New Head Start facility helps young families
$40,000 grant helps refurbish building for infants, toddlers
Program provides meals, child care and education for children whose parents meet income guidelines.
Valeria Jasso’s 2-year-old daughter, Angelique, has been enrolled in Santa Fe-area Head Start programs since she was 7 months old.
The federal child care and preschool programs, which provide infants and toddlers up to age 5 with nutritious meals and learning at no cost to parents who meet income guidelines, have been a godsend for Jasso.
Without them, “I wouldn’t have anybody to take her, so I couldn’t go to work,” said Jasso, 21, who is studying for a cosmetology certificate and works in a local hair salon.
Early Head Start, for children under 3, helps Angelique “with her speech and helped her learn to say her name,” Jasso said. “She also got potty-trained.”
Angelique is now enrolled in the new River Center Early Head Start. Operated by Presbyterian Medical Services at an Alto Street building owned by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Fe/Del Norte, the center opened one classroom April 16 and is planning to open two more in June after a remodel. It recently held an open house.
Larry Martinez, services director for Presbyterian’s North Central Region, said a facility on Agua Fría Street that the nonprofit had been using for its Amanecer Early Head Start was sold, forcing the program’s closure at that site. The Boys & Girls Clubs was not using all of its Alto Street building, near downtown, he said, and offered some classroom space.
Presbyterian received a $40,000 federal Community Development Block Grant through the city of Santa Fe to refurbish the building for the River Center.
It costs about $76,000 annually to operate the River Center, with the federal government paying 75 percent and local agencies contributing 25 percent. Presbyterian anticipates ongoing funding through the same sources, Martinez said.
Presbyterian operates 12 Head Start and Early Head Start centers in Santa Fe County, serving hundreds of children here and about 1,500 statewide.
Head Start provides three meals a day and care and education for children from lowincome families.
“It’s designed to try and break the cycle of poverty,” Martinez said, “so it has a dual function: It will help better equip the children to achieve better scores in school.”
The new center also “will provide a safe and healthy environment for the kids while their parents are attempting to work at their jobs or pursue educational efforts,” he added.
Free child care and preschool programs through Head Start are key for young families living at or below the poverty level, said JoLynn Catanach, children’s services manager for Presbyterian. “Many of our parents would be struggling with child care.
“It really gives the parents that opportunity to either go to school and further their education or to get a job to support their family,” she added.
Kim Straus, manager for the Santa Fe-based Brindle Foundation, attended the River Center’s recent opening with great interest. The foundation has helped fund professional staff development for Presbyterian’s Head Start workers for years, but is particularly interested in Early Head Start, for infants and toddlers, Straus said.
“Because there is such a lack of infant and toddler care in Santa Fe, we are thrilled to see these new classrooms open for those children of that age group,” Straus said.
Along with the nutrition and education the program offers infants and toddlers, Martinez sees what he terms “peripheral” benefits to their families.
“I can’t begin to tell you how many people I know who are Head Start parents … and later went on to run for school board and got elected to local school boards,” he said.
For Jasso, her daughter’s care comes with an added social bonus.
“She’s an only child,” Jasso said of Angelique, “and she has friends here, and it helps her make new friends.”
RIVER CENTER EARLY HEAD START
The River Center on Alto Street, an Early Head Start program operated by Presbyterian Medical Services for infants to 3-year-olds whose families meet federal poverty guidelines, is open year-round from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Parents just have to bring their children. “They do not have to bring in diapers; they do not have to bring in food,” said JoLynn Catanach, children’s services manager for Presbyterian. “We provide all the diapers; we provide all the formula.”
For enrollment availability at the