Federal stimulus dollars headed for Youth In Need families

Youth In Need will be receiving $2.4 million in federal stimulus dollars to expand child development and family support services in St. Louis City and St. Charles, Lincoln, Warren and Montgomery Counties. The agency will be adding 46 Head Start slots that serve families with children, ages 3 to 5; and 165 Early Head Start slots for families with children, ages birth to 3. The program expansion comes as a result of federal funding Youth In Need received as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.

The agency received approximately 20 percent of the available funding in Missouri and is the only organization to receive Head Start and Early Head Start expansion dollars in the greater St. Louis region, according to a press release.

The expansion slots are allocated to: St. Charles County, 30 slots; Lincoln County, 16 slots; Warren County, 38 slots; Montgomery County, 23 slots; and St. Louis City, 104 slots.

“This expansion adds quality and capacity to our services, enables parents to stay in school or the workforce, and allows Youth In Need as an employer to add jobs,” said Daryl Rothman, Youth In Need’s vice president of Head Start for the four-county area outside St. Louis City. “There are vast numbers of underserved families who will benefit from these services, and we are thrilled to meet these community needs.”

Since 1974, Youth In Need has provided services for children and families in crisis, particularly runaway and homeless youth. In order to prevent crisis and strengthen families while children are young, Youth In Need expanded its services to include early childhood programs when it became a Head Start provider in 1998.

“We will be adding more than 50 new jobs to the economy and increasing by 17 percent the number of children and families we can help who are most affected by the difficult economic conditions,” said Jim Braun, Youth In Need’s president and CEO.

“This funding provides Youth In Need with great opportunities to partner with school districts and other service agencies, so that we’re all working together and maximizing resources to support children and families, rather than competing for them. Everybody wins—the children, their families, the communities and the local economy,” Rothman said.

Head Start and Early Head Start services are offered in center-based or home-based programs. Center-based services assist working families or those attending school or a trade program by providing educational services in both full-and part-day settings. Children attend a classroom environment to prepare for kindergarten, and parents are encouraged to take an active role in their child’s learning environment.

Home-based services facilitate the involvement of family in meeting a child’s needs at home—their primary learning environment. Home visitors meet weekly with each family in their home for 90 minutes. Families also have two group meetings a month so children can experience a classroom setting.

Home visitors help parents enhance their parenting skills and learn how to be their child’s best teacher. Both center-based and home-based services assess family needs and assist parents in finding health and dental care, employment, education and other services. Head Start services are offered at no-cost to families who meet income eligibility.

Approximately $2.1 billion was available nationwide for expansion of Head Start and Early Head Start services. A major portion of the expansion funds were allocated for the Early Head Start program across the country to increase enrollment by 55,000 children, ages birth to 3. Currently, 600 programs serve 45,000 Early Head Start children nationwide; ARRA funding doubles the scope of services to families with children in this age range.

Youth In Need is an eastern Missouri regional agency serving more than 10,000 children, teens and families each year with residential group homes, homeless street outreach, education, counseling and support groups, foster care case management and infant, child and family development programs.