HEAD START CENTER DESIGN GUIDE

This chapter discusses the groups and processes that may be involved in planning and designing a Head Start center; standards for design and operations; and the goals and objectives for center design and operation.

2.1 Program Goals and Objectives

The design of a center should meet the needs of children, teachers, administrators, and parents. GSA has recommended that planners take the following steps:

• Provide a safe, nurturing learning environment.
• Support the staff's care of children by creating environments that allow them to focus on the care and nurturing of children. The design should provide features that encourage strong, positive relationships between staff and children, and should also be highly functional.
• Create an environment that comfortably accommodates the needs of well-qualified staff in order to attract and retain them.
• Facilitate family involvement in the center, particularly by the child's caregivers.
• Respond to local conditions, climate, and regional preferences in the design, while also considering the goals of the curriculum, the parents, sponsoring agency(ies), and governing boards of directors.
• Create an environment that attests to a high level of commitment in providing appropriate, well-thought-out, and beautiful environments for children.
• Design through the eyes of a child, with sensitivity to children's scale, including how they will use the space, what they will see, and what kind of experiences they will have.
• Size the classroom to use space efficiently and make supervision easy.
• Provide durable and cost-effective materials and details that will stand up under the expected intensity of use. The designer should be particularly sensitive to the cost and useful life of materials.
• Establish a distinctly child-oriented environment. The impression created by the design should be the antithesis of a typical institutional setting. In other words, the center should feel like home to the child.
• Create an accessible but cost-effective center for the disabled, staff, parents, and children.