Keystone Children & Family Services
Capital Area Head Start
In 1988 we received the grant to operate Capital Area Head Start (CAHS), providing Head Start services to families in Dauphin, Cumberland and Perry counties in Pennsylvania.
Head Start is a federally funded, comprehensive child development program and provides service to 776 families in the tri-county area. Children enter the program in the year before they enter public school. The purpose of the program, as its name suggests, is to provide these children with a head start in life.
Locally, our program operates two models. In urban areas, we operate a center-based program. Children attend school for a 3.5 hour period, four days a week. In rural areas we provide services in a home-based model, with each family receiving a 1.5 to 2 hour home visits three times a month with weekly socialization days. Regardless of program model, all children receive not only an educational component but also medical, dental, nutritional and family social services.
In keeping with the parent-involvement principles underlying all of KCFS's services, CAHS places great emphasis on parent involvement and participation in all areas of their child's development. The Head Start Policy Council, a body primarily composed of parents of children in service in Head Start, is one of the principal governing bodies for the CAHS program.
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