Click to View Latest IssueClick to View Latest Issue

Growing Futures Early Education Center

By  0 Comments

Growing Futures Early Education Center

 

Growing Futures Early Education Center, Inc., formerly Head Start of Shawnee Mission, began in 1965 as a summer Head Start enrichment program for 17 low-income children. Today, Growing Futures is a not-for-profit organization providing affordable high-quality early education opportunities and comprehensive support services for more than 200 low-income children ages birth to five and their families. A majority of families served are in poverty and reside predominantly in northeast Johnson County, Kansas.

 

The level of need for social services, particularly in Johnson County, has increased markedly over the past decade due to changing community demographics and an economic downturn that many families have yet to recover from. Thirty-seven thousand people in Johnson County are living in poverty. In 2016, a family of three earning $20,160 or less per year lives at or below the federal poverty level, yet a livable annual wage for that family in Johnson County is upward of $48,000. Child care and early education opportunities are often out of reach for families that are unable to pay the high cost of tuition, leaving low-income children at a disadvantage and unprepared to start kindergarten on par with their peers.

 

Sometimes families just need a bit of support to make the future brighter for their children.

Angee lived a storybook life until circumstances tore her marriage apart and she had to leave her home. She struggled to provide for herself and her young son, Nate. “I went from having luxuries such as a three-bedroom townhome to sharing a room with my son at my grandmother’s,” she says. Angee was forced to apply for government services to get by. When she began school for her nursing degree, Angee worked part time, but she could not afford to pay for Nate’s child care.

 

Then she was told about Growing Futures Early Education Center. There Nate could be in a quality preschool program and Angee would get the support she needed to stay on her feet. Nate not only started kindergarten on par with his peers but now, at ten years old, Nate continues to be at the top of his class. Angee has since received her degree and is employed as a transplant coordinator at a local hospital. Angie attributes a lot of her success to Growing Futures. “There is no other program out there like this one,” she said.

 

As a Head Start program grantee, Growing Futures is tasked with raising over $327,000 in private funds in order to meet annual match requirements for federal grant funding. Beyond that, significant additional dollars are required to operate the program and fully serve enrolled families who rely on it to provide comprehensive family services that support their child’s success. HLM

 

Growing Futures offers Crayon Box Tours to the community regularly during the year; visit growingfutureseec.org to find upcoming dates and learn more.

Written by: Megan Campbell

Photos by: Libby Wolff