Head Start Awarded AmeriCorps Grant/"FamilyServe"
The Head Start Bureau, Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF), has been awarded an AmeriCorps grant of $532,000 to support volunteers in the Indian and Migrant Head Start programs. The project is entitled FamilyServe.
The mission of the Head Start AmeriCorps program is to use national service as a catalyst in strengthening children, families, and communities in two traditionally undeserved and isolated populations: American Indian and migrant farm worker communities. The program will seek to use Head Start's comprehensive community based approach to improve quality of early childhood development and family support services, build the capacities of the communities by increasing knowledge of child development and parenting skills among the families served, and draw together diverse communities by increasing knowledge of child development and parenting skills among the families served, and draw together diverse community institutions to support families.
Seventy-five percent of the AmeriCorps team members will be drawn from the host Indian and migrant farm worker communities. Particular attention will be given to increasing early childhood development knowledge and skills among the members, as well as enhancing their skills and commitment to long term community service. The educational awards given at the end of the community service years(s) will enable AmeriCorps members to complete at least one year of post secondary education.
ACYF is responsible for the overall administration of FamilyServe. The program will serve children and families on three American Indian reservations in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota, and two migrant farm worker communities in Florida and Texas.
ACYF's decision to pilot AmeriCorps for these populations is in response to the recommendation of the Advisory Board on Head Start Quality and Expansion that the Department provide additional support to address the special needs of these two populations that face unique issues and challenges due to geography, isolation, language, and cultural diversity.
FamilyServe will focus on three of the AmeriCorps goals: education through school readiness, human needs and health, and building community linkages. ACYF will be working with three sub grantees: the East Coast Migrant Head Start Project, the Texas Migrant Council, and the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC).
The East Coast Migrant Head Start Project has identified five Head Start centers in Hardee, Okeechobee, and Martin counties of Florida. Fifteen AmeriCorps members will work with 295 families on adult literacy and basic education, nutrition and health education, and transition to public schools.
The Texas Migrant Council has identified Hidalgo County as its service area. Fifteen AmeriCorps members will work with 26 migrant Head Start programs on literacy, community education issues which affect adolescents, and families and health education.
Thirty AmeriCorps members will be placed through the AIHEC Little Hoop Community College at Devil's Lake, North Dakota; Sinte Gleska University at Rosebud, South Dakota; and Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, Montana. The AmeriCorps members will work with Head Start and child care programs on early childhood education, alternative child care, preventive health issues, after-school recreational activities, and language and cultural enhancement program.
For additional information about FamilyServe, call the local grantees as follows: Jo Ellen Shannon of East Coast Migrant Head Start at (703) 243-7522; Blas Reyes of the Texas Migrant Council at (210) 722-5174; and Phil Baird of the United Tribes Technical College/AIHEC at (701) 255-3258, ext. 345.
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