Head Start and Child Development

Head Start is a comprehensive program designed to foster the healthy development of children from low-income families. The program provides children with daily nutritious meals, and many opportunities for social, emotional, and intellectual growth preparing them for success in school and life. The program also connects children to a health care source and provides vital family support services. Audubon Area Head Start serves a total of 2,857 children through four programs.

All Head Start services are customized to the individual child's developmental level (including children with disabilities) and consider each child's temperament, interests, and learning style. Head Start programs respect the culture, language, and family of each child. This program operates in a highly collaborative manner with local school districts and the state- funded KERA preschool program. The agency has agreements with nineteen local school districts located within the agency's sixteen county service area.

More Program Information

Program of Excellence.
Audubon Area Head Start received the Program of Achievement award from 1999- 2000, and the Program of Excellence award from 2000-2003, and now 2003-2006 from the National Head Start Association on May 28, 2003, in New York, NY. Audubon Head Start is one of 20 such programs in the United States.

NAEYC Accreditation
Audubon Area Head Start aggressively pursues a program getting all centers accredited by NAEYC's National Academy of Early Childhood Programs. Twenty-three centers are already accredited.
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Free to Grow.
Audubon Area Community Services Head Start Program was one of five programs in the US to develop a demonstration program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, as the nation's largest health philanthropy. Audubon's model (known nationally as the Kentucky Model) included a comprehensive approach to substance abuse prevention through specific strategies for strengthening families and communities. Audubon's family strengthening model has been used extensively in the replication of Free to Grow in fifteen states across the US. For a recent services summary, please click on more.
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