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National Indian Head Start Directors Association
Standing Strong for AIAN Children
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Native Head Start
Leadership Quarterly
Spring 2015
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New OHS Director - Dr. Enriquez
NIHSDA Webinar: In Kind
EHS-CC Grant Awardees
Five Sandoval Health Care Training
Teacher Appreciation Week
ITC Michigan Fire House Trip
Mille Lacs Drop Everything & Read
2015 Tribal Consultations
Choctaw Nation Heritage Day

NIHSDA Welcomes Dr. Blanca Enriquez

On April 2, HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced that Dr. Blanca Enriquez will be the new Office of Head Start Director. NIHSDA welcomed Dr. Enriquez to her new position, and extended to her an invitation to join our board meetings to share updates and information as well as speak at the June conference.
 
Dr. Enriquez has been involved in early care and education since the early 1970s in various positions throughout her home state of Texas. She has been an administrator and supervisor of Head Start programs, elementary schools and bilingual education programs since 1973.  Most recently she has served as the executive director of the Texas Education Service Center Region 19 Head Start program, based in El Paso, with an annual budget of $32 million.  During that time, the program has grown from 1,200 preschoolers at 10 sites to more than 4,000 children at 30 sites and has won many local, state and national awards.
 
NIHSDA also sends a heartfelt Thank you to Ann Linehan for the continued support to our organization and grantees throughout the lengthy process of finding a new Director. The respect and integrity she gave to each person and grantee is a testimony to her leadership. Ann has resumed her position as Deputy Director of the Office of Head Start.
 
Patty Brown
NIHSDA President 
NIHSDA Webinar: “In Kind:  What You Need to Know to Meet and Comply with Requirements”
May 21, 2015  1:00 p.m. CDT, Presenter: Barbara Wilson Ricketts

This 90 minute webinar will review all requirements for the required non federal share match which affect Tribal programs with a special emphasis on issues which confront many tribes including:
   Sources
   Documentation
   Tribal Sources of Match-638 and beyond
   Unallowable Match
   Calculation of Match

Price (includes on-demand streaming): $150 Members; $200 Non-Members
Barbara Wilson Ricketts has worked with Head Start and Child Care programs for the past 30 years.  She has worked in various capacities, most recently as CFO for a large migrant program.  Barbara worked extensively in the T/TA system with both American Indian and Migrant programs and has been a reviewer through the various designs of the review system. She operates a consulting firm, Consulting Services, from her home in Raleigh, NC.

Congratulations to the EHS-CC Grant-Awardees!

As part of President Obama’s Early Learning Initiative, ACF has been working for over a year to compete and award $500 million of new grants for Early Head Start-Child Care (EHS-CC) Partnerships ($14 million for AIAN). These grants allow new or existing Early Head Start programs to partner with local child care centers and family child care providers serving infants and toddlers from low-income families. As of the end of March 2015, the full allocation of $500 million has been awarded ($14 million for AIAN)
View the full list of grant-awardees

AIAN Grantees:
Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Inc., AK; Metlakatla Indian Community, AK; Kawerak, Inc., AK; Gila River Indian Community. AZ; Owens Valley Career Development Center, CA; Pinoleville Pomo Nation, CA; Bois Forte Tribal Government, MN; Fort Belknap Head Start, MT; Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, MT; Santa Clara Pueblo, NM; Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, NE; Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, OK; Rosebud Sioux Tribe, SD; Nisqually Indian Tribe, WA
 
The Bois Forte Head Start program in Nett Lake & Vermilion in Northern Minnesota received the Early Head Start/Child Care Partnership grant. They will open the Nett Lake Early Head Start on September 8, 2015. The pictures are the current child care that will convert to EHS/CC. The Vermilion Early Head Start is projected to open in September 2016. The Vermilion Head Start is going to begin remodeling the Early Head Start addition this summer. This is wonderful, exciting news for the children and families of Bois Forte!!

Five Sandoval Indian Pueblos Head Start offers health care training for parents

The Five Sandoval Indian Pueblos Inc. Head Start program held a parental health training program on April 23, 2015, with a focus on training parents from Zia, Cochiti and Santa Ana pueblos. The program taught parents how to diagnose and treat small ailments of children ages 3 to 5. Parents received UCLA-approved health training books, as well as bags with health-care supplies.

Lori Sanchez, director, said the program is the first of its kind for Head Start. She said the event’s funding is in part due to a UCLA Health Initiative grant.

“We’re trying to save the parents money and time by not running to the clinic or the ER, but they can take care of some simple symptoms at home,” Sanchez said.

The training taught parents how to deal with small illnesses such the common cold and ear infections, choking and small burns. There were a number of activities, including learning to measure the proper dosage of medicine for a child with a spoon. Separate activities were provided for children, including activities on dental health and general health care awareness.

Sanchez said the program had input from dieticians, nurses and doctors from the pueblos. She said parents were able to get one-on-one instruction from health care professionals.

“You go into a clinic or to a doctor and you’re in there for 10 minutes; they give you a prescription and then you’re out. They don’t give you the time for questions,” she said. “When we’re eating dinner, those health care officials can sit down with those parents and have one-to-one conversation. That way it’s not rushed.”

According to Head Start information, the program aims to reduce student absences because of sickness, decrease time parents spend away from work to take care of their children and “empower every family to use the free books as a ‘first’ step in identifying their child’s sick symptoms.”

 

Show your Head Start and Early Head Start Teachers that they matter with these teacher appreciation ideas:


100’s of ideas for sayings, crafts, gifts and decorations for Teacher Appreciation

Sixty-Five Ways to Recognize Teachers During Teacher Appreciation Week and All Year Long

 
Trip to the Fire House!
The Huron Potawatomi Head Start Program (part of ITC Michigan) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, took their children on a field trip to the local fire house. The children were surprised to learn that the fire house has boats – which they were allowed to sit in. They have the boats because the fire house is located a block away from the Grand River and they have to do some water rescues.

Drop Everything and Read

Mille Lacs Early Education had their annual Drop Everything and Read.  The reading challenge went from mid-March to April 9th.  Each classroom had circles that they put the title of the book that was read on and they cut them out and placed them on the wall to display all the books we read.  The classrooms also sent the circles home so parents could put book titles on them and bring them back to school to display on the wall.  We read an overall of 3910 books to our students!  Parent participation was amazing-we had a few families bring in over 200 circles and many others bringing in circles daily.  Nay Ah Shing 3rd and 4th grade students came over and read to our children-what great mentors.  Each child at Drop Everything and Read received a book to take home to do some more reading!  Thanks to everyone who participated!
 
Milk Jug Igloo (made by Karuk Head Start in California)
The milk jug igloo began as a recycling project and inspired by a “pinterest” activity. The jugs were collected from both Happy Camp and Yreka communities. The staff initially put them together using hot glue and cardboard for a quiet area and place for kids to read. After taking it outside,  it broke apart. Now the children are putting it back together using their ideas on how to rebuild it using duct tape.
2015 Tribal Consultations
The Office of Head Start (OHS) is holding 2015 Tribal Consultations with leaders of Tribal Governments operating Head Start (including Early Head Start) programs for each of the nine geographic regions where American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) Head Start programs are located. Tribal leaders and their designees, including AIAN Head Start directors, are welcome to participate. These sessions have been scheduled in the coming months:

    March 16, 2015 – Albuquerque, NM (Region XI)
    June 16, 2015 – Sacramento, CA (Region XI)
    July 30, 2015 – Tulsa, OK (Region XI)
    Aug. 17, 2015 – Billings, MT (Region XI)

As much as possible, the OHS Tribal Consultations are being scheduled in conjunction with other Tribal events. The Consultation in Albuquerque is being held in conjunction with the Southwest Consortium of Indian Head Start Programs’ 34th Native American Child and Family Conference. The Consultation in Sacramento is being held in conjunction with the National Indian Head Start Directors Association Conference. The Consultation in Tulsa is being held in conjunction with the Oklahoma Indian Head Start Coalition Conference. The Consultation in Billings is being held in conjunction with the Northwest Indian Head Start Association Conference. Such scheduling is an effort to minimize the burden of travel for Tribal participants.

Participants may register for the OHS Tribal Consultation most convenient for them.

As outlined in the Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007, annual Tribal Consultations inform the Office of Head Start's plans for funding allocations, distribution formulas, and other decisions affecting the delivery of Head Start services. These Tribal Consultations promise to be highly informative and useful in shaping the future of Head Start services for AIAN children and their families.

Choctaw Nation Head Start Crafts and Learns Heritage

The Choctaw Nation Bennington Head Start celebrates Heritage Day in fun and cultural ways each month. Tracy Baker, who leads the class, plans the activities to match the seasons.
“We do a cultural activity every month on Heritage Day with the children,” Baker said. “We use material that is more suitable for small children to work with.”
Baker said it is very important for children to learn about their culture and the way things were done in the past. She added the children enjoy the activities and it also helps educate the parents.
Recently, Bennington Head Start has dyed material and made baskets using pipe cleaners. Baker also taught a lesson over what could be used to dye material, and why ancestors dyed the materials. After finishing their craft projects, the children take home their creations to show their parents and keep.
Pictured are Joshua Campo weaving a small basket and Danni Bohanan carefully dipping cloth material into a bowl of colorful dye.