The Onslow County Partnership for Children is starting a new program with the help of some federal funds.

OCPC has been awarded the Early Head Start grant by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families for project year 2009-2011.

The $1.5 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds will allow OCPC to serve 72 low-income pregnant women and children up to age 3 through a homebased visitor approach. The program will allow children to participate with their parents in appropriate child development activities in their home environment, according to information from OCPC.

“Brain development between 0 and 3 years old really does set the tone for that child’s entire life,” said Dawn Rochelle, executive director at OCPC. “Our goal is that the child has a greater outcome in life.”

The EHS program is geared toward assisting low-income infants, toddlers, pregnant women and their families. EHS programs enhance physical, social, emotional and intellectual development in children; assist pregnant women in accessing comprehensive prenatal and postpartum care; support parent’s efforts to fulfill their parental roles; and help parents move toward self-sufficiency, according to information on OCPC’s Web site.

“We’ll be helping families know that interaction with parents is really best for brain development … It’s about educating families on resources that are there,” Rochelle said. “You don’t need all of the gadgets, bells and whistles. Just singing with or reading to children — think just as a society we’ve gotten away from a lot of that.”

The program is especially beneficial to children who are not in childcare. In 2005, Onslow County had about 20,000 children between the ages of birth and 5-years-old but only 5,000 childcare slots, Rochelle said.

“I expect, fortunately and unfortunately, that we’re going to have a waiting list very quickly,” she said.

Eligibility for the program is income based; participants must have an income that meets 100 percent of the poverty level.

According to statistics provided to OCPC by the Department of Social Services, there were more than 2,500 children between the ages of 0 and 5-years-old participating in the county‘s food stamp program in 2009.

“It’s families who really have no financial means,” Rochelle said. “We’re talking a very indigent population.”

Onslow County Schools runs the Head Start program for the county, which serves children starting at the age of 3. Rochelle said she hopes children served by the Early Head Start program will go on to be served in Head Start, if necessary.

Sherryl Kinsey, who cares for three children, two of whom are enrolled in Head Start, said the Early Head Start program should prove beneficial.

“I think the earlier the better,” she said. “One of the things we’re striving for is the earlier the better because a lot of children have a fear of going to school and when they go in (to Head Start) they don’t have that fear ... They become social people who can express themselves.”

Kinsey, who also serves as chairwoman of the Head Start Policy Council, said one of the children she cares for has “gained a lot” from the Head Start program.

“My first child went through Head Start when she was 3; it really helped … She stayed to herself a lot, but through Head Start she has gained some social skills,” she said. “She gets along with children, she can write her name, she knows her alphabet. She’s doing really well so I have no complaints with Head Start.”

With grant funding for the program secured through 2011, Rochelle said she hopes the program will continue for years to come.

“We’re going to have faith that the funding will be there from the federal level or that we’ll be able to secure the funding,” she said.

Contact Molly DeWitt at  910-219-8455  910-219-8455 or mdewitt@freedomenc.com.

Appeared in the Jacksonville Daily News on January 25, 2010