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PURPOSE
The Community Action Partnership of Kern has
provided quality child education and development services in
Kern
County
for 35 years and counting, and has continued to grow and expand
services to children and families.
The mission of the Partnership’s Head Start program is to
help break the cycle of poverty by providing preschool children of
low-income families with a comprehensive program that addresses the
child’s needs in all areas of development:
educational, emotional, social, health, nutritional, physical,
and mental health. No
other program for young children is as comprehensive or reaches into
so many areas of the child’s life.
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Head Start is unique.
In 1965, Project Head Start was launched as
an eight-week summer program by the Federal Government, Office of
Economic Opportunity (OEO), to help break the cycle of poverty.
Eligibility of children 0-5 years of age is determined by the
parents’ annual income, based on Federal poverty income guidelines,
and also includes special needs children.
In 1969, HS was transferred from the OEO to the Dept. of
Health, Education, and Welfare; and currently operates under the
Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Dept. of Health and Human Services. The
Partnership’s Head Start/Early Head Start programs operate under the
Child Education and Development
Services (CEDS) division. |
The CEDS division promises to provide
access to comprehensive cognitive, intellectual, physical, mental
health, and nutritional services, with the overall goal of providing a
greater degree of social competence and effectiveness for school
readiness, and instilling the responsibility of self-sufficiency in
young children and their families.
CEDS accomplishes its mission by providing wide-ranging
programs with a holistic focus on the family, encouraging parental
involvement and participation, building community partnerships, and
providing access to community based services.
Parent involvement is essential to the child’s success in the
program. Parents are the
primary educators of their children.
Parents provide input and assistance in a number of areas,
including the classroom, Policy Council, special activities, and
events. Under CEDS, the
Partnership’s HS/EHS program maintains 52 centers throughout
Kern
County.
Through the centers and a Home Based Program CEDS
provides extensive services to nearly 3,000 children annually.
Most child development centers are located on elementary school
campuses, thereby, facilitating the transition of children from
preschool to kindergarten. Center
based and Home Based HS/EHS programs are located throughout Kern County.
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ELIGIBILITY
Center Based and Home Based
programs are located throughout Kern County. Children 3-5
years of age are eligible by parent's annual income based on federal
poverty income guidelines, including special needs children.
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The
2008 Community Assessment has been completed.
Read the document here.
If you can not read it, you may need to install the Adobe Reader.
Get the reader here.
The
2009
Community Assessment Update Workbook is now available. The update workbook is the
instrument that local folk and staff use to gather information to assess their
community’s EHS/HS needs. To get a copy of the workbook that you can save to your
own computer, click here.
This is a Microsoft Word document and will require Word 2003 or higher or the
Microsoft Word Viewer 2003. To obtain the viewer, click
here.
Viewer Issues:
1. The viewer will not allow you to make changes or save the document.
2. To install the viewer, you must be an administrative user on your computer.
3. File size is 11 Megabytes, which will take a long time on a dial-up connection. If you have
a dial-up connection, have a friend get the file for you and bring it to you on a CD-ROM
or a flash drive.
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HEAD START PROGRAM