ECMHSP Opens Center in St. Helena Island

St. Helena Island’s farmworker families drop off their children at the center.

This week East Coast Migrant Head Start Project opened its heart, and its Head Start center, to migrant farmworker families in St. Helena Island, South Carolina. The opening of each of our centers requires a lot of planning and hard work.  This is particularly true for our centers that serve a highly mobile population and are open for a short duration – like the St. Helena Island center, which can be open for as short as six weeks.

Our planning and hard work began in the spring when our regional team from South Carolina traveled to Florida to recruit and pre-enroll families in the program.  It is always such a thrill for our South Carolina team to re-connect with the children and families we have served in prior years.  This year was no exception.

ECMSHP staff visit farmworker families in Florida to find Head Start eligible families.

Then, a host of activities began at the administrative level as our Human Resources professionals worked tirelessly to plan for the relocation of employees from our Florida centers to work in the St. Helena Island Center. This year a total of 13 mission-driven individuals relocated from their homes, families, and communities so that ECMHSP could be successful in St. Helena.  We, and our farmworker families, are so fortunate to have so many dedicated employees.

Children learn and play at the St. Helena Island Head Start center while their parents work in the fields.

Meiby Soto, a Florida farmworker parent, works in South Carolina’s tomato farms.

Farmworker families in St. Helena Island work primarily harvesting tomatoes. One such farmworker is Berenice Meiby Mora Soto.  Meiby and her son, Jovani, live in Immokalee, Florida.  I first got to know Meiby through her service on the ECMHSP Policy Council.  More recently, I’ve had the distinct pleasure of getting to know Meiby by helping her with her Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) application.  DACA is a program administered through United States Citizenship and Immigration Services that creates opportunities for eligible individuals to obtain an employment authorization document.  Through the DACA program, Meiby is enrolled in school in a course of study designed to lead to her General Equivalency Development (GED).

Meiby is a wonderful mother and a tremendously hard worker. She has dreams for herself and dreams for her son, Jovani.  In this way, she is like so many of the migrant farmworkers we are privileged to serve in St. Helena Island and all along the East Coast.   With the opening of the St. Helena Island center, as with the opening of all of our centers to the north of Florida, we reaffirm our commitment to helping our families make their dreams come true.

ECMHSP staff work closely with children to provide them with a high-quality early education.

Opening Day at the Bladen Center!

Patti Kingery is the Head Start Administrator for ECMHSP’s Direct Services in  North Carolina. This is her experience on opening day at a one of our centers. 

After another successful planning season, ECMHSP’s Bladen Head Start Center, located in Ivanhoe, North Carolina, opened its doors on Wednesday, May 18, marking the beginning of its seventh season. Approximately 80 children of migrant and seasonal farmworkers are expected to be served at the Bladen Center this summer, while their parents work in the blueberry fields and packing houses.

The infants & toddlers participated in age appropriate activities while they were getting to know their new teachers.

“I’m excited about the first day,” said one teacher. “After all the planning and training, I’m looking forward to working with the kids again.”

Families began arriving at the center around 6:45 a.m. on this cool and rainy morning. Teachers greeted each child by name and welcomed them to their classroom. Within an hour or so, the Center was bustling with lots of energy and excitement.

Preschool children were singing songs, playing with new toys, and learning their classmates’ names. Small groups of children were working with teachers on alphabet letters and reading books; other groups were practicing writing letters and drawing shapes. The kitchen staff prepared yummy meals & snacks that the toddlers, in particular, devoured after a busy morning filled with play and learning.

Children enjoy delicious and healthy snacks prepared by our kitchen staff.

Studies show that, on average, by the time children of low income families enter kindergarten, they already face a significant gap in literacy skills — a gap that often continues to widen as children get older. At East Coast Migrant Head Start Project, staff understand that closing that gap begins with good instruction and engaging activities that begin on day one.

Meanwhile, in another building, Family Services and Health staff from three centers in North Carolina continued assisting new parents with completing applications for Head Start services. The North Carolina – Direct Services team works together each season to ensure children are able to get enrolled as quickly as possible, given the large number of families arriving in the area around the same time. Parents filled the offices and covered decking areas as they completed the necessary activities to get their children enrolled in the Bladen Center.

Parents are assisted by bilingual staff to enroll their children in our Head Start services.

One parent remarked to a staff person, “My child was so excited when we told him that we’re going back to North Carolina. He loves this center!”

It is an exciting time to be at East Coast Migrant Head Start Project. Similar scenes can be experienced in ECMHSP Head Start centers across North Carolina and other states as centers welcome our families back. It is an honor and a privilege to serve farmworker families by caring for and educating their children while they harvest the fruits and vegetables we enjoy every day.

Singing, dancing, and playing games filled the morning schedule.

To see a full list of the locations of ECMHSP Head Start centers, please visit our website: www.ecmhsp.org.

Find us on Facebook!

ECMHSP is now on Facebook, giving you a new way to stay connected with us and be up-to-date on our latest announcements.

Click here to go to our Facebook page. Make sure to “Like” us to receive the latest information on upcoming events, news, and more!

The launch of our Facebook page is part of our efforts to amplify our voice on behalf of the farmworker families we serve. In addition to taking you behind the scenes of our program operations, we will also be working with the parents of children enrolled in our centers to create content that reflects their reality and share their powerful stories.

We invite you to join us on Facebook and ask you to share the page with your networks. With your support, we’ll be able to reach people across the country and show them what makes East Coast Migrant Head Start Project truly special.

Farmworker Families Need DAPA & DACA+

More than 4,000 people wait outside of the Supreme Court building during the oral arguments of DAPA and DACA+.

This morning the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments on two of President Obama’s important executive actions providing administrative relief from immigration enforcement: Deferred Action for Parents of American-born Children (DAPA) and the expansion of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA+). The case will determine the future of millions of undocumented immigrants in the United State hoping for relief from the threat of deportation that would rip their families apart.

In the absence of Congressional action, DAPA and DACA+ would improve the lives of undocumented immigrants with deep ties to the community. Although these programs are not perfect, they would provide undocumented immigrants with options to live and work in the United States. And—more importantly—they will help keep families together.

Supporters of DAPA and DACA+ march to the steps of the Supreme Court of the United States.

On the steps of the Supreme Court building, more than 4,000 people gathered this morning from across the country for a rally, voicing their support through chants, poster signs, and a march. ECMHSP joins the many organizations standing in support of the president’s actions.  According to Farmworker Justice, one in six beneficiaries of DAPA and DACA+ will be farmworkers or directly related to farm work.  This includes many of the farmworker families we serve at ECMHSP centers.

Take Maria Adame Dominguez’s story for example. Maria immigrated to the United States at the age of nine.  Although she was a bright student at school, Maria became discouraged when she realized her options to continue her studies were limited due to her undocumented status.  She decided to drop out of school, and shortly after having her first son, she joined her father in the mushroom fields.  When she enrolled her son

Maria and her children’s lives have been improved through DACA.

in the ECMHSP Head Start program, she became involved in the ECMHSP governance and quickly rose through the ranks; in 2014, she was elected as the ECMHSP Policy Council President.  Although Maria continued to work in the fields, she never gave up on her dreams of earning a college degree.  After receiving her DACA, she enrolled back in school and is currently studying to earn her Associate’s degree in Early Childhood Management.  In addition, Maria applied to work at the very ECMHSP Head Start center that helped her family, and is now the Family Service Coordinator with Pathstone Corporation, a delegate agency of ECMHSP.  [You can read Maria’s full story, “A Parent’s Dream,” in the ECMSHP’s 2015 Annual Report.]

Guest Post: More than a Center, it’s a Refuge

Ted Hoffman is the architect who has been building Head Start centers with ECMHSP for the past 12 years. These are his thoughts.

I was asked to contribute some words and photos about the new Jennings Head Start Center I am working with ECMHSP to build in northern Florida. The work is shaping up nicely, but until it’s done, the photos can be rather uninteresting.  Instead, I thought I would try to describe more generally my goals and thoughts as I design new centers for ECMHSP.

The new Head Start center currently under construction in Jennings, Florida.

Jennings will be the seventh center for me, dating back 12 years or so. Each new site presents its own unique challenges and problems, but the overriding philosophy for me is to make each place special, interesting, welcoming, and more than just a place to drop the kids off each morning.  To do that is hard, and it requires the understanding and sensitivity of all the players to make the hard work relevant and worthwhile.

We all know that for the families, the Head Start centers represent more than a safe place for their kids. It represents, I think, a refuge, a place just for them, comforting and helpful, full of resources they don’t find anywhere else. That feeling comes mostly from the staff, but I try to heighten that representation by making places that are: 1) spatially exciting and interesting; and 2) built strong in character and permanent in construction. Unfortunately, permanence is not something found in the lives of migrant farmworkers anywhere.  I refuse to buy into the idea that the working poor somehow don’t deserve good design, whether it’s in their housing or where they send their kids to school.  The centers I design cost the same –and in some cases actually less– than the Head Start centers that look either like big tract houses or shoeboxes scattered around a chain link playground.

ECMHSP Maintenance Staff with architect Ted Hoffman: (from left to right) Tony Ponds, Marzell Hall, Ted Hoffman, Eugene Mitchell, Vincent Barksdale, Greg Stone, Mike Wilcox

I can’t talk about building for ECMHSP without mentioning my ECMHSP colleague and partner in all of this work: Mike Wilcox, the Facilities Manager. These centers would literally not look like they do without him.  You would never know it from watching or listening to him growl and stomp around the site yelling at everyone (including me!), but he gets things done and the time and commitment on his part is nothing short of amazing.  Another thing that happened at Jennings recently was that Mike had almost all of the maintenance people from every area come to Jennings and work for two weeks building and setting up the classrooms in order to speed up the construction process.  These men work all year keeping the facilities operating and it was special to see them working together on one of my creations.

So the next time you go to one of the places Mike and I have made, look around and see if you can sense a place made with heart, soul, and a great respect for the families and children who use them. I want my work to be a physical extension of the very special things that the Head Start program, and East Coast Migrant Head Start Project specifically, makes happen.

These Head Start centers have gotten a good deal of recognition and awards from the architectural community, but the best recognition happened to me one day as I went into a preschool room full of children with a center director. One of the children asked, like they almost always do, “What’s your name?”  I said, “Ted,” and the center director said, “This is the man who designed this place.”  The little boy looked around, looked me in the eye, and said, “I love it here.”

Ted Hoffman has been designing centers for farmworker children with ECMHSP for 12 years.

You can see pictures of all of the Head Start centers I have helped build on my website: tedhoffman.us.

 

ECMHSP Guest Writes in Honor of NFAW

In honor of National Farmworker Awareness Week, ECMHSP’s John Menditto has written a guest blog post for Farmworker Justice’s blog, Harvesting Justice.  In his post, he shares the challenges ECMHSP has seen our farmworker families overcome to support their children’s education during our forty years of service.  Below is an excerpt:

The consistency we have seen in our own program on the United States’ East Coast is a vision shared by Head Start agencies that serve farmworker families all across the nation. I have the privilege to work with many of these Head Start agencies through my Board service to the National Migrant & Seasonal Head Start Association and I can attest to the fact that the 30,000 farmworker children served through the Head Start program are receiving education and care of the highest quality.

But threats abound for farmworker families.

You can read the full post here.

ECMHSP Prepares for Florida’s Farmworker Families

Workers place the berries directly into the plastic clamshell packages that shoppers will find in stores. Photo credit: Dan Charles, NPR

This week, National Public Radio (NPR) aired the investigative report, “In Florida, Strawberry Fields Are Not Forever.” This report is part of the ongoing series by NPR, in collaboration with ECMHSP, focusing on our farmworker families and the work they do providing America with a safe and secure source of fresh fruits and vegetables.

In this story, reporter Dan Charles spoke to farmworkers who describe the back-breaking labor of the strawberry harvest in and around Plant City, Florida. There, farmworkers work long days under the hot sun in hopes of making enough money to feed their families. Farmworker parents, like Bernarda Chavez, soon will pack their belongings and move their families up the East Coast, following the labor contractor to the next harvest.

ECMHSP parent work long days in under the hot sun during the strawberry harvest.

The farm fields are no place for young children. When young children accompany their parents into the fields, they are exposed to the many hazards of agricultural work, such as pesticides, heavy machinery, and extreme weather conditions. They need a nurturing, safe place where they can play and learn.

In the coming weeks and months our Head Start centers in Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey will open their doors to our migrant farmworker families ensuring that young children do not accompany their parents to the fields. Our dedicated employees will open their hearts to these same families as well. As spring arrives, we celebrate the contributions of farmworker families who miraculously feed this great nation.  We also celebrate our dedicated employees who make minor Head Start miracles happen each and every day.

Office of Head Start’s Colleen Rathgeb and ECMHSP’s Parksley Center Director LaShundra Weeks with children from farmworker families.

2015 Annual Report, Hot off the Press!

Dear Reader,

ECMHSP is excited to announce the release of the 2015 Annual Report. See the names, faces, and numbers that made 2015 a great success.

Some of the highlights from this year’s report include:

• An update on our Early Head Start expansion in Florida
• A review of this year’s media coverage
• A profile on a former Policy Council parent
• Total number of children and families served

Each year, ECMHSP releases its annual report, pursuant to requirements in the Head Start Act, Sec. 644.  The report includes information on funding sources, the results of the most recent financial audit, and other information required by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Cover of the 2015 Annual Report

You can view the 2015 Annual Report and past annual reports on our website.

I would like to thank the ECMHSP staff for the wonderful work they do for our farmworker families throughout the year. This annual report is a reflection of the hard work and dedication they put into the program.  We hope they are just as proud as I am of this report – a celebration of their work.

Sincerely,
Dr. Jose S. Villa
Chief Executive Officer at East Coast Migrant Head Start Project

Cameras Rolling at La Familia Center

Daniel Jaime is the Center Director for La Familia Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Center in Florida. This is his experience working with media.

La Familia Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Center in Dundee, Florida.

On Feb. 18, I received a phone call from John Sarmiento, a news anchor for Telemundo Tampa. Mr. Sarmiento called me because he had heard from a community partner about the wonderful services ECMHSP’s La Familia Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Center provides in Dundee, Florida, and surrounding areas. He wanted to see if he could come to the center and interview a few farmworker parents who have benefited from the services that we provided and how they felt it would benefit other families in the community.

The next day at around noon, Mr. Sarmiento arrived with his camera crew. We had two farmworker parents who were willing to provide a brief testimony of the services that they had and were receiving. During his visit, Mr. Sarmiento toured the center and was able to see all of the staff and children in action. “It’s just remarkable,” he said. He couldn’t believe how nice the classrooms were set up and the attention that was being given to the children. Once he finished touring the center, Mr. Sarmiento began to interview the parents.

The parents were nervous at first because they were going to be on television; but once they got into the interview, you could see the passion in their eyes and the words coming directly from their heart. The parents did a tremendous job representing East Coast Migrant Head Start Project and describing the services that they have received. When asked if they thought that other families would benefit from these types of services, they did not hesitate to say, “It’s a wonderful program. Who wouldn’t want their children in a center like this?”

Ana Maria Cruz, farmworker parent, shares in the interview how La Familia center has helped her children.

In my interview with Mr. Sarmiento, he wanted me to talk about all of the services that we provide, what our services areas are, as well as if there are other centers like us in the area or elsewhere. I provided information about what services East Coast Migrant Head Start Project provides and how a family could potentially qualify. I also informed Mr. Sarmiento about some of the struggles that our families have and how it has been impacting our enrollment numbers, not only at our center, but at other centers along the East Coast as well. Some of those impacts include: the influx of H2A workers in the community; families settling out and deciding not to travel; and local and national immigration laws that make it harder for families to travel from one state to another comfortably.

Center Director Daniel Jaime’s interview by Telemundo Tampa was aired on February 24.

The story was aired locally on Feb. 24 during the Telemundo Tampa newscast and shared through the news station’s social media. The story can be viewed here. Now that the Tampa community has seen the story, hopefully we can have an influx of families, community stakeholders, and people who are willing to seek employment with East Coast Migrant Head Start Project.

Representing East Coast families at NMSHSA Conference ’16

John Menditto presenting at the NMSHSA Conference.

The National Migrant & Seasonal Head Start Association (NMSHSA) held its Biennium National Conference in Tysons Corner, Virginia, from February 19 through February 23.  A number of our dedicated employees travelled to the conference to make presentations on best practices we have implemented.  Suzanne Jessamyn and Katherine Savage, for example, presented a session entitled, Creating Cultural Storybooks, and Karen McKnight presented, An Integrated Approach to School Readiness Analysis, while Sue Thomas co-presented an informative session on our innovative approaches to data and ChildPlus.  Suzanne presented a second session with Clara Cappiello on our award-winning curriculum, Our Children, Our Families, and John Menditto had the opportunity to share his work with the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Collaboration Office.   

Joining ECMHSP staff at the conference, most for the first time, were the ECMHSP Policy Council Executive Committee members: Cristina Hernandez, President; Claudia Martinez, Vice-President; Jimina Villafuerte, Treasurer; and Leticia Baez, Secretary.  These farmworker parents were able to attend the workshops on topics ranging from indigenous cultures in Mexico to immigration rights and parent involvement. During the Parent Affiliate meeting, Cristina was elected as President and will represent the group as a member of the NMSHSA Board of Directors, while I was elected Vice President of the Staff Affiliate and will serve on the Board of NMSHSA too as well.  Cristina and I were also elected to fill two of the three Member-at-Large positions on the NSMSHA Board of Directors’ Executive Committee. We are very proud to see Cristina’s continued growth and will provide the support she needs as she goes on to represent and lead parents nationwide in the Migrant & Seasonal Head Start Programs.

Policy Council members Jimina and Cristina with ECMHSP Governance staff Maria.

At the conference, participants were able to listen from the Office of Head Start, with informative and inspirational presentations from Dr. Blanca Enriquez, Director at the Office of Head Start, and Sandra Carton, Regional Program Manager for Migrant and Seasonal Programs (Region XII). We were also given opportunity to provide feedback at roundtables with organizations leading research projects in the migrant farmworker community and with our Head Start leaders.

Former MSHS participant and NMSHSA Intern Yonny (2nd from right) with his parents and brother.

On Sunday, Yonny Castillo, former MSHS child and NMSHSA Summer Intern from 2014, participated in a panel discussion with his parents and others from the MSHSA programs, in which he shared the important role MSHS services played in his success.  At the closing plenary, John helped recognize the conference’s scholarship and award winners, including ECMHSP Governance Assistant Maria Hernandez, recipient of the Clint Mitcham Scholarship. Maria gave a moving speech about her humble beginnings, the service she has provided our farmworker parents, and her dreams to continue her studies.  A special recognition was presented to Lou Struble from Procacci Brothers for their financial support of the NMSHSA Summer Internship Program.

Mitcham Scholarship recipient Maria (center) with NMSHSA Executive Director, Board President and Vice-President.

While most conference participants headed to the airports, ECMSHP parent Leticia joined me and other MSHS providers on Capitol Hill to meet with our Congressional representatives.  This was Leticia’s first visit to Washington, DC, and had never met with Congressional staff before. She was nervous, but excited to share the importance of the MSHS programs for the farmworker community and urge the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to support funds for our programs. We are so proud of how she represented the needs of farmworker parents and their children.

ECMHSP Policy Council Secretary Leticia with RCMA farmworker parent and CHC staff on the Hill.

This week, ECMSHP brought important and much-needed voices from the fields to our nation’s capital. We look forward to more opportunities to represent our community!