The federal Administration for Children and Families awarded the funding to Miami Valley Development Centers for families below the poverty level in the five-county area it serves.
“Seven years ago, our agency only served 102 infants and toddlers. In 2009 a competitive grant allowed us to get 286 more. Now, we’ll be serving 688,” said Mary Burns, the CEO of MVDC.
That is a 575 percent increase.
Creative World of Learning, an early childhood school with centers located in Montgomery, Green and Clark counties, is one of the local providers that will expand its partnership with Head Start as a result of the grant.
“This is really going to allow us to make a significant investment in the infant and toddler population in our area,” President Karen Lampe said. “Research has demonstrated that those early experiences are just so critical to a child’s life.”
Early Head Start provides developmental screenings as well as health and educational assessments to children of low-income families. The program also aids in social and emotional development.
“What surprises most people is that we start educational experiences in our infant room,” Lampe said. “We do baby sign language to help children with language development and help improve their fine motor development.”
The grant will also provide about $400,000 annually for professional training and development for teachers at the partner centers.
“We’re really excited about it. We all know that preschool really does help children be ready for kindergarten,” Burns said. “Our studies demonstrate that infants and toddlers who were in Head Start have much higher success rates in the future.”
Of the 300 slots available, approximately 250 will be open in Clark, Madison and Montgomery counties. New programming will be offered in Butler county, where 30 slots are available, and Greene county, where 20 slots are available. Partnership opportunities will be available to 18 private child care centers and 15 family child care providers, Burns said.
The grant will be distributed over 54 months in disbursements of $4.1 million annually.
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