Juliana Patrick from Bethel at 2 1/2 years of age.
Join Child Focus for an Early Head Start Open House from 6 – 8 p.m. Sept. 19 at Child Focus on Old St. Rt. 74 across from the Mt. Carmel Kroger to learn more about this child development program designed to promote the healthy development of infants and toddlers!

Early Head Start is a federally funded community-based program for low-income families with infants and toddlers and pregnant women.

Child Focus has been providing Early Head Start services in Clermont County since 1990. The mission of Early Head Start is simple:

•  to promote healthy prenatal outcomes for pregnant women,

• to enhance the development of very young children, and

• to promote healthy family functioning.

In 2012 Child Focus served a total of 258 infants, toddlers and pregnant women through the delivery of high quality home-based and center-based Early Head Start services

The four cornerstones of Early Head Start are:

Child Development: Early Head Start supports the physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and language development of each child. Parenting education and the support of a positive parent-child relationship are critical to this cornerstone. Child Focus follows Parents as Teachers and Creative Curriculum as the evidence-based curriculum which guide home visitors and teachers in supporting developing children.

Family & Community Engagement: Early Head Start seeks to empower families by developing goals for themselves and their children. Staff and parents develop individualized family development plans that focus on the child’s developmental needs and the family’s social and economic needs. Family events are scheduled on a regular basis to help participating families establish connections with other parents and learn about community resources. From picnics to visits to the museum, local zoo and Holiday celebrations, Early Head Start families enjoy family time together in a relaxed atmosphere.

Community Building: Early Head Start programs like Child Focus conduct an assessment of community resources so that they may build a comprehensive network of services and supports for pregnant women and families with young children. The goal of these collaborative relationships is to increase family access to community supports, make the most efficient use of limited resources, and effect system-wide changes to improve the service delivery system for all families in the community.

Services for children with Disabilities: Early Head Start programs support children with disabilities by coordinating with programs providing services in accordance with Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This collaboration ensures children with disabilities are fully included in program activities.

Child Focus also has openings in its other Early Learning programs for children birth to five.

For more information on these programs, call (513) 528-7224.