NAACP and NHSA Announce Joint Initiative to Help Empower Families
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Head Start Association (NHSA) recently announced a “historic joint initiative” in which the two associations will work together to empower Head Start families and provide them with crucial information through multiple directives. The Memorandum of Understanding will utilize Head Start’s comprehensive, two generation approach in order to help in facilitating three core directives:
- Voter Registration
- Healthcare
- Housing Advocacy
All three of these directives have a main focus, to help serve as a way of educating and empowering vulnerable families and the communities they serve in. Each of these directives has a root in helping create strong family bonds, a stable household environment and an everlasting impact on children learning from their parents.
By organizing voter registration drives at Head Start centers, crucial tools and information will help to bridge gaps in the voting process as well as provide Head Start parents with voter guides with state-specific information about how to register and vote.
Along with the information about the voting process, Head Start parents will also be educated and given resources to help them enroll for health care coverage and access to medical care. In order to stabilize the family and home as well as ensure the family is prepared for their own lifelong success, the Head Start families will also have access to fair housing advocacy tools.
“We are proud to partner with the NAACP to open up the democratic process for Head Start families, and ensure access to critical health and housing opportunities,” said NHSA Executive Director Yasmina Vinci. “Head Start has always emphasized that parents are their children’s first teachers and a program’s most important partner. Expanding access to these resources is a crucial part of breaking the cycle of poverty and empowering families to achieve their own goals for education, employment, stability, and success.”
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