LBJ&C Headstart Will Apply For Early Headstart Grant

LBJ&C Headstart hoping to start the process that will create an Early Headstart for newborn children to children age three.

Director Penny Meadows said they will apply for the grant to hopefully get the service for the Upper Cumberland area. She said that based on their knowledge, there is an apparent need for Early Headstart.

“We look at a lot of different data, we also look at our data as well,” Meadows said. “We surveyed our families recently to see what needs they see. And based on their response, we definitely have a need for services for 18 to 36 months.”

Meadows said they will be able to apply for the grant once it is released by the national office. She said they expect that to occur sometime this fall.

Meadow said they have already begun to work on the grant packet to make our region competitive with groups nationwide. She said they have conducted community assessments and collected census data to help provide context for the application.

“We’ve already done a community assessment update that we finished in December and we’ll do another closer to the time just to see if the numbers have changed any just to make sure that we don’t need to adjust our numbers,” Meadows said. “But we can already go ahead and start working on our format we started a little bit of it and we’ll be working on it through the summer. Then when the actual notice comes down where we can compete, then we’re hoping that it won’t take us very long that we need to fine-tune anything we need to.”