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Director, administrative staff hired
YOUNGSTOWN
D&E Counseling Center, the new provider for the Early Head Start and Head Start programs in Mahoning County, is scrambling to meet Monday’s startup date for the Early Head Start and Sept. 8 beginning date for the regular Head Start program.
Head Start is a federal program that provides young children from low-income families with programming to prepare them for school; Early Head Start focuses on children from birth to age 3.
The programs, which include health, nutrition and social-services components, are designed to ensure the children’s healthy cognitive, social and emotional development.
As the county Head Start provider, D&E Counseling, a core agency of the Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board, will receive an operating grant of $7,316,486 for school year 2015-16 and a one-time, new-provider startup grant of $366,097.
The funds were awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which also chose D&E as the program provider from among proposals submitted by other area organizations.
The former permanent Head Start/Early Head Start provider, the Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership, lost the program Aug. 1, 2014, after being disqualified from the Child and Adult Care Food Program food-service grant it used to feed Head Start participants.
The Community Development Institute of Denver was appointed interim operator of the Head Start program in Mahoning County and will be replaced by D&E today.
Renewal of program-operations funding over a five-year span will be provided to D&E on an annual basis, provided HHS’s yearly audit of programming results in certification of the center as having met or exceeded quality of care, staffing, administrative management, financial accounting and other operational standards, said Joseph Shorokey, D&E executive director.
D&E, by virtue of being named Head Start provider, has nearly tripled its annual budget and the size of its staff.
Before Head Start, D&E’s annual budget was nearly $4 million, and it had 55 employees. With the addition of Head Start and Early Head Start, D&E’s annual budget increased to $11,316,486, and the staff about 200, said Shorokey.
He said the HHS grant increases 3 percent annually, but each year, D&E programs have to be audited and reviewed. At the end of five years, HHS will determine if D&E will be reappointed noncompetitively, competitively or not at all.
Shorokey said the director and management and supervisory teams have been hired and interviews are being conducted for the rest of the staff positions, of which there will be about 145 for Head Start and Early Head Start.
Out of the first 12 management and supervisory staff hired, 10 are from the Community Development Institute staff, and of the remaining hires, more than 90 percent likely will be from the CDI staff, he said.
Shorokey said no problems are anticipated in getting Head Start started on Sept. 8. He said D&E, which has offices at 711 Belmont Ave., Youngstown, and 142 Javit Court, Austintown, is familiar with the Head Start program.
For nearly 10 years, D&E, a private, nonprofit community mental-health center that offers comprehensive behavioral health care to children, adolescents and their families, provided Head Start’s mental health component for all its sites, he said.
“We have a good working relationship with the Head Start staff, and the knowledge that comes with that association, and tremendous respect for the staff and the work of the previous grantee. Aside from the accounting, the program was excellent,” Shorokey said.
He said there are plans to increase the number of full-day classrooms. Many now are half-day. Nationally, Head Start is moving toward full-day programs. D&E also plans to expand the Early Head Start component by adding more classrooms.
“We will maintain most of the existing sites plus add a specialized classroom at Camp Challenge for behaviorally challenged kids who are presenting behaviors that are difficult to control in regular Head Start classrooms. We hope to have that running in three to six months,” Shorokey said.