Head Start's changing face

from the Chicago Tribune

Even as a historic preschool program closes in Woodlawn, another opens to serve a burgeoning Little Village neighborhood

By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons

The few children left at First Presbyterian Church will have to clean out their cubbies at the end of the month, when the historic Head Start center there closes after more than four decades.

Parents and staff were notified this week that the church can no longer keep its day-care program afloat in a changed Woodlawn neighborhood marked both by vacant lots and expensive condos.

But as one door closes, another opens. In Little Village, a sparkling new Head Start center was launched last month in a Latino neighborhood brimming with young families. The program immediately had a long waiting list of parents desperate for a spot inside the lively bilingual classrooms.

The two centers represent the changing face of the early childhood program driven by shifting demographics among the city's poorest families.

A central front in the Great Society's War on Poverty when it was created in 1965, Head Start provides grants to public and private agencies to care for low-income children 5 and under. Over the years, some have questioned its effectiveness in preparing children for school and taken issue with its $6 billion annual budget.

The program is fighting for federal funding as President Bush and Congress negotiate a spending bill for many domestic programs. Head Start was also reauthorized this week by Congress for the first time in almost a decade with measures to expand the program to more families.

Chicago is paying close attention to the funding measure because the president's proposal cuts $254 million from the program, the equivalent of 33,800 slots, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In Illinois, that would translate to 1,500 fewer seats in Head Start for children in families at the poverty line--about $21,000 for a family of four.

The 16,518 children in Head Start in Chicago are divided among 411 sites at centers, home day care and programs at Chicago public schools. About 6,000 children are currently served in public schools, according to the city's Department of Children and Youth Services.

There is a growing need for the program and other childcare options in Latino neighborhoods across the city, said Commissioner Mary Ellen Caron. "We have plenty of children to serve, but they aren't in Woodlawn anymore," she said.

The decision to close was difficult for First Presbyterian, one of the city's oldest Head Start centers that has served several generations of South Side tykes. The center has struggled with vacancies since the demolition of the Robert Taylor Homes and other public housing projects.

"I understand the big word here is demographics, but it still just tears you up," said Rev. Gerald Wise, the church's pastor. "There are people involved. How do you tell a teacher who has been here 30 years?"

If First Presbyterian represents the agency's past, the Carlos H. Cantu Center in Little Village reveals the future. The nonprofit already had a good reputation among immigrant families from work in Pilsen and the Southeast Side. The urgent need for child care can be seen in the number of strollers along the bustling streets of "La Villita."

"Head Start is lacking in all of the Latino communities," said Vincent Allocco, the executive director of the non-profit El Valor. "There is a tremendous need for quality programs. We have waiting lists at all of our centers."

A study this year by the University of Chicago's Chapin Hall Center for Children confirmed what child-care providers already knew about the changing needs of Chicago families. It found the city's Northwest, Southwest and Southeast Sides had the largest population growth between 1990 and 2005, fueled largely by Latino immigration and higher birth rates within that community.

Those neighborhoods also had an increase in the number of children living in poverty.

In South Lawndale, where Little Village is located, more than 13,800 children under 17 live in poverty, and there are not enough Head Start centers to fill the need. Woodlawn has about 5,000 children living in poverty and several child-care options, the study found.

The Head Start program has long been a way for First Presbyterian to give back to the community, along with a food pantry and community gardens.

But the center has been a dozen students short of the 28 children it's set up to serve, and the church has been subsidizing it for some years. Now, the 11 staff members will have to find new jobs, and the church will return well-worn puppets, costumes and toys to the city.

In Wise's office, where bullet holes dot the window behind his desk, a scrapbook shows years of photographs of children at Easter egg hunts and Christmas present giveaways.

"We had fun back in those days," said Mary Lou Todd, the longtime administrative assistant who applied for the initial grant in 1965.

The environment is more upbeat at the new Cantu center in the 2400 block of South Kildare Avenue, where 80 children fill five colorful classrooms and activity stations are labeled in English and Spanish. The center will have 200 students once it's fully up and running.

In one classroom this week, the children ages 3 to 5 had a lesson on safety before sitting down to make clay creatures while Latin music played in the background. Their teacher, Marlene Ontiveros, said the Head Start program is critical to future success as students.

"This is the best opportunity for children to start their education before entering kindergarten and to learn to interact with other kids," she said. "The social and emotional elements will affect academics."

When Yolanda Silva picked up her 3-year-old son, Andrew, from school recently, he wasn't ready to head home and continued playing with his friends. Silva, a machine operator at a factory in Cicero, says Head Start lets her earn money for her family while her son is gaining skills he'll need in school.

"I can tell he's learning a lot here," she said. "He doesn't want to leave--just look at him."

The director of El Valor's early childhood program, Clara Lopez, is a former Head Start parent herself. The program was a gateway agency for her to learn about how to earn her GED and to learn English.

The future for Head Start lies in what she calls "The Corridor" of Latino communities extending from Pilsen southwest all the way to Joliet.