Westmoreland Head Start programs expand scope during pandemic

Westmoreland Community Action’s Head Start and Early Head Start are geared to prepare young children for kindergarten. That involves a lot more than education — and the coronavirus pandemic has made it more complicated than ever.

“The overall goal is to support families for self-sufficiency and help eliminate barriers like poverty, and that’s always been the goal of Head Start. But the needs have shifted over time,” said WCA President Mandy Welty Zalich.

That shift came a lot faster with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Like many schools, the Head Start and Early Head Start programs have moved to a hybrid model in which children and parents attend some classes in person and others virtually.

Before the pandemic, WCA received a grant to provide iPads to Head Start participants. It was a fortunate coincidence, and those iPads would prove essential in the months to come. “We didn’t realize when we started that process how important that was going to be,” Zalich said.

There are about 500 children in the two programs.

Head Start is a federal initiative started in 1965. Westmoreland Community Action has administered it locally for 40 years. While educating children is an important part of its mission, it doesn’t stop there.

“With the pandemic and everything that’s been going on, we’ve seen food insecurity more with individuals and families throughout the county, so that’s something we’ve been taking on more,” Zalich said.

WCA has distributed more than 760 boxes of food to Head Start participants since the start of the pandemic. It provides 4,800 diapers a month to Head Start families in partnership with the Western Pennsylvania Diaper Program.

The organization partners with the A Bed For Every Child program to help families buy beds for their children and has established a new initiative with the the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania to help families cover expenses such as rent, utilities and internet.

All of this helps ensure children are prepared to succeed when they enter school, said Tammy Patterson, vice president of Children and Family Services for WCA.

“Our focus has been on preparing these children for kindergarten and doing everything we can,” Patterson said. She hopes Head Start can transition back to fully in-person programming soon.

Zalich praised her staff for their efforts adapting to the pandemic.

“Our staff have done so much and tried to be so creative in meeting the needs of kiddos when we couldn’t function in a normal way,” she said. “Their dedication for the kids and families just shines through in everything that we do.”

Information about the program and how to enroll is available at headstart.westmorelandca.org.