By Diane Petryk
NORTHUMBERLAND -- A pair of grants worth a combined total of just over $1 million will cover the tuition costs for 76 children in Early Head Start Programs in Northumberland County and allow an identical program, based in Union County, to expand and hire staff.
The 76 openings in Northumberland County are made possible by a $894,015 federal grant designed to serve the project for two years, according to Jennifer Spotts, spokesman for Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit, that will administer the program. The CSIU serves 17 school districts in five counties, but this grant is for Northumberland county only.
“We’re very excited about it,” she said.
A similar grant for $140,235 will allow for 16 additional Early Head Start clients served by Snyder Union Mifflin Child Development, Inc., said its assistant executive director, Patty Edwards.
The grant will allow SUMCD’s home-based Early Head Start program, already serving 114 in the three counties, to expand to a combination home and center-based program and hire four to six employees.
The new participants will be between the ages 2 and a half to 3 and a half. There is a waiting list, but new referrals are always accepted, Edwards said. The neediest are given priority.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will provide the grant funds.
Applications are being sought for 76 new Early Head Start openings for Northumberland County children up to age 3. Pregnant women may also apply.
The free program will require hiring 18 to 20 child development workers and is slated to begin in February.
The families must meet income and need criteria. Job applicants are being sought at a various educational levels. The phone number for all inquiries is 570-523-1155, extension 2240.
SUMCD’s centers are in Mifflinburg on Chestnut Street and in Reedville on Taylor Park Drive. The home-based-only program is on a weekly basis serving pregnant women, infants, and toddlers up to age 3.
SUMCD may be contacted at its Central Office in Mifflinburg at 14 South 11th Street or by calling 570-966-2845.
The Northumberland program center is on Route 61 in Stonington, between Sunbury and Shamokin. Children participating in the new program there will visit the center for four hours two times a week and will be visited at home every other week, Spotts said.
Childhood learning is not the only focus of Early Head Start, she said. It’s a comprehensive service that offers nurse visits, nutrition counseling, parenting help, and family guidance.
Edwards said participating families need to be at or below the poverty level for their size family.
Spotts said her agency sets the level at 130 percent of poverty.
She said they will be hiring from applicants with high school diplomas, associate’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees and those with special child development credentials. The jobs will be filled by the end of December, she said, with training to take place in January.
“The program should be up and running by February,” she said.
In announcing the grants, Rep. Chris Carney said they will help strengthen the critical work of Early Head Start programs in our region.
Early Head Start was created in 1995 after research showed that the early years of life are crucial to healthy development, Carney said.
According to his office, The Recovery Act is providing grants worth nearly $1.2 billion for Early Head Start expansion nationwide. An additional $1 billion worth of grants is going to regular Head Start programs. They began in 1965 for eligible 4- and 5-year old preschoolers.
