Early Childhood Education
Through our Head Start and BRIDGE programs, CMCA offers support for children from birth through fifth grade. Head Start offers home-based and center-based services for newborns, toddlers, and preschoolers, while BRIDGE supports children in elementary school and their families.
Head Start
Beginning with pregnant mothers, Early Head Start provides early, continuous, intensive, and comprehensive child development and family supports to low-income children under the age of three and their families. These services are center-based and home-based.
Children between the ages of three and five are eligible for Head Start, where they will socialize with others, solve problems, and share experiences that help them become self-confident and ready for kindergarten. Along the way, their families will be supported with Family Success Coaches, parenting curriculum, and more.
Eligibility:
- Families with incomes below 100% of the Federal Poverty Level
- Children from homeless families
- Children in foster care
- Families receiving public assistance such as SNAP or TANF
Children from families above this threshold are still eligible for Head Start, and we encourage you to apply!
BRIDGE
BRIDGE is a unique program that brings families, schools and communities together to strengthen outcomes for families. The program supports social and emotional health in the family, engages teachers in activities that lead to classroom success for students, develops relationships between families and their schools, and connects a community of support to both parents and their children.
- Academic support for child
- Mediation for you and child's teacher
- Resource support
- Positive relationship building
- Parent activities
Eligibility:
Families enrolled in K-5 in Boone, Cooper and Howard Counties are eligible.
