About the Michigan Head Start Association
The Michigan Head Start Association is a private, non-profit corporation organized in 1967 and incorporated in 1988. We provide services and support to the Michigan Head Start community, representing 38,000 children and their families, 39 Early Head Start grantees, and 76 Head Start grantees statewide. MHSA is the only state organization dedicated exclusively to the concerns of the Head Start community. The Michigan Head Start Association represents its members at the state, Region V, and national levels and is governed by a 23 member Board of Directors composed of 10 parents, 5 directors, 5 staff, and 3 board members at-large. Our mission is to promote equal opportunities for all children and families to succeed.
Our Vision for the Future
The Michigan Head Start Association represents the Head Start programs and community that play a key role in the transformation of early childhood education in the state of MIchigan. Head Start grantees bring a long record of success in working with the most challenging young children and their families in partnerships with those in education and family services. Nearly half a century ago, Head Start was created by the federal government as our nation’s laboratory to foster best practices for child development and related services for young children and their families. From the beginning, Head Start has focused on the well being of the whole child through the provision of in-depth nutrition, health, education and family development services for children.
Recognizing that these are clear foundations for learning, Head Start and Early Head Start programs across the state of Michigan will continue to reach and serve families with this comprehensive approach. Head Start performance standards define quality consistently across classrooms, programs, and states, and ensure that each child is served within the individualized context of that child’s needs. These standards represent the highest expectations for services to young children in our nation, and we are prepared to continue to meet and exceed them. With federal funding, the local Head Start programs will continue to take a leading role in developing best practice models for early education and family services and achieving measurable outcomes for young children and families in Michigan.
Within its broad menu of services and supports, local Head Start programs provide quality instruction and education, including early literacy and mathematics, to prepare children for school and assist their successful transition to kindergarten. In addition, the entire range of Head Start services is responsive and appropriate to each child’s and family’s developmental, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage and experience. Local Head Start programs are vital because no other provider of early childhood services seeks out the neediest families and children in Michigan with the depth, breadth, and scope of services and level of passionate commitment equal to Head Start. We are committed to the success of these families.