Pennyrile Area
Head Start and Child Development 
Program of Excellence, 2000-2003, 2003-2006, and 2006-2008
NHSA Program of Achievement, 1999-2000
Designation (and trophy pictured to the above right) presented
by the
National Head Start Association
Last Awarded April 2006, Detroit, Michigan
One of fewer than twenty such high quality programs in the nation!
A number of the AACS centers are accredited by the
Sheila Tucker, aresident of Hancock County, Kentucky, and a past parent of a child in the program, serves as chair of the Head Start Policy Council. Parents of the children are integrally involved in the design, operations and (through the Head Start Policy Council) the policy-level control of the program. Ms. Tucker also represents the Policy Council on the AACS, Inc. governing Board of Directors. She will be succeeded in October 2006 by Kathryn Meade of Owensboro.
In addition to its own Head Start program, the AACS also serves as a "delegate agency" to Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, for three additional Head Start centers. Indeed, relationships with higher education are another focal point of the program: a substantial number of the paid classroom personnel are continually involved in furthering their academic credentials, completing at a minimum their Child Development Associate (CDA) credential.
All Head Start services are customized to the individual child's developmental level (including children with disabilities) and consider each child's temperament, interests, and learning style. Head Start programs also respect the culture, language, and family of each child.
Head Start programs focus on each child's basic health needs as well as the healthy behaviors and practices that can prevent illness and enhance a child's life-long well-being.
Head Start staff approach work with a family as a team effort, from the beginning process of setting goals to making policy and program decisions. Head Start programs also actively collaborate with community agencies and organizations to establish a network of support that families can draw on during and after Head Start.
Audubon Area Head Start serves a total of 2,857 children through four programs as illustrated in Figure 2 (below). Of the 2,857 children served, Figure 2 depicts the number and percentage of enrollments for each Head Start program option or model.
One of the most significant community factors affecting the selection of program models has been the result of the agency's collaboration with local school districts for space, transportation, and disability services for the past thirteen years. The agency has formal collaborative agreements with nineteen (19) local school districts located within the agency's sixteen (16) county service area (shown above). As a result 93% of all Head Start Preschool classrooms are operated in collaboration with local school districts and are thus located on school campuses and blended with the Kentucky Preschool Program created by the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) in 1990. This collaboration has resulted in high quality facilities and an increased number of certified teaching staff. The KERA preschool programs are part-day and therefore, these blended Head Start classrooms are primarily part-day.
However, with the advent of welfare reform, an increasing number of Head Start parents are working or in a education or job training program. Therefore the program's strategic plan has focused on significantly increasing full day, full year services for children whose parents are working or in school with no caregiver in the home. The program has increased full day/full year services to 21% of the total enrollment. In addition program options for parents have been increased by offering both center-based and family child care services.
Free To Grow...
Free To GrowAudubon Area Community Services Head Start Program was one of five programs in the nation to develop a demonstration program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, as the nation's largest health philanthropy. Audubon's model (known nationally as the Kentucky Model) included a comprehensive approach to substance abuse prevention through specific strategies for strenthening families and strengthening communities. Audubon's family strengthening model has been used extensively in the replication of Free to Grow in fifteen sites across the nation. |
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Kentucky Head Start Association
Head Start in Kentucky...More than 3,019 persons are employed in 16 Community Action Agencies, 14 sponsoring School Districts, three limited purpose agencies, and 12 delegates.
-- SOURCE: The Kentucky Head Start Association Brochure
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