Collaborative Forum Draws 200+ Attendees

255 Housing and Head Start Colleagues Attend Forum on Head
​Start Collaborations with the Homeless Housing System ​

Leaders from throughout Pennsylvania (and few from other states!) joined a webinar that discussed various strategies that support young children experiencing homelessness access high quality early learning programs. The forum included: 

• Tracy Duarte of the PA Head Start State Collaboration Office as Moderator. 

• Tiffany Jones and Terri Siverling, Center for Community Action. CCA participates in both the Head Start, Early Learning Resource Center, and Continuum of Care in southcentral Pennsylvania. 
• Tabitha Kramer, Region 2, PA Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness (ECYEH). This region includes Berks, Chester, Lebanon, Lancaster, Dauphin, and Schuylkill counties. Tabitha discussed participating in a national pilot project in which a phone app allows schools working with homeless families can immediately refer young children into Head Start, and her work identifying and supporting young children experiencing homelessness.  
• Michele Robson of the Early Learning Resource Center #18 (Philadelphia) discussed how her office reaches out to and enroll children experiencing homelessness into childcare and other early learning programs. 
• Kim Smith and Jaqueline Hultquist of Keystone Human Services discussed how their Head Start program shared stories of how children were supported.  

Read the reports that inspired this forum: 

• A State-Level Brief: Participation of Young Children Experiencing Homelessness in Early Childhood Programs in Pennsylvania 
• Continuums of Care and Head Start Working Together to Address Housing  Vulnerability of Pennsylvania's Families 

forum recording and presentations