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Canton, Ohio-based attorney Corey Minor Smith is a long-time client, associate, and friend of The Gravely Group. She is a former Head Start parent and Board Member, speaker, and mental health advocate. She has recently written her debut book, titled #Driven, a resource for family and friends that care for a loved one living with…

In Head Start, shared governance is something we live by every day. From the very beginning, the framers of Head Start wanted to provide parents and community representatives with the authority and opportunity to participate in share decision-making concerning program design and implementation. But as we know, as human beings, we sometimes disagree. That’s completely…

2019 is not just the end of a year, but the end of a decade. What a decade it was! It all started in January 2010 with the release of the Head Start Impact study final report. A monumental, and sometimes controversial, report that found agencies across the country fielding questions from reporters: Has it…

As a Head Start consultant, I often find myself as the only man in a room full of women. It’s true, Head Start, and early childhood education in general, is dominated by women – staff, volunteers, and of course, mothers. It’s in rooms just like these that I’m often talking about the value of father…

As a Head Start leader, building relationships within your local receiving schools is one of the best ways to both understand and plan for the process of transitioning a child from Head Start to kindergarten. However, as with most things, that doesn’t just happen automatically or overnight. It takes time to form a plan, and…

Some of our favorite Head Start stories are the ones that start in Head Start, and end in Head Start. We meet so many individuals who attended Head Start as children, and are now on staff at a Head Start program. It can be a very powerful recruitment tool to be able to tell parents…

If you’re not currently reading the Fatherhood Connection e-newsletter and webinar series from ECLKC, we highly recommend that you make a commitment to read it and share it with other staff. The Office of Head Start has made it clear over and over that engaging families in the education of children – whether mothers, fathers,…

October 2014 seems like just yesterday, when programs across the country were engaging with their local media to celebrate 50 years of Head Start. While this October might not have the same big 50 year milestone, it’s still worth noting that, as one of the longest-running anti-poverty programs in US history, the history and purpose…

According to Sec 642(c) of the Head Start Act, all Head Start designees are required to have a formal structure for program governance, including the formation of a governing body and policy council. The section goes into detail about the responsibilities of the board and policy council, including the composition of each group and who…

Employees are one of the most important resources we have in Head Start. Last week, we announced a new training, Onboarding your Head Start Staff. While we have always included elements of employee onboarding in our trainings, as part of our comprehensive Knowledge Management system, we have separated onboarding into its own stand-alone training. With…