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Announcement:

Maria T. Candamil, New Chief of the Migrant Programs Branch of the Head Start Bureau

Prior to joining the Head Start Bureau as Chief of the Migrant Programs Branch in May of 1996, Maria T. Candamil worked in the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB), also in the Administration on Children, Youth and Families in the Department of Health and Human Services as coordinator of the Youth Gang Drug Prevention Program. The Program was established by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act.

As coordinator of the program, Ms. Candamil was responsible for planning, developing, and managing the program's grant and contract initiatives.

In October 1994, she was appointed Director of the Program Support Division which was responsible for the Youth Gang Drug Prevention, as well as demonstration and support efforts under the Runaway and Homeless Youth programs.

Ms. Candamil recently completed an assignment to the President's Council on Crime Prevention, which was established under the 1994 Crime Bill, and which is chaired by Vice President Gore. In its first year, the Council focused on prevention programs which targeted youth.

Prior to joining FYSB, Maria held a variety of senior analyst positions in the Office of Human Development Services, the Social Security Administration, and the Office of Child Support Enforcement. She started her career working with the U.S. Air Force at Andrews AFB, Clark AB (Philippines), the Pentagon, and finally Ramstein AB (Germany). She holds a B.A. in Behavioral and Social Sciences from the University of Maryland.

The Head Start Bureau welcomes Maria to her new position and anticipates that the wealth and breadth of her experience and interest will greatly enhance and strengthen the Migrant Programs Branch.

Interview with Maria T. Candamil:

BULLETIN: Congratulations on your new position.

MARIA: Thank you. I'm very excited about this opportunity. I realize that it will be difficult following Frank Fuentes who strengthened the quality of the Migrant Branch programs before going to the Child Care Bureau. The staff here at the Bureau is really top-notch, and I've received a lot of support from other Head Start colleagues. So I'm looking forward to the challenge of leading the Branch with all this support.

BULLETIN: Even though you've only been here for a short time, have there been any highlights?

MARIA: A lot--many of them connected to the six OSPRIs I've been on. This has been an incredible way to learn about the program firsthand. I reviewed some of the components myself and had a chance to see programs from a reviewer's point of view as well as a team leader's. I've been very impressed by the reviewers I've met. They are not only extremely knowledgeable about their field, but also deeply committed to Head Start. Many of them use their vacation time to participate in these reviews--and in the migrant programs reviews are usually to remote rural areas requiring long travel times, erratic schedules, and accommodations.

Another highlight has been meeting parents, especially the ones on the Parent Committee sand Policy Councils. Migrant parents frequently work 12 to 14 hours a day and six to seven days a week during the height of their harvest season. Yet so many parents still find time to volunteer in Head Start activities and be an integral part in decision making at the grantee level. I've also met many center staff who started out as migrant parents volunteering at centers and eventually earned their GEDs and CDAs. These are great accomplishments.

BULLETIN: What new efforts are underway in the migrant programs?

MARIA: We've been working on developing a long-range plan with the assistance of the National Migrant Head Start Association Affiliate Groups. Members of the executive committees came to Washington in mid-June to discuss with us the critical issues facing migrant families and the Head Start programs that serve them. As you can imagine, the impact of welfare reform was at the top of the list. Many of the issues identified by the Affiliates will be focused on at our National Conference to be held the last week of January 1997 in Washington, DC.

The long-range plan will continue to emphasize improving services for children and families; supporting quality improvements in programming, staff development, and CDA credentialing; and improving partnerships among centers, other local community agencies, and State Collaboration Offices.

I also want to work more with other Head Start Regional Offices--especially where we fund the same organizations. Recently we conducted an OSPRI with Region VIII staff. Both of our teams looked at the grantee's administration and fiscal components while also looking at the migrant program components. This process allowed us to speak to the grantee in a unified voice on common issues while still being able to address the uniqueness of the program. Additionally, it helped regional staff to learn from one another.

The Migrant Branch has gained three new staff. Their project officer responsibilities have been re-organized to spread the workload more evenly. The new staff are Lisa Cyr, who worked in Head Start Region I, and Quinton Lynch and Dennis Penland, who worked in Grants Management. Betty Kelson, Sandra Carton, Sharon Yandian, and Faye Ferguson are the current staff at the national office who will be helping to educate us on the unique aspects of the migrant program.

Another of my goals is to unmask some of the misconceptions about migrant families. I want people to know how hard migrant parents work, how responsible they are, and how they contribute to our economy and our society. I want people to know how they save us money because of their willingness to migrate to our vegetable and fruit fields on a seasonable basis and work under conditions which are frequently intolerable and unstable.

BULLETIN: Is there anything you would like to add?

MARIA: I especially want people to understand the nature and value of the migrant population and the unique challenges that Migrant Head Start programs deal with on a daily basis. For example, as we implement welfare reform, Migrant Head Start programs can share a great deal of knowledge and experience on serving the needs of working parents.

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