Children's Services
York County Community Action’s Children’s Services includes Head Start, Early Head Start, and the Strong
Fathers program. These programs all provide a range of health and educational services to thousands of York County residents every year. The goals of Children’s Services programs are:
- To enhance children’s physical, social, emotional and cognitive development
- To enable parents to be better caregivers and teachers to their children
- To help parents meet their own goals, including economic independence
Head Start is a national child development program for children from birth to age 5, which provides services to promote academic, social and emotional development, as well as providing social, health and nutrition services for income-eligible families.
The York County Head Start program maintains 16 classrooms and has an enrolment of 286 children. The classrooms are located in Sanford, Waterboro, Lyman, Biddeford, Kittery, Lebanon, North Berwick, Porter, and Old Orchard Beach.
Head Start operates one Full Day program for eligible working families with children. Children who enroll in the full-day program attend class from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. In order to qualify for the full-day program, parent(s) must be working or enrolled in school/job training for a minimum of six hours per day.
Early Head Start is a federally funded community-based program for low-income families with infants and toddlers and pregnant women. Its mission is simple:
- To promote healthy prenatal outcomes for pregnant women,
- To enhance the development of very young children, and
- To promote healthy family functioning.
The Early Head Start program is located in Biddeford and has 42 families with a child or children ages 0 – 3 currently enrolled.
Strong Fathers supports men in their efforts to be skilled, active, and nurturing fathers and father figures. We provide men with opportunities to learn new parenting skills while figuring out what kind of father they are and what kind of father they want to be. From diaper changing to discipline to dating, we meet you where you are and go from there.