Carrie Unpingco, San Juan Island Community Foundation Executive Director
Skagit/Islands Head Start, San Juan Island Community Foundation, and Skagit Valley College Foundation hosted a celebration on June 15 for the grand opening of a new Head Start modular building that expands the current program to accommodate full day services in Friday Harbor.
Now more Friday Harbor children and their families will have access to early learning education, resources, and support, thanks to their partnership that brought a larger Head Start modular building to its new location at Friday Harbor Elementary.
The previous modular was no longer able to serve the number of families who wanted access to Head Start services and programming. It was replaced with a new, three-classroom modular, providing an expansion in space and ensuring the wonderful learning environment for local children.
Skagit Valley College’s Skagit/Island Head Start (SIHS) program began in 1968 and reaches San Juan, Island and Skagit counties. The new modular will allow SIHS to add an Early Head Start classroom to their program and convert their preschool Head Start programming to full day offerings starting this fall. These changes will allow the program to begin working with the underserved birth to 3 population in new ways with full-day, year-round services. SIHS also partners with San Juan Island School District to serve preschool children with special needs in the Head Start class, and with Toddler Learning Center to support toddlers with special needs.
“Support from the San Juan Community Foundation and a number of passionate donors was amazing,” said Mary Ellen Lykins, Skagit/Island Head Start Director. “They understand the importance of supporting young children and their families from the very beginning to remove the barriers they so often face in achieving their goals. Our partnership with the San Juan School District, providing inclusive services for children with special needs in the same classes as typically developing children, is a wonderful piece of our program; and the district worked with us on this project from beginning to end.”
Established in 1965, Head Start is a federally funded comprehensive program that serves vulnerable children and families who are dealing with poverty, homelessness and a number of factors that can impact children’s healthy development. The program reaches families with children prenatally to 5 and prepares children to reach kindergarten ready-to-learn. Services include early learning and development, nutrition, health and dental well-being, mental health, support for disabilities and family services.
Most of this project is funded through a Head Start grant; however, local support was needed to complete the new Center. Thanks to the generous community on San Juan Island, donors contributed almost $196,000 to this $1.27 million project.
“We are beyond excited to provide a beautiful, new environment for our passionate, talented staff to work with the community’s children and families,” said Lykins.
Families interested in learning more or completing an application can visit https://www.sihs.skagit.edu/.