Head Start Program Hosting Open House

The Van Buren County Head Start Program is hosting an Open House on Tuesday to give families in the community a better idea of what the program is about.

Van Buren County Head Start Family and Community Partnership Specialist Alexis Murphy said the Head Start program is a preschool-accredited program that helps low-income families prepare their children before Kindergarten. Murphy said the open house is to remind the community that they are offering assistance in ways such as helping parents obtain jobs and encouraging family engagement.

“We really just want everybody to kind of see in person the center and how we interact with the kids,” Murphy said. “We are going to have kids in the building that we can interact with and I think because we are so rural and we are a little bit off the beaten path there’s a lot of people that don’t know that we are here.”

Murphy said the open house will consist of a meet and greet so the program can understand how it can best benefit the county. Murphy said the program will continue to help kids in the community prepare for school as it ultimately leads to long-term educational success.

“That is our main goal is to be able to make sure the kids have all their developmentally appropriate education to be able to make sure that they are where they need to be once they get into Kindergarten,” Murphy said.  “And they are able to succeed once they get into the big school.”

Murphy said studies show that family engagement in their child’s education leads to educational success. Murphy said the program hosts activities like reading night and birdhouse building to promote family engagement.

“We want to make sure that families are engaged with their children,” Murphy said. “And have different activities to be able to do with their children. We do many events throughout the year to try to make sure that the families are engaged with the kids. We try to give them every opportunity to do things with their children.”

The Head Start Open House takes place 9am-12N Tuesday.