Child Care Associates Secures $112 Million+ Grant for Head Start, Early Head Start Services

Fort Worth, TX, August 5, 2015 (Newswire.com) - Child Care Associates (CCA), a nonprofit organization of 48 years committed to positive outcomes for young children, has secured a federal grant totaling $112 million+ over five years for Head Start and Early Head Start services in Tarrant County. Through the grant, which supports high quality early learning and family services for 2,310 infants, toddlers and preschoolers annually, Child Care Associates increased its number of Early Head Start slots of children by 50% and more than doubled the funding for these infants and toddlers.  ​

CCA has been operating Head Start for 47 years and Early Head Start, 17 years.

"Head Start and Early Head Start programs in our Tarrant County local communities represent a significant investment in helping ensure young children from lower-income families arrive ready for success in school."

Kara Waddell, President/CEO

“Children from disadvantaged families typically arrive at kindergarten at least one year behind their advantaged peers,” says Kara Waddell, President/CEO of CCA. “Head Start and Early Head Start programs in our Tarrant County local communities represent a significant investment in helping ensure young children from lower-income families arrive ready for success in school.”

Head Start has a “whole child” focus that not only supports early education, but also ensures a comprehensive approach to social, emotional, physical and cognitive development.  Head Start children and families receive additional services they need such as health services, screening and referrals in the community.

“We are excited at Child Care Associates to secure the Head Start grant and to work in close partnership with our community and corporate partners, civic leaders and school districts to help ensure our youngest and most fragile students are beginning to make the academic and social progress they need for success.” said Dr. Wilma David-May, CCA’s Board Chair who is also a foster parent. “I’ve had a foster child in our Head Start program in recent years and experienced firsthand the dramatic improvements our child made while in the program.”

In applying for the funding, Child Care Associates proposed some significant changes to respond to needs in the community and to ensure continuous improvement of the programs.  Those changes include:

·         To expand its Early Head Start program with doubled funding to serve 296 infants, toddlers and pregnant mothers. Research and science continue to reinforce the critical need for support for infants and toddlers and their families.  80% of brain development happens in the first three (3) years of life. 

·         To serve more preschoolers in partnership with seven (7) school districts via community-based and school-based classrooms. As Pre-K classrooms operated by local school districts are expanding in Fort Worth and beyond, CCA will serve over 800 Head Start children through joint ISD classrooms. “Braiding Pre-K and Head Start funding is an option communities have to help ensure families have choices and to ensure we have pre-K models that meet the needs of diverse children,” says Waddell. 

·         To improve classroom teachers by significantly increasing funding for teachers’ salaries. By year’s end, Head Start and Early Head Start teachers will be better paid and have more training days and time off than ever before.

·         To add additional Family Service Advocate roles to ensure parents and families are engaged as the child’s first and most important teachers, and to ensure more fragile families connect to receive any needed community services.

·         To gather and analyze additional data to help ensure the program is responding to community needs and connecting performance in early childhood classrooms with later performance in Kindergarten through 3rd grade.

About Child Care Associates

Child Care Associates operates 24 child development centers in Fort Worth, Arlington and across Tarrant County employing over 500 early childhood educators, specialists and staff to deliver Head Start and Early Head Start services. Additionally, Child Care Associates works in partnership with seven Independent School Districts (ISDs) to support 70-plus joint full-day, Pre-K/Head Start classrooms for qualifying students. School district partnerships for 2015-2016, include Fort Worth ISD, Arlington ISD, HEB ISD, Birdville ISD, Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, White Settlement ISD, and Keller ISD.

CCA, through a partnership with the Workforce Development Board of Tarrant County called Child Care Management Services (CCMS), ensures lower-income, working families can afford quality child care by providing child care subsidy assistance to over 12,000 families annually. CCMS further supports the development of quality child care and early learning in Tarrant County. CCA further provides subsidized child care and child care quality improvement in a 19-county area as Child Care Services (CCS) with the Workforce Development Board in Abilene, Texas.

Contact: Kara Waddell, President/CEO, Child Care Associates, 817.838.0055; kara.waddell@childcareassociates.org