Nearly 450 young children in low-income families in Detroit will be without free childcare and early education this school year, following the closure of Focus: HOPE’s Early Head Start and Head Start sites after its federal funding ran out on July 31 and was not renewed.
Focus: HOPE, which provides a variety of services to low-income individuals including early education, will continue its before and after school care, along with its universal pre-K, known as the Great Start for Readiness Program. The program, which received $6 million in federal money last year, serves families across the central and northwest areas of the city.
In addition to the nearly 450 kids impacted, more than 100 Head Start staff, some of whom are Head Start parents themselves, were laid off.
“They did exactly what they said they were not going to do,” said Waymond Hayes, director of early learning at Focus: HOPE. “They cut money affecting our cities and they cut slots, which is affecting our kids.”
On Thursday, Aug. 7, Focus: HOPE was officially notified that its Head Start program, which serves low-income families including pregnant moms and children ages infant to 4 years old through home-based and center-based early education programming, would not receive federal funding through a grant for which they had applied.
The reasoning behind the loss of funding remains unclear given no other organization competed with Focus: HOPE for Head Start funding within the four ZIP codes they serve, said Portia Roberson, Focus: HOPE CEO.
“It is unacceptable to do this to our babies,” Roberson said at a parent townhall her organization organized on Tuesday, Aug. 12, where she updated families on the ongoing situation and directed them to send letters to Congress. “There may be a chance to reverse this decision. Get in touch with your representatives and tell them, we want Focus: HOPE to have a Head Start program.”
The federal Department of Health and Human Services, which houses the Administration for Children and Families, did not respond to a request for comment.
Shontori Bowles, a social worker and mother of five in Detroit, was planning to go back to work as a K-12 teacher this fall. Everything was set. Her soon to be 6-month-old and 3-year-old would enter Early Head Start at the end of August. Today, however, she learned Focus: HOPE’s Head Start programs did not have funding and her childcare plan had fallen apart. Now, Bowles will stay home with her children to see what other options she might find them.
“I’m not going to put my child just anywhere,” Bowles said. “Head Start is not babysitting, it’s early education and I won’t have my baby sit there, and not grow and thrive. I’m also not going to just work to pay for childcare as well.”
Bowles said she feels uneasy and frustrated by the lack of opportunity now that this high quality, free option has been taken away.
“I worked so hard to get to this point, I did all of the things to be a productive citizen and now because of childcare I’m back to square one,” she said. “I don’t want to just survive, I want to actually thrive, and this program gave me the ability to thrive, to not just work and have it all go to childcare.”
Hayes said parents like Bowles face a conundrum: Other Head Start sites are inaccessible from members in the community they serve, often many miles away. For those who are able to travel the distance to other surrounding options, those Head Start slots are likely already taken by other children who’ve already enrolled.
Roberson said she was confused about how and why Focus: HOPE did not receive the federal grant. She said she understood the grant to be competitive, but prior to applying for funding, Focus: HOPE, along with two other large Head Start providers in Detroit, MiSide and Starfish Family Services, had agreed to apply only for funding for the specific ZIP codes they service.
It would have been one thing if another organization had beat them out for the Head Start funding in their area, Roberson said, but of the $46 million in Head Start funding the federal government allocated for Detroit, only around $15 million has been dispensed to MiSide and Starfish Family Services. The question remains as to where the rest of the funding is.
“It’s disheartening to know that it’s still there, it’s not like the money is gone. You didn’t give it to us, and you didn’t give it to anyone else,” Roberson said.
Roberson said Focus: HOPE is waiting on an assessment of its denied grant application from the Administration for Children and Families, which administered the funding, for more information.
Robin Bozek, the director of the Michigan Head Start Association, said Focus: HOPE is the only program she’s heard of in Michigan who has experienced this situation.
Beki San Martin is a fellow at the Detroit Free Press who covers childcare, early childhood education and other issues that affect the lives of children ages 5 and under and their families in metro Detroit and across Michigan. Contact her at rsanmartin@freepress.com.
This fellowship is supported by the Bainum Family Foundation. The Free Press retains editorial control of this work.
This story has been updated to reflect new information.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Focus: HOPE’s Detroit Head Start program closes doors after losing federal grant
Reporting by Beki San Martin, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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