About ABCD Head Start

ABCD Head Start and Children's Services is a comprehensive family development program that serves pregnant women, children from birth to age five, and their families. Our child-focused programs are committed to providing opportunities and services to the diverse, low-income children and families of Boston. We support these children and families to achieve:

School readiness
Self-sufficiency
Success in life.

For those who qualify, this means free, high-quality childcare and programs devoted to early childhood education and a child's total health and wellbeing.

A Guarantee of Excellence

Head Start offers the advantage of federally funded and rigorously reviewed services that must meet the federal government's standards in order to be called a Head Start program. We are funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services through the Administration of Children and Families. We have been the frontrunner in early childhood education for nearly half a decade, during which time our hands-on experience in the field of early childhood development has allowed us to develop many of the standards and practices now accepted nationally. For example, childhood obesity is just now emerging as a national concern, but our Living Well Task Force has addressed this issue for more than a decade.

The citywide ABCD Head Start program is Boston's primary source for a comprehensive, holistic, family intervention program for low-income, pre-school children and their families. The decentralized program serves more than 2,200 three-to-five year olds in 22 consolidated neighborhood-based programs throughout Boston. Early Head Start also provides more than 186 pregnant women and infants and children of young parents with child care, support, and parenting education. At present, more than 700 of the 2,400 children in ABCD Head Start and Early Head Start receive full-day, full-year services. And those full-day programs are being expanded to meet the needs of working and in-school parents whenever possible.

A History of Compassion

Both Head Start and ABCD have a long history of serving families in Boston with programs to improve and enrich their lives and wellbeing. ABCD was incorporated in 1962, prior to the national War on Poverty, as a "Gray Areas Project." Its original mandate, which holds true to this day, is to promote self-help for people and neighborhoods. Today, ABCD is known as Boston's anti-poverty agency, and is the largest independent, private, 501(c)3 non-profit human services agency in New England. ABCD emphasizes the empowerment of low-income people and communities as the most effective means of promoting economic success. ABCD focuses on prevention, rather than crisis management, and builds on individual and community strengths.

Because we are locally administered by Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD), which serves more than 100,000 low-income Greater Boston residents, the families of children enrolled in Head Start gain access to ABCD services, such as housing, food and fuel assistance, and education and training programs. We work together to give your child a Head Start.

Our Services

The citywide ABCD Head Start program is Boston’s primary source for a comprehensive, holistic, family intervention program for low-income, pre-school children and their families. All Head Start and Early Head Start children receive education, health, special education, dental, mental health, social, and nutritional services. Parents also have access to special programs, such as literacy and substance abuse prevention and treatment, and education and training opportunities that enable families to move into the economic mainstream.

Head Start’s approach to child development and education is comprehensive, including the child, family, and community. The program helps children develop social competence by being designed to:

• Be developmentally and linguistically appropriate
• Be inclusive of children with disabilities
• Integrate a comprehensive array of services into the general classroom curriculum
• Provide an environment of acceptance that supports and respects gender, culture, language, ethnicity, and family composition
• Provide a balanced program of child-initiated and adult-directed activities, including individual and small group activities.

In addition to our wide range of free services offered to qualifying children and their families, ABCD Head Start also offers additional services to parents who may not be eligible for free care, but who can pay to receive supplementary care. These full-day and full-year programs include:

Childcare Services

ABCD Child Care Services operates within the Head Start program to provide full-day, full-year childcare to help meet the needs of families struggling to fulfill welfare reform work requirements. Funding to achieve the goals of Child Care Services Program comes from several sources, including: Community Partnerships, childcare vouchers, and income eligible contracts through the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care.

Community Partnerships for Children

ABCD Head Start has been a major partner in the Massachusetts Community Partnerships for Children program. In addition to the Community Partnership Council with Boston Public Schools, ABCD Head Start is a recipient of its own Community Partnerships grant (CP CARES) with a focus on at-risk children. The ABCD CP CARES grant provides new and extended day classrooms focusing on developmentally and culturally appropriate learning environments and services for at risk children and their families.

Specialized Care for Children in Need

ABCD Head Start strives to stabilize the lives of homeless children and those children living in extreme need, in order to ensure that they are receiving access to educational opportunities and comprehensive care. The Head Start for Homeless Children initiative, which began with a short-term grant, now receives ongoing federal funding to provide comprehensive Head Start services to homeless preschool children and their families. Children are integrated into classes at the South End Head Start program. The Homeless program includes intensive case management services, a strong mental health component, and linkage with ABCD's extensive support programs in housing, literacy, employment and training, and health. It also provides referrals to relevant community agencies.

Additional Services for the Whole Community

At ABCD Head Start, we are not only committed to serving low-income children, but also their parents and other family members, as well as people from the local community. These programs include services aimed at helping teen parents, pregnant women, and low-income adults in need of educational assistance and professional development training services. We strive to assist the whole person, the whole family, and the whole community, in order to help the people we serve achieve the highest quality of life possible and contribute to the neighborhoods in which they live.