Annual Report 2016-17

HEAD START PROGRAM Head Start provided 354 children and their families with comprehensive developmental services, benefiting the entire family unit.

Head Start provides eligible pre-school children with the tools necessary for creating and maintaining a lifelong learning foundation for school and success in life. Head Start promotes school readiness by offering children and families supportive education in language and literacy skills, science and math, cognition and general knowledge, physical development and health, and social and emotional development. Head Start emphasizes the role of the parent as their child’s first and most important teacher. Program staff members build relationships with parents while engaging them to be advocates for their children and family. Comprehensive services to enrolled families also include social, health, nutrition, and support in goal development and implementation. Services are designed to be responsive to each child and family’s ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS: During the 2016-2017 program year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services made the first all-inclusive revision and complete reorganization of the Head Start Performance Standards since 1975. Provisions of this final rule were effective November 7, 2016. These changes to the Performance Standards will further enable New River Community Action Head Start to support high-quality health, education, nutritional, and social services and to strengthen the outcomes of the children and families served. The New River Community Action Head Start Early Learning Center located at New River Community College (NRCC) opened its doors during the fall semester of 2016. Children of parents from throughout the New River Valley who were enrolled at NRCC and met Head Start eligibility criteria received placement priority. Eleven of the eighteen children enrolled at the Head Start Early Learning Center had parents who were NRCC students.

Giles Breakfast Lions’ Club Community Garden

New River Community Action Head Start joined efforts with Radford City Public Schools to serve the needs of children and families in the City of Radford. A braided Virginia Preschool Initiative/Head Start classroom located at McHarg Elementary provided quality preschool services to nine Head Start children and nine VPI children. The partnership was so successful that both NRCA Head Start and Radford City Public Schools have agreed to expand services by adding another braided classroom at McHarg for the 2017-2018 program year. New River Community Action Head Start partnered with the Giles Breakfast Lions’ Club to educate Narrows and Pearisburg Head Start children and parents about the benefits of healthy foods and fitness. Lion Charlie Herbert brought the Pearisburg community garden into the Head Start classrooms. Club members taught children about healthy food choices and gave them the opportunity to grow plants from seed to be transplanted to the community garden. Head Start families collected the harvest from the garden as the plants grew to full maturity. Also, monthly throughout the 2016-2017 program year, Giles Breakfast Lions’ Club members provided Yoga classes to the Head Start children in Narrows and Pearisburg. Volunteers taught children and staff how to breathe calmly, how to quiet the mind, about balance, and how to take care of their bodies. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association for the Education of Young Children recommend that children should participate in activities that support the development of the whole child. Thanks to the Lions’ volunteers, Head Start children in Giles County were provided a fun and playful way to explore Yoga in their classrooms. Giles Breakfast Lions’ Club volunteers provided Yoga classes ƌĂŝĚĞĚ sŝƌŐŝŶŝĂ WƌĞƐĐŚŽŽů /ŶŝƟĂƟǀĞͬ,ĞĂĚ ^ƚĂƌƚ ĐůĂƐƐƌŽŽŵ located at McHarg Elementary

www.newrivercommunityaction.org

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