JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Lutheran Services of Florida (LSF) Duval Head Start helps families in underserved communities provide free pre-school and early education to children under 5 years old.
Currently, Duval Head Start is serving more than 1,000 children and they are still accepting new enrollment.
Maria McNair, the department director for LSF Duval Head Start, said the program is not only about helping these families, but making sure they can sustain themselves.
LOCAL NEWS: New apartments set to replace Adventure Landing location in Jacksonville Beach
“We help them with anything from getting stable housing to getting employment training. The idea is to help them become self-sufficient so that when they’re no longer in our program they’ll be able to strongly advocate for their child’s education as they transition into kindergarten,” McNair said.
Tina Daniels, a mother of two, tells Action News Jax she doesn’t know where she would be without the program.
Daniels remembers the struggle her family faced when the pandemic hit last year.
“I had to quit working and stay home with the children, but during that time when I stopped working, my husband ended up losing his job,” Daniels said.
And things only got worse. Her family was evicted from their apartment.
At the same time, her children were both learning from home virtually.
When Daniel’s daughter took a test to see where she was in school, the results were shocking.
“She ended up scoring really really low and I was so disappointed in myself because I wasn’t able to, you know, teach her the way that I wanted to,” she said.
That’s when LSF Duval Head Start reached out saying they had a spot open in their school for her daughter.
The program was able to serve more than 1,200 children from families in need during the pandemic.
STORY: Residents told they have to move out as mobile home park gets converted into RV park
Daniels said she doesn’t have a car and when she didn’t have enough money to take her child to school, Duval Head Start stepped up and helped.
Daniels says the program is so much more than a school. It’s a family.
She’s encouraging other families that are experiencing the same hardships to ask for help and enroll their child in the program too.
“They really need to get into this program. I mean, it’s truly a blessing, honestly. They have really helped my family,” she said.
And Daniels said her daughter is thriving.
She learned some Spanish while being enrolled in Duval Head Start and now, she’ll be ready for Kindergarten in the fall.
For more information on the Head Start Program and how to fill out an application, you can visit their webpage by clicking here.
©2021 Cox Media Group
