Head Start Store Promotes Parent Involvement
by Phara N Fondren, Parent Involvement Coordinator, Metropolitan Action Commission, Nashville, Tennessee
The Metropolitan Action Commission (MAC) Head Start program in Nashville, Tennessee, is always seeking innovative ways to stimulate parent involvement among the 1,025 children and families it serves. The MAC program, like all other programs, is facing new challenges to involving parents in significant and meaningful ways. The potluck dinners, classroom parties, parent contacted speakers, and other com mon avenues, do offer a form of stimulation. However, what MAC found was that parents - like children - like to be rewarded. Thus the concept of the MAC Head Start Store was born.
Realizing that most of the parents lived on fixed incomes and most received food stamps, MAC wanted to find a way not only to stimulate parent involvement in their child's life, but also to assist them improvising basic needs for their families without having to use actual currency.
Parents who volunteer in the program - in whatever capacity - earn a Head Start "dollar" for each hour volunteered. They are always "paid" on the same day as they volunteer. Accumulation of these "dollars" affords them the opportunity to shop in the store which is opened once per month. The store is stocked with items which cannot be purchased with food stamps, such as diapers, sheets, blankets, towels, cleaning agents, dishes, pots, pans, soap, toothpaste, clothing, shoes, furniture, and many other items which are essential to basic survival.
Some of the stock was donated by local businesses which responded to a request for assistance. First Security Bank and American General Insurance were the first businesses to respond. MAC is relying heavily, but not solely, upon donations from local businesses as well as from Head Start employees and individuals in the community.
Parents also gain valuable experience and develop skills which could aid them in obtaining employment. Parents are given an opportunity to learn how to manage, stock shelves, and conduct inventories.
The grand opening of the store was held on October 29, 1993, with a ribbon cutting ceremony. The local media was in attendance and the response of the parents was phenomenal!
In addition to generating a substantial response from parents, the store has significantly increased parent involvement in each of MAC's nine centers.
For additional information, contact Phara N. Fondren, Parent Involvement Coordinator, or Gwen Chambliss, Head Start Director, MAC Head Start, 1624 5th Avenue North, Nashville, TN 37208. 615/ 862-8860.
"Putting the Family Together Again" Video
Attention to programs confronting substance abuse situations with staff members or parents: This video has been developed by a Parent-Child Center through its Head Start substance abuse capacity-building grant. A copy can be ordered for $10 plus $3.50 postage from Maureen Morland, Parent Child Services, Inc., 909 NE 52nd Ave., Portland, CR97213. For more information, call 503/236-9389, Ext. 109.