Of the 12 counties served by the Southeast Kansas Community Action Program, only six have traditionally had access to home-based aid as part of the Early Head Start program.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is about to change that.
A $623,560 grant from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Head Start, announced this week, will allow SEK-CAP to extend its EHS program to 50 additional families in Chautauqua, Elk, Woodson, Allen, Wilson and Linn counties. The two-year grant will also fund the creation of seven new jobs, including five new home based family educators.
Described as a “pretty comprehensive program,” the Home Based EHS program serves expecting mothers and families of children 0 to 3 years old by providing resources for education, nutrition, social services and parental involvement. SEK-CAP currently offers 214 Home Based EHS slots in Bourbon, Cherokee, Crawford, Labette, Montgomery and Neosho counties — all of which are state-funded. The 50 additional slots will be SEK-CAP’s first that are completely federally-funded, according to Deputy Director Linda Broyles.
“We are really excited that there were these expansion opportunities,” Broyles said. “Now this gives us a really good opportunity to serve more families in early-learning situations. We can now really say that we offer (the program) in all 12 counties.
“This is a big deal for us,” she said.
Broyles said the six counties that will now have access to the program are “medically underserved” and do not have much in terms of early childhood services.
According to a news release, SEK-CAP is expecting an additional $560,412 as part of the grant that will allow for the continuation of the Home Based EHS program through 2011. Broyles said it’s unclear at this point if or how the program expansion will be funded once the two-year ARRA money runs out. Broyles said more than 1,200 applications were written for the grant nationwide, and only 300 were funded.
“I guess we wrote a pretty good grant,” she said.
Applications for participation are available at www.sek-cap.com.
PITTSBURG —
