New Report and a Forum connecting Head Start and Homeless Services

The Head Start –​ Continuums of Care (CoC) report
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JANUARY 26, 2022

Collaborating with the Pennsylvania Head Start State Collaboration Office and its consultant, Dr. Grace Whitney, PEC is sharing a report showing the connection between Head Start/Early Head Start programs throughout the state and the homeless housing system, known as the ‘Continuums of Care (CoC)’ program.

The CoC is the system providing strategy, guidelines, and funding for regional approaches to address homelessness. Pennsylvania has 16 CoCs.
 
We show how many homeless children and families are being served, where they are, and their housing vulnerability. We offer a few recommendations that we hope will increase housing stability for these families. Highlights include:​

• Pennsylvania’s 76 Head Start agencies promote the school readiness of children ages birth to 5. During the 2018-2019 program year, the state’s Head Start programs served approximately 45,000 children and 40,000 families.
• 2,690 children and 2,508 families participating in Head Start experienced homelessness during the 2018-2019 program year, and roughly 6% of enrollments were based on categorical eligibility under the McKinney-Vento Act.4  Six hundred and ninety (690) families who experienced homelessness acquired housing during the year, or 28%.
• 12% (1 in 8) of families enrolled in PA Head Start during the 2018-2019 program year needed or requested some type of housing-related assistance.5   The data on family services indicate that 4,618 families requested or needed housing related services during the 2018-2019 program year and 4,030 families received such services, thus many of the Head Start families needing housing supports were able to receive them.

Read the report

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​The Pennsylvania Head Start State Collaboration Office and PEC are organizing a forum to explain our new report and offer insight from local leadership from rural, suburban, and urban regions.

The Forum is on Wednesday, February 23, 10 AM to 11:30 AM, via Zoom. 

The forum will feature a panel of practitioners discussing strategies to increase enrollment and new data showing the prevalence of children experiencing homelessness enrolled into Head Start within the Commonwealth's 16 homeless housing regions, known as the Continuums of Care.
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Moderators include Tracy Duarte, Director of the PA Head Start State Collaboration Office, and Joe Willard, Vice President of Policy, People's Emergency Center.
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Panelists will include: 
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• Tiffany Jones of the Center for Community Action, which covers Bedford / Huntingdon / Fulton counties in the Eastern PA Continuum of Care and in the Early Learn Resource Center (ELRC) #6. 

• Tabitha Kramer of Region 2, Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness. Region 2 covers Berks, Chester, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, and Schuylkill counties. Region 2 identifies more children experiencing homelessness than any other region in Pennsylvania.
• A leader from the ELRC #18 (Philadelphia) to be named.
• A local Head Start agency to be named.​​​

REGISTER HERE