Designing EHS Programs in Changing Times: Six Programs That Have Met the Challenge

Early Head Start programs are constantly adapting to meet the diverse and changing needs of very young children and families across the country. Each of the six programs featured here has developed dynamic and innovative ways to meet their families' needs.

Child Development, Inc.
Russellville, Arkansas
For Child Development, Inc. (CDI), Early Head Start has been an exercise in change from the outset. CDI has offered infant and toddler care for the past 13 years, before Early Head Start–or even Parent Child Centers– existed. So when CDI looked into developing an Early Head Start program, it had to consider how Head Start regulations and the Program Performance Standards would change the way they'd done business for quite some time. Some of the major challenges they encountered were the differences between their state requirements concerning staff-child ratios and the Program Performance Standards. CDI also had to manipulate their existing centers, which were constructed for larger group sizes. The program worked to change their room environment by putting up walls and purchasing equipment.

CDI is a large agency, serving over 2,000 children across 13 counties in a variety of programs, including Migrant/Seasonal Head Start; Starting Early, Starting Smart; and preschool Head Start. CDI's Early Head Start program primarily provides center-based services in its six rural locations. Each program is located within a child care center that provides Head Start and Developmental Child Care services along with Early Head Start. This design provides seamless service delivery for children from birth to age 12. But CDI is also a flexible program, providing home-based services when there is a family need. Jana Gifford, EHS director, feels that it is very important for an EHS program to be designed to meet the needs of the community, and not the other way around. "We serve a number of teenage mothers," says Gifford, "and often when they are home from school in the summer they prefer to keep their babies at home. We will shape our program to meet that need."

Building strong relationships with parents is a crucial element of CDI's program. CDI weaves parent training into its services, offering education and skill building training to parents. Also, the same teachers who care for the infants and toddlers during the day are responsible for working closely with parents to involve them in activities with their children at night, developing strong bonds between staff members and families.

Mid-Iowa Community Action Agency
Marshalltown, Iowa
This rural program serves 69 Early Head Start children across five counties. However, EHS is only a portion of the agency's total array of services, which also includes Head Start for preschool children. Mid-Iowa primarily offers home-based services, and as a part of its program design a team of one Infant-Toddler Specialist and one Family Development Specialist works in each county with families. Kathie Readout, EHS director, feels that this two-person system is a very important part of the services they provide. "Often," says Readout, "child development services can be lost when only one staff person goes in–families have so many daily crisies to work on." She feels it's important to have two people to work with each family, each with a specific purpose–one to work with the family and one to focus on child development.

While the program has offered home-based services since the first day of operation, the community's needs are changing, and Mid-Iowa Community Action is planning on providing center-based services starting in the summer of 2000. A major catalyst for this change has been welfare reform, which has resulted in more families in training
or working.

And though the change to center-based services is an exciting aspect in the program's growth, Readout is finding that her families feel strongly that home-based services should still be offered. In this rural area, many Head Start and Early Head Start families can be isolated. The relationships that are developed between families and the EHS staff members become important to both parties. So Mid-Iowa Community Action plans to develop a menu of program options, including center- and home-based services.

Mid-Iowa Community Action also works closely with family child care providers to meet the need of its families. "Sixty to eighty percent of children in Iowa who are in care outside the home are in family child care," says Readout."That's a lot of children and a lot of opportunities for collaboration and quality improvement." Mid-Iowa Head Start works closely with its local family child care providers, developing agreements that specify training requirements and, in return, offer increased compensation. Readout recommends that EHS programs look ahead to see how their families' dynamics and needs are changing, and mold their program to meet those needs.

Project Eagle
University of Kansas Medical Center
Kansas City, Kansas
Project Eagle uses a blended method of funding to serve over 200 Head Start children, almost all of them infants and toddlers. About half of the children are funded through Federal Early Head Start money, while the remaining slots are funded through state money and contributions from their unified city government. In fact, Project Eagle does not receive any preschool Head Start money from the federal government – all of its funding for preschool services comes from the state.

Martha Staker, the Early Head Start Director, reports that this blended funding model represents Project Eagle's commitment to doing business in creative ways. Project Eagle has also created a unique system for offering its families four program options: 1) home-based services; 2) combination services with intensive home visits; 3) advanced combination services with less intensive home visits; and 4) center-based services for infants and toddlers who are at risk. Project Eagle provides this variety to meet the range of families' needs in the community. But Project Eagle did not always offer this menu of options–it started as a solely home-based program. With the advent of welfare reform, though, more and more parents needed care outside the home.

This need for center-based services provided an exciting opportunity for Project Eagle to reach out to the local child care community. The organization decided to contract out for all of its center-based services, but they understood that this would not be possible without agreements aimed to improve the quality of local centers. So Project Eagle developed four types of agreements for the early care and education community to make this arrangement possible.

1. The first is with the participating child care agency. It states that the agency will: meet the Program Performance Standards; identify staff to participate in three courses offered by the local community colleges on early care and education specific to infants and toddlers; help staff members develop a professional development plan; and participate in center assessments using recognized instruments.

2. The second is signed by each teacher working with Head Start children. He or she agrees to attend courses and additional classes at the local community college and to plan for CDA credentialing. Staff salary enhancements are included into this design in the form of annual bonuses and tuition reimbursement with stipends for attending classes.

3. The third agreement is written with each parent, stating that they agree to participate in two assessments at the center.

4. The fourth agreement is written with the local community colleges, stating that the college agrees to provide specific early care and education courses and to integrate CDA assessment into its course design.

Once the contracts have been signed, Project Eagle sets up a schedule to monitor classroom quality among its participating centers. Both a Child Care Coordinator and a Child Care Specialist travel to each center once every two weeks to make ongoing assessments. Staker has found this endeavor to be very positive, but not an easy task. "It takes some time for a center to 'get there,'"says Staker. "We work with them and provide financial support, and training and technical assistance services."

In this way, Project Eagle has been able to reach out to the broader child care community to increase the quality of care for all children. Project Eagle has worked deliberately within a theory of change across all program options. Staker works with her home visitors to enforce the idea that they are agents of change, working for improved outcomes for children and families.

"I have been in social services for 20 years," says Staker, "and this is the most exciting project I've ever worked with. I feel that we are really making changes in people's lives, starting at the earliest moments."

Baltimore Friends of the Family, Inc.
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore Friends of Family, Inc., has been working with pregnant mothers, infants, and toddlers for years–long before Early Head Start began. And the program has built upon its strengths to create a quality program that works to meet the changing needs of the families it serves.

Baltimore Friends of Family EHS has three delegate agencies, one in an urban area and two in rural parts of the state. A total of 148 children are served. This diversity has prompted the program to offer a combination model of services to its families, changing the program often to meet the individual needs of a family. "What's nice about our program," commented Clare Siegel, Grantee Coordinator for the EHS program, "is that parents aren't stuck in one model of services. Some parents fit into the 90 minutes a week home-visiting schedule and others need all center-based care. Others combine these two options, and their combination can revolve with the child coming into the center more days one week than the next." With parents entering the workforce and participating in job training, this flexible menu of options has been very effective.

One of the challenges that Friends of the Family EHS currently faces is continuing to keep parents involved, given their busy schedules. "We believe strongly in the model of family support," says Siegel, "and we weave it into everything that we do." To help get parents interested in activities at the centers, Friends of the Family offers adult education and GED training along with parenting classes. Siegel has found that once parents come into the center for these types of services, they can begin to see the benefits of being involved.

Carman-Ainsworth Community Schools
Flint, Michigan
The Carman-Ainsworth Community Schools Head Start functions as both a Head Start delegate agency serving almost 300 preschoolers and as an EHS grantee serving 75 pregnant women, infants, and toddlers. The program also provides other preschool services, Even Start, and adult education. With all of these services running simultaneously, Carman-Ainsworth has the challenge of working in a school district, where many of its partners are not familiar with the year-round nature of EHS.

"It is important to explain that our services don't start in September and end in June," says Carolyn Rutledge, EHS Director. "The computer systems are set up so that they work on a nine-month calendar." Carolyn is working to broaden understanding within her school district of what EHS is and how it functions, while at the same time building support for the program among her partners.

Carman-Ainsworth primarily offers home-based services to its families, but center-based services are available for families who need care during the day due to training or a new job. The program has a long history of home visiting–it is in its ninth year of offering Even Start services–but recently the program has been facing new challenges. "We have recently had to hire four new home visitors," said Carolyn, "and usually we have our seasoned home visitors act as mentors to our new staff." What she has come to realize recently, however, is that the "seasoned" home visitors really needed training in how to effectively mentor a new staff member. "There is a difference between letting someone observe what you're doing and explaining to them why you're doing what you're doing and getting that new staff member involved," says Carolyn.

Carolyn is dedicated to helping her staff do the best job possible. When asked what element of her program she was most proud of, she was quick to mention her dedicated staff.

University of Pittsburgh
Office of Child Development
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The University of Pittsburgh's EHS program is primarily a home-based program serving 150 children. However, the university has realized that many of their families need care outside the home. To meet this need, the program relies heavily on collaborations with local child care centers to provide its children and families with high-quality child care.

As a part of this program design, the university has hired a highly respected staff member from the child care community to visit local child care centers and provide assessments on their strengths and weaknesses. Based on this evaluation, the EHS program develops cooperative agreements for funding and training. An Improvement Plan is also developed so that the programs can work together to increase classroom quality. Issues commonly addressed include staff-child ratios and staff qualifications. Vivian Herman, EHS director, has observed that child care and family child care staff are usually very receptive to increased training. "Most staff want additional training," says Herman.

High-quality child care is the most important thing to Herman, but finding the resources to make this possible is her greatest challenge. "The cost of quality is unbelievable," says Herman, "and we have to come to an agreement with centers to help them in this area." The program also works to inform parents about what makes a quality child care program, so they can make informed decisions when choosing care.

While child care is an important aspect of its EHS program, the university truly values its home visiting services. "Home visiting works!" says Herman. "Home visiting allows you to work with the whole family to provide support and effect change." She also emphasizes that the program works because of its qualified and committed staff. Herman stresses the importance of a common philosophy and vision about the program's goals. This includes making sure that everyone understands the Head Start Program Performance Standards.

 

For more information on
these programs, contact:

Child Development, Inc.
P.O. Box 2110
Russellville, Arkansas 72811
T: 501-968-6493

Mid-Iowa Community Action
1001 South 18th Avenue
Marshalltown, Iowa 50158
T: 515-752-7162

Project Eagle
University of Kansas Medical Center
Gateway Center Tower 2
Suite 1001
Fourth and State Avenue
Kansas City, Kansas 66101
T: 913-281-2648

Baltimore Friends of
the Family, Inc
1001 Eastern Ave, 2nd Floor
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
T: 410-659-7701

Carman–Ainsworth Community Schools
G 3475 West Court St.
Flint, Michigan 48532
T: 810-234-3600

University of Pittsburgh
Office of Child Development
1811 Boulevard of the Allies
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15219
T: 412-281-3811