

Start and Early Head Start Centers in eight counties in Northeast

and inexperienced directors. Part of her responsibility includes

Missouri serving over 540 children.

preparing a coaching plan and providing resources to new partici-

Linda holds an Associate of Arts Degree from Southeastern Community College, a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Educa-

pating directors. She is also an entrepreneur and recently started her own consulting business.

tion from Iowa Wesleyan College, a Master of Arts in Education,

Past Head Start experience includes serving as the Education

Curriculum and Instruction and post graduate studies in Organi-

Coordinator for the Southeast Iowa Community Action Organiza-

zational Leadership from the University of Phoenix. Linda prac-

tion (SEICAO) Head Start Program for fourteen plus years.

tices lifelong learning and enjoys sharing knowledge by serving as

Linda is a proud mother of four including son Christopher, a 16

Adjunct Professor for Hannibal La Grange University and Adjunct

year army veteran who served three tours in Iraq. Next time you

Professor for the University of Cincinnati. For the past seven

see Linda, be sure and ask her about her nine brilliant and ador-

years she has taught classes part-time in the field of Early Child-

able grandchildren. She will be quick to pull up pics on her phone

hood Education and grant writing.

and share!

As a Head Start director, she provides administration and over-

A special “Shout Out” to Dave Dexheimer, Executive Director

sight of high quality programming for Early Childhood Education

of Douglass Community Services for supporting Linda in her lead-

and Child Development activities. Her skills include the use of

ership role for Region VII Head Start Association.

planning and implementation of integrated design strategies and

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Head Start Sandbox | Summer 2014

YEARS of OPPORTUNITY HEAD START 1965-2015

1965 - 2015

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ay 18, 1965 was commemorated as the birth of Head Start with an announcement delivered in the White House Rose Garden by President Lyndon Johnson.

Since the summer demonstration program which served 500,000 children, Head Start has continued to grow and develop leading the nation in early childhood education, research, brain development, parent engagement and community involvement.

Today, Head Start serves over a million children and their families each year in urban and rural areas in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. territories, including American Indian, Alaskan Native and Migrant/Seasonal communities.

Project Head Start as it was named in 1965 was originally designed as part of the 1960’s War on Poverty.

Children, staff and parents from across Region VII joined in the kickoff of the celebration year with true Head Start spirit on September 17th designated as Red, White and Blue Day across the nation!

For continued activities and fifty year celebration opportunities, visit nhsa.org

Summer 2014 | Head Start Sandbox

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Head Start to Harvard A Nebraska Story

By Jenny Lu Mallamo

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“Did anyone here go to Head Start?

It was an innocuous question, asked by my statistics professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. It might have been a rhetorical question, too, as the professor didn’t seem to expect anyone to speak up.

But I did, providing an empirical data point in our graduate seminar that was looking at the correlation between Head Start participation and academic success later in life – an academic discussion for everyone in the room but a personal one for me.

In 1990 and 1991, I attended a Head Start program in Lincoln, Nebraska, that offered classroom learning as well as home visits. As a little girl of four, I thought that “Head Start” was the name of my pre-school. It was only later that I learned Head Start was a federal program that specifically prepares children from low-income families for school.

Like generations of families who have come before, my family’s early years in America were not easy. My father’s graduate school sti-

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Head Start Sandbox | Summer 2014

pend – around five hundred dollars each month – made up the bulk of our income. To help support our family, my mother bused tables at a local Chinese restaurant. She had been a teacher in China, but because she did not speak English, waiting and busing tables were the only jobs available.

Yet she never complained. To this day, she remembers how proud she felt when she made her first American dollar. And she remembers how indignant she felt when my father asked her for that dollar so that he could put it in the bank. And save it. Because, saving, that was what we did. That is what we still do.

Our meals often consisted of ramen noodles purchased with food stamps, made more substantive with the addition of an egg and some lettuce. My parents themselves often went without so that what we did have could go towards me: my education, my healthcare, my wellbeing.

After all, I was the reason why they chose to stay in the United States.

We were all supposed to return to China once my father complet-

ed his graduate studies, but Tiananmen Square changed everything.

Watching the chaos in their homeland unfold on the TV screen in their American apartment, my parents believed that I would have a better life here.

Head Start’s principal mission, admittedly, is not to help immigrants integrate into American society. But like other forms of public assistance and infrastructure that have sought to level the playing field throughout history, that is one of the program’s bonus benefits.

In addition to teaching me in the classroom, my first Head Start teacher, Ms. Cathy, also often made home visits to my family’s apartment. Neither of my parents spoke English as a first language, so these visits were meant to help me catch up. I remember how, on the mornings of Ms. Cathy’s visits, my mother would always make me take a bath and put on my nicest clothes so that I would look my best for my teacher.

Seated at our kitchen table from the Salvation Army on mismatched chairs donated by a local church, Ms. Cathy worked with me on the differences between “the” and “that” and “this.” We counted numbers, practiced writing the alphabet, and talked about different shapes and colors. I say “we,” because with each new word and phrase that I recited, my parents were learning English as well.

At 27, I am now the same age that my parents were when they left China and came to the United States. As I begin making my own way in the world, I find myself reflecting on what it must have been like for my parents to “strike their roots into unaccustomed earth,” as Nathaniel Hawthorne described in simple but elegant terms in “The Custom House.”

The many evenings that my father spent listening to BBC World Radio and Voice of America as a college student in China paid off when he earned the highest score on the provincial English language exams and earned a scholarship to attend graduate school in the United States. The pursuit of a higher-quality education brought my father to America. The possibilities of a brighter future for his daughter persuaded him to stay.

My parents have never lost faith in that belief in America – even when their accents, names, and faces identified them as Chinese, and

exposed them to prejudice and discrimination. I have watched my parents bear these indignities with great dignity.

My parents believed, as so many do, that giving their child a quality education was key to achieving the American Dream. They also understood that early education would provide me with a critical foundation for future success. We like to tell ourselves that in this land of equal opportunity, a baby’s zip code should not determine their life trajectory. But all too often, it does. Studies consistently show that children from low-income families are less likely to succeed than their wealthier peers. Without giving them a quality head start in life, lowincome children have nowhere to begin but behind.

In my case, without Ms. Cathy’s patient one-on-one instruction and out-of-class tutoring, I surely would have started kindergarten behind my peers from higher-income homes that spoke English as a first language. My parents would not have received the additional benefit of sitting in on basic English classes.

To my parents and my teacher’s delight, I thrived in the classroom setting. Confident in my new vocabulary, I began to come out of my shell and started speaking up and asking questions. By the end of my year in Head Start, I had served as a line leader at lunch and delivered the morning weather report to my fellow classmates.

I can’t speak for how things turned out for the other eight kids who were in my Head Start class of 1990, but I was fortunate to have received the extra attention. It placed me on a road that eventually led to a college scholarship and a rewarding graduate school experience.

I am proud to be a Head Start alum who became a Harvard graduate.

My father finished his doctoral program in 1995. With the job offer and salary that followed, our growing family was able to live more comfortably. We moved into our first house – a modest one, but located in a safe neighborhood with good public schools.

I have been lucky to have learned from many wonderful, talented teachers throughout my various educational experiences, but it is Ms. Cathy my parents still remember and talk about as the one whose dedication and patience first proved that this country believed in their child as much as they did.

Jenny Lu Mallamo is a Media Relations Associate at New America.

Here is the link to the original article that she wrote for New America’s “Weekly Wonk” digital magazine: http://weeklywonk.newamerica.net/articles/reflecting-back-head-start/ And here is the link to the article after TIME.com published it last October: http://ideas.time.com/2013/10/04/from-head-start-to-harvard/

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Engaging Parents Through Data Sharing Heather Schrotberger, Director, Project EAGLE/Educare of Kansas City Jessica Haremza, Site Director, Educare of Kansas City

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t Project EAGLE Early Head Start, one of our key beliefs is that parents are the first and most important teachers for their children. We strive to foster a culture of curiosity amongst both staff and parents by gathering and utilizing data from observations and assessments that will inform our daily practice and inform all parents in supporting their children’s learning. Our goal is for parents to see themselves as interventionists, which will lead to them being confident about their influence on their child’s ongoing development across all domains.

Any parent who enrolls with us knows that ongoing assessment and data sharing is part of our partnership with them. Our program’s mission is to nurture the healthy growth and development of the community’s most vulnerable young children and families by providing a foundation for school readiness and family engagement. We spend time introducing and exploring the topics of school readiness and family engagement with parents throughout their enrollment in Early Head Start and connect those topics with the collection of data about their children’s social-emotional, language, cognitive, and motor development, as well as the review and discussion of data.

Project EAGLE has a comprehensive data analysis plan which 8

Head Start Sandbox | Summer 2014

includes the collection and analysis of data related to child, family, staff, and organizational outcomes. We also have a thriving research program partnership between our Educare of Kansas City School and our local research partner, Juniper Gardens Children’s Project of the University of Kansas, as part of a national, multisite evaluation led by the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Data collected for this project is specific to children enrolled in center-based programming. Both data collected through this effort and by our staff across home-based and center-based Early Head Start programming is used to inform data-driven decision making and continuous quality improvement at and between three different levels: child/family, program, and agency. Data is used across a variety of settings, including weekly classroom planning sessions; classroom teacher coaching sessions; regular multidisciplinary child and family reviews; monthly data discussions with our research partner; and quarterly review of data with staff, Policy Council and the governing body. It informs our daily work with parents and teachers, our ongoing professional development and our agency’s strategic planning.

We consider the most important feature of this comprehensive data plan to be our use of child data as a primary tool for strength-

ening parent and family engagement. Teachers and home visitors begin by familiarizing parents with our assessment tools, how they are administered, and what the purpose is of each. Some of our assessment tools, such as the Early Communication Indicator (ECI), involve parents as a play partner in the assessment process.

The sharing of child assessment results is then used by teachers and home visitors as the foundation for working with parents to establish individual goals and strategies for each child. Teachers and home visitors share reports through verbal discussion, graphs, and parent reports; no data is ever just handed to parents or shared without a conversation. If there is a concern related to a child’s development in a particular domain, using assessment data helps both parents and staff members navigate this sensitive conversation because the discussion is tied to data in conjunction with observations rather than opinions.

In the center-based programming option teachers share parent reports that are received from our evaluation partner at birthdays and half birthdays. Teachers and parents review the reports together and discuss the progress of each individual child in relation to the goals for the child. Classroom teachers also use data to share information with each parent regarding their child’s development during parent teacher conferences. Portfolios are shared with the family at each conference. The portfolios contain assessment and curriculum data that allows the teacher to illustrate to parents how their child is progressing developmentally. Using documentation from the portfolios, teachers review each child’s strengths and discuss areas for future development with families.

Parents and teachers then reflect together on their child’s goals.

Teachers share data from the current or previous goals with families and use this information to help guide them in creating new goals for their children.

In the home-based programming option home visitors share assessment results regularly during home visits. Each family is provided a child notebook and encouraged to keep a portfolio of their child’s growth and development. Using this documentation home visitors discuss each child’s strengths with parents and work with them to set goals for each individual child as well as identify strategies and activities to focus on between home visits to support ongoing growth and development in all areas.

Across both program options we tie child assessment data to our conversations with parents about transitions and their future plans for their children. Our ultimate goal is that when parents leave our program, they are empowered to continue to ask questions about their child’s growth and development and educational experiences and to continue being engaged in their child’s ongoing learning and success. We set the foundation for this type of parental engagement by involving parents from the day they enroll in our data sharing practices.

2014 Outstanding Missouri Head Start Collaboration The Missouri Head Start – State Collaboration Office Recognizes the Ozarks Area Community Action Corporation (OACAC) Head Start – Springfield Public Schools Title I/Wonder Years Co-Qualifying Classrooms

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n May 2014, The Missouri Head Start – State Collaboration Office recognized the Ozarks Area Community Action Corporation (OACAC) Head Start – Springfield Public Schools Title I/Wonder Years Co-Qualifying Classrooms as the 2014 Outstanding Missouri Head Start Collaboration at the Missouri Head Start Annual Meeting and Awards Banquet.

Along with receiving the award, the collaboration is featured in the 2014 edition of the Strategic Collaboration: Establishing State and Community-Based Partnerships* manual. This manual was initially developed to assist Head Start programs in developing and enhancing community collaborations and to showcase Missouri Head Start collaborations that are excelling throughout Missouri.

The Collaboration The OACAC Head Start-Springfield Public Schools Title I/ Wonder Years Co-Qualifying Classrooms target homeless preschool children and children who meet Title I and Head Start income criteria in Springfield, Missouri. The purpose of the partnership is to provide at-risk children with more comprehensive services than they would receive if accessing services from either stand-alone agency. The focus of this collaboration is: (1) improved identification of and outreach to homeless, as defined by the McKinney-Vento Act, and Title I and Head Start income10

Head Start Sandbox | Summer 2014

qualifying children; (2) expanded, coordinated, and unduplicated services for homeless Title I and Head Start income-qualifying children; and (3) cost sharing between OACAC Head Start/Early Head Start and Springfield Public Schools.

The Idea Several years ago the Program Director OACAC and the Director of Early Childhood and Parents as Teachers for Springfield Public Schools Title 1/Wonder Years program (SPS) began discussing ways to collaborate to reduce duplication, contain costs in view of budget reductions, and better serve district children.

The initial primary focus was preschool children of homeless families. Both the OACAC and SPS felt they were not serving this population as well as they could nor, in many instances, were they meeting the wide-ranging needs of the families. In 2008 a visit to a Columbia, MO program serving a Section 8 Housing neighborhood helped to formulate a plan for developing a model that would meet the needs of Springfield families. In August 2012 a co-qualifying classroom targeting homeless children was established at an OACAC Head Start site in Springfield. In August 2013 a second co-qualifying classroom was added for children whose families met both Title I and Head Start income and enrollment criteria.

How it Works Co-Teaching: Classes are taught by two teachers, one provided by the OACAC and one provided by the SPS. This co-teaching approach provides not only a dual focus on pre-academics and social emotional growth to ensure the children are ready to be successful in kindergarten but also ensures the children and their families receive the wide array of services and supports available from each of the partnering agencies. Supervision of the teachers is shared by the OACAC and the SPS. An Area Supervisor (OACAC) and an Instructional Coach (SPS) work with the team teachers on both a formal and informal basis to discuss progress, barriers, successes, and resources needed for the work.

vices in the areas of medical, dental, and mental health, nutrition, parental involvement and family support, employment, housing, and health.

Cost Sharing: Hard-to-serve populations are inherently more expensive to serve because their needs are greater. The OACAC and the SPS each bear a portion of the costs of the joint initiative.

The OACAC provides the physical facility, nutritional staff, and services that alleviate issues with licensing. While the OACAC provides transportation, each partner provides one of the two teachers for the classrooms and shares the costs of materials and supplies. The classrooms are operated at a cost less than it would take for each agency to provide similar services on their own.

Transportation: Transportation for children enrolled in the co-qualifying classrooms is provided by the OACAC. Bus pick-up locations include area homeless and domestic violence shelters, transitional and temporary living locations, and family residences. In addition to transporting children to and from the classroom, transportation is offered to families to attend family nights and other school related events.

Extended Day Classrooms: The co-qualifying classrooms are full-day programs in contrast to half-day services provided by either Title I or Head Start programs individually. Children receive more days of service (a full school day of services in a single location) than each program would normally provide. Each co-qualifying classroom serves fifteen children.

Information Sharing: Referrals for the co-qualifying classrooms come from both the OACAC and the SPS to a Head Start Family Advocate who prepares preliminary enrollment paperwork as needed by each program. Inherent in this initial enrollment process is a sharing of information between the OACAC and the SPS. Primary liaisons between the two entities are an OACAC Area Supervisor and an SPS Instructional Coach. Supervision of the classroom teachers is shared by the two programs. Both regularly scheduled and informal meetings, face-to-face conversations, telephone calls, texts, and e-mails ensure communication is both open and frequent. Since the implementation of the co-qualifying classrooms, staff from the OACAC and the SPS has attended in-service and professional development training events conducted by both agencies leading to improved knowledge and appreciation of both approaches to early childhood education.

Supportive Services: An OACAC Head Start Family Advocate provides the children and families with comprehensive support services and case management. As a result of the joint agency collaboration, children enrolled in the co-qualifying classrooms and their families are offered a range of individualized services not available through Title I funding, including ser-

The Results Because of the collaboration OACAC Head Start and SPS staff have a connection they would not otherwise have. In addition to improved knowledge, understanding, and respect between staff, children from some of Springfield’s most vulnerable families receive a full day of services in a single location with transportation Summer 2014 | Head Start Sandbox

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and supportive services. Although both the OACAC and the SPS see many positives from this exciting initiative, child outcomes are perhaps the most telling indicators of the success. By mutual agreement between the two programs, Teaching Strategies GOLD is utilized to measure outcomes in the co-qualifying classrooms.

According to the OACAC’s Director of Child Development, although a few variables should be taken into consideration, mid-year data indicates positive child outcomes in both classrooms. Across all domains, 91% to 100% of all children in the two classrooms are meeting or exceeding what is expected for a child of their age.

Sustainability The initiative has strong support from both the Springfield Public School’s Board of Education and the OACAC’s Area Board of Directors and Policy Council. A Memorandum of Understanding defines each agency’s roles and responsibilities and outlines policies and procedures related to such issues as cost sharing, access to information, and background checks. The OACAC and the SPS are committed to the concept of co-qualifying classrooms and are building within the model procedures for dealing with critical issues such as state regulations and licensing, organizational calendars, training, and time constraints.

By navigating potential difficulties with a “no-fail/make it work” approach, communicating the value of the initiative to administration and staff, and having realistic expectations with respect to fine-tuning the model, the OACAC and the SPS have laid a strong foundation for a program they anticipate becoming a permanent and valuable component of early childhood education in the Springfield community. Next steps include looking at the possibility of expanding the number of classrooms, locating classrooms in a public school facility, and targeting a classroom for children of teen mothers.

*The Strategic Collaboration: Establishing State and Community-Based Partnerships manual was developed by LeFebvre Consulting, LLC with funding from the Missouri Department of Social Services, Children’s Division, Early Childhood and Prevention Services Section.

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YOUR AD HERE

Contact us to advertise in upcoming issues of the Head Start Sand Box! Send an email to R7HSA@comcast.net for more information.

Legislative Work The Voice of Head Start in Missouri

BY TINA BERNSKOETTER

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s the Missouri General Assembly completed their legislative session on May 17, 2014, MHSA continues to be a diligent resource and collaborative partner to early education professional networks and non-traditional partners in an effort to secure and protect the funding for the programs we care so much about. Still re-building from the devastating budget cuts of 2012, State Funded Early Head Start and other partner programs funded by the Early Childhood Development Education and Care fund have been working to explain to policy makers why these budget cuts are so negatively impactful, both immediately to families who could no longer receive services, but also longterm to programs that continue to re-build and plan in different ways in order to continue to provide quality services. Meanwhile, since the end of legislative session, MO State Head Start Association (MHSA) has been working with other partners to continue to educate legislators on the real and lasting impacts of quality early education programs, so that these budget cuts will not happen again. Visits with legislators, both in their home districts at grantee sites and at the state capitol, have been instrumental in explaining the work of early care and education to make lasting positive impacts on the perceptions of policy makers. This is a true attribute to the staff, volunteers and parents that have

shared with legislators state-wide on why Head Start is a great program and every child is deserving of a great Head Start in life.

Currently and since the end of session, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon and the Republican controlled House and Senate are at odds over tax breaks passed during the 2014 legislative session and the implications of those cuts on state funded programs. The Governor subsequently vetoed $144.6 million in general revenue and restricted $641.6 million in general revenue expenditures because upon his review the budget was out of balance given the tax cuts and spending the legislature passed. hile state funding for Early Head Start was not impacted by the Governor’s actions; he did site the legislature’s inaction on fixing the tobacco settlement payments (Early Head Start’s funding source) as a reason to veto and withhold general revenue. Of particular interest from the items withheld was over $17 million in child care subsidies to low income families. he Missouri Veto Session is set for September 10th where they will review the Governor’s legislative and budget vetoes and MHSA, along with other state-wide early care and education advocates, will be there to speak with legislators, monitor debate and take action as needed.

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Where’s Baby?

Look Before You Lock.

Pledge to Prevent Child Heatstroke in Cars Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA) - www.nhtsa.gov

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eatstroke is the number one killer of children 14 and younger, outside of car crashes. That’s why the Administration for Children and Families has joined with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to attempt to reduce these deaths by reminding parents and caregivers about the dangers of heatstroke and leaving children in hot cars.

From 1998-2013, 606 children died due to heatstroke, representing 61% of total noncrash fatalities in this age group.

Of the 606 deaths:

52% were forgotten in the vehicle 29% g ained access by themselves and became trapped

18% were left intentionally 1% were unknown cases 44 children died of heatstroke in the U.S. in 2013 Children are at a higher risk than adults of dying from heatstroke in a hot vehicle especially when they are too young to communicate. A child’s temperature heats up 3 to 5 times faster than that of an adult’s.

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Reading to the Max Program Missouri Valley Community Action Agency Head Start

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issouri Valley Community Action Agency Head Start families had been recipients of books through the RIF program. It is estimated that over two-thirds of low income families in the United States do not own books. Cuts to RIF left a void in MVCAA’s Head Start’s ability to promote early literacy through book ownership. Imagine being a kid without books.

It was a conversation about just that between a MVCAA Head Start worker and the plant manager at the Sedalia’s Maxion Wheels facility that spawned a new partnership so kids wouldn’t have to imagine life without books.

In 2013 the Reading to the Max program was created. Maxion Wheels donated over $3,000 to the Agency to continue the book ownership initiative in its seven county service area. Reading to the Max celebrations were set at each of the 13 Head Start facilities, families were invited, a press release was sent to local newspapers, and the picture of the “big check” presentation was snapped. And then something else happened…

Maxion employees started visiting the Head Start Centers.

Armed with directions to the centers, a tip sheet of what to expect and a copy of The Hungry Caterpillar they left their cor-

porate cocoon and took their spot on the “blue and red” Head Start storytelling carpet. Some of them climbed tall structures to read to our kids from the mountain top…in the playground of course. Others sprouted wings and led the early learners in animated dance…the chicken dance of course. Bread was broken, or maybe a chocolate chip cookie in this case, and friendships were formed. While few doubted that the benefits this program would bring to the kids, few would have imagined the impact it had on the readers.

“It was incredible. The kids were so open and welcoming. I’d never been to a Head Start Center before and it was just amazing.

I can’t tell you how great I felt walking to my car after having read with those kids.”

Another employee went to read at one of the centers on his birthday. He was new to the area and his family hadn’t relocated to the area yet. He was feeling a little gloomy about being alone on his birthday. But when he got to the center, the party was on.

The kids sang to him and hugged him. He sent a note to MVCAA thanking them for a great night and a memorable birthday.

His exact words were, “you’ll never know how much this meant to me since I couldn’t be with my own family. Thank you for a wonderful day.”

The partnership between MVCAA and Maxion Wheels was showcased at the Missouri State Fair in August 2013 when Maxion was showcased as Governor Jay Nixon had an opportunity to view a video presentation about Reading to the Max. Additionally, the Maxion corporate office located in Brazil took notice of a program that rolled into being when two people tried to imagine being a kid without books. They have expressed interest in replicating the program in Maxion’s other facilities.

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Region VII Head Start Association Reaches Family in Ecuador Donna veatch, executive director r7HSA

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lizabeth Alex, former lead anchor for KSHB-TV in Kansas City, Missouri recently shared her personal story and experience as a former Head Start volunteer in a keynote presentation at the 2014 Region VII Head Start Association Annual Leadership

Conference. Ms. Alex recounted her time volunteering in a Florida Head Start classroom over twenty years ago. She stated that until recently, she never thought much about how that time reading to children one on one may have made a significant difference. One day, as she was reading her Facebook page, she saw a message from a young father in Florida asking if she was the lady who volunteered in his classroom when he was a student many years ago. She responded and soon they reconnected and shared messages back and forth about the time they shared and how her volunteer efforts helped him succeed in school.

Alex is a native of the Kansas City area, growing up in Overland Park, Kansas. After graduating from Shawnee Mission West, she went on to graduate from the University of Arkansas and began her career at KZZB radio in Fort Smith, Arkansas. She furthered her career working in Fayetteville, Arkansas, The Quad Cities and West Palm Beach, Florida before settling back in her hometown.

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She has earned many journalism awards during the course of her career. They include awards for all around reporting, feature, investigative and 4 regional Emmys. Honors include work on a six month project into pollution at a former oil refinery in Sugar Creek.

Alex has been named “Best Newscaster” by Pitch Weekly magazine and The Johnson County Squire. She has also been honored by the National Kidney Foundation and received a Humanitarian Award from Medical Missions Foundation.

Today, Alex spends much of her time involved with humanitarian causes around the world. She is on the board of directors for Medical Missions Foundation-a group that delivers free medical care to developing countries, Smile Again USA-an organization that helps provide reconstructive surgery to Pakistani women attacked with battery acid, and she personally sponsors and advocates for the health of a little girl from The Gaza Strip with serious medical needs.

Alex is also an enthusiastic supporter of Operation Breakthrough Center for children in Kansas City, Heart to Heart International aid organization and she organizes a food drive to benefit St. Therese Little Flower Food Pantry. Alex has covered the war in Afghanistan, the tsunami in Sri Lanka, and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. She continues her volunteer work and effort to make the world a better place for children half way across the world through her involvement in Unbound. Those of us at Head Start like to think that her early involvement as a Head Start volunteer nurtured her love for volunteerism.

In a gesture to show appreciation for the contribution(s) Elizabeth Alex made to Head Start over the years, R7HSA is “paying it forward” by pledging funding to support Joel (pictured in Mom’s arms) and his family in Ecuador in the region of Mira.

As you can see in the picture, the family through the help of Unbound is trying to save the family home which was built on the edge of steep ledge without support columns causing the majority of the home to collapse.

R7HSA joins the national association mission “to walk with the poor and marginalized of the world”. R7HSA appreciates the opportunity to be part of an effort to make a difference in Joel’s life.

Summer 2014 | Head Start Sandbox

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It Started with a Sketch

速

YEARS of OPPORTUNITY HEAD START 1965-2015

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Head Start Sandbox | Summer 2014

History of the

Head Start Logo In the words of the Late designer Peter Masters, Former Art Director Office of Economic Opportunity Source: The 40th Anniversary National Head Start Association Convention

T

he director of public affairs, Holmes Brown, stormed into my Now it was time for me to specify the type style, layout, and weight office in the Office of Economic Opportunity, aka The War and color of the paper. I knew what Kuever had in stock. One aspect on Poverty. I was the art director. Sargent Shriver, the late President troubled me, though. What I designed looked dignified enough but Kennedy’s brother-in-law, was our leader. It was 1965. was too bland for my taste. Something was missing. Clearly a new program needed a logo!

“Ladybird Johnson is hosting a tea at the White The other programs of the War on Poverty House tomorrow afternoon to inaugurate a new all had logos I created, and each had one comprogram of ours. It is called Head Start, and it’s mon denominator: an arrow pointing upward– for preschool kids. We need some kind of folder upward out of poverty. And what was the apto hand out to the invitees – a prestigious printed propriate symbol for preschool children? It was piece. Can you do it in that time? It’s essential!” immediately obvious to me; building blocks–, “Sure,” I replied. one on top of the other. A white upward arrow I figured Browne knew that he was laying on on a blue field on the top block, an red and white me a nearly impossible task, so there was no point bold stripes on the bottom block, reminiscent of in burdening him with my problems in solving it. the stars and stripes. American building blocks.

I hadn’t spent World War II in Special Forces for What could be more logical and appropriate? I nothing. drew them quickly and deliberately roughly, so The time constraint made it out of the question my logo would not look too geometrically tidy, to go the traditional course for printing a governbut rather free and bold. ment item. And I felt I could justify the illegal methodology because “What’s that?” asked Browne, when he saw my opus on the cover of of the project’s noble purpose. I phoned a nearby small printer who I the little Head Start folder. We were squatting on the floor of the taxi, thought could handle the job. He agreed, but he cautioned me: “You folding the still damp four-fold on the car’s back seat, en route to the will have to fold the job by hand, because it won’t be dry enough to White House. “Oh, that’s just a little something I put there to dress machine fold. If that’s okay, I’ll call you half an hour before you can it up a bit. It needed that, don’t you think? If they don’t like it, we can pick them up–3 o’clock, at the latest. And I’ve got to have copy in an always leave it off in the future.” hour.” Good old Mr. Kuever!

My Head Start logo is still there, after [all these] years.

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Washington, DC

through the Eyes of a Region VII Head Start Parent Representative to the National Board

by Jonna Burns

As a Region VII Head Start Association Parent Representative seated on the National Head Start Association (NHSA) board I had the privilege of attending my first “face to face” NHSA Board meeting in Washington, DC this past January.

As a first time attendee, I was impressed with both the quality and the quantity of information presented. It was impressive to see so many people from around the country working to support & strengthen Head Start at a National level. I also had an opportunity and the pleasure of speaking with fellow Parent Representatives on the board. Being able to network and discuss what is happening (from a parent’s point of view) in our respective Regions, States, Programs and Centers was one of the most valuable parts of the meeting on a personal level. Parent Representatives also discussed what seems to be working for each of us and what we want to improve upon.

We also shared and talked about our own families and soon were chatting as friends, 20

Head Start Sandbox | Summer 2014

offering each other ideas and advice. I found the group to be open and welcoming to new representatives. I am so happy to be a part of this dedicated group of parents from across the country!

During the week of the NHSA Winter Leadership Institute our regional group spent time scheduling and making Capitol Hill visits to our Legislators. During our many visits on Capitol Hill, the group from Missouri stopped in the offices of Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver II, Congressman Sam Graves, Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer, and Senator Claire McCaskill. This was both exciting and a little nerve wracking for me. I had no idea what to expect in these meetings. I was pleasantly surprised to find in every office we walked into we were welcomed with genuine smiles and interest about Head Start and our programs. Not all offices had someone to speak with us at that time, but we still left our names and expressed

our desire to thank everyone for the work they did to help restore Head Start to PreSequestration funding levels and for Early Head Start expansion dollars.

In the Office of Congressman Graves we were asked to take a photograph with his Legislative Aide, Mr. Wes Shaw. Congressman Graves was able to run into his office for moment to say hello and let us know he appreciated us stopping by even though he personally didn’t have time for a sit down meeting right then because of voting and duties on the floor. I was impressed with the fact that these meetings were so much more than just a quick handshake and a smile. These people really wanted to know what we had to say, what was important to us? How had sequestration affected our programs, and the families and communities in and around them? We answered questions and even heard some personal stories about how early childhood education made a difference in their own lives. I

realize now more than ever, that our elected officials want to hear from us, and need to hear from us. They are there to help us, and if we don’t communicate with them they can’t do a very good job of representing the best interest of Head Start and the children and families served by the program. On that day on the “Hill”, I realized that each of us is faced with the challenge of bringing Head Start into focus for them, showing them and telling them what a difference it makes in the life of a child, the home of a family, and the betterment of entire communities.

All of that being said, even though I didn’t have time to do any real sightseeing because my time in DC was short and busy with meetings and networking, what I did see was beautiful. An experience that I hope many of you have the opportunity to enjoy in the future. Even in frigid temperatures, the city as a whole was warm and welcoming. I would highly recommend that if you have the opportunity to go to Washington DC, don’t pass it up, and while you are there, be sure and stop in and say hello to your respective Senators & Representatives. They will appreciate your visit and keeping them informed of what is happening in your local program!

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Upcoming Events

2014-2015 October 20-23, 2014

December 2-5, 2014

R7HSA 2014 Head Start/Early

R7HSA 2014 Management

Head Start Director’s Caucus

Acceleration Program (MAP)

Hilton Garden Inn

overland park, ks

Independence, MO IOWA

KANSAS

MISSOURI

NEBRASKA

THE FIVE YEAR FUNDING CYCLE

October 20, 2014

February 18-19, 2015

R7HSA 2014 Policy Summit

Training for Program and

In conjunction with the Director’s Caucus

Fiscal Management Staff

Hilton Garden Inn

Holiday Inn Hotel - 9103 E. 39th St.

Independence, MO

Kansas City, MO

SAVE THE DATE - JUNE 2015 ANNUAL LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE Making a Difference for Over Fifty Years

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Head Start Sandbox | Summer 2014

Your message. Fast.

DIRECT

|

PERSONAL

|

TARGETED

POWERED BY

TEXT MESSAGE (SMS)

WEB SYNDICATION (RSS)

EMAIL

Head Start Connect is an innovative resource that ensures families and staff are quickly made aware of updated information and emergency situations.

TWITTER INTEGRATION

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FACEBOOK INTEGRATION

MOBILE WEB (WAP)

A MASS NOTIFICATION SERVICE FOR GOVERNMENT, SCHOOLS, MEDIA, BUSINESSES

CLASSROOM UPDATES EMERGENCY MESSAGING INCLEMENT WEATHER/SCHOOL CLOSINGS SECURITY MEASURES DEVELOP USER GROUPS SUPPORTS EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS PLAN BUILDS STRONG FAMILY PARTNERSHIPS ASSISTS PROGRAMS IN MAINTAINING HSPS COMPLIANCE

To learn more, call 816.210.9649 or visit textcaster.com

Summer 2014 | Head Start Sandbox

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MO Valley Community Action

El Dorado Springs Head Start

Region VII Celebrates

RED, WHITE & BLUE DAY

September 17, 2014

Blue Valley Community Action Northeast Iowa Community Action

Sieda Community Action