Happy 25th Birthday Early Head Start

Happy 25^th Birthday Early Head Start

Announcer: Guess who's turning 25. Early Head Start. We began our outreach to babies and toddlers in the late '60s. That's when Head Start expanded its mission to include babies and toddlers of migrant and seasonal farm workers to keep babies out of harm's way in the fields. By the '90s, research on the developing brain captured national attention, and Early Head Start was born. We started at just under 70 sites, from the Pacific Northwest to the rural South. And research was always part of the plan. That research showed that Early Head Start improved children's cognitive, language, and behavioral outcomes. Even more striking was our influence on and partnership with parents who participated. Early Head Start moms and dads were more likely to read to their children, less likely to resort to punitive discipline. We also connected families with their peers and to community resources and provided guidance to teachers and home visitors on best practices in the field. To date, we've put research into practice in more than 1,000 programs across the country. We built this together, parents and processionals, taxpayers and lawmakers, to support our families and enrich the lives of our youngest and most vulnerable children. We built this so children could be ready for school, not just academically, but socially and emotionally, so they could embrace learning with their whole hearts. We built this for parents to make a big job a little easier. We built this together, for our children, for their futures, and we're just getting started. Early Head Start… as of 2019, we've reached 3 million children and counting. Happy 25^th birthday.