During Week of the Young Child, our Burchfield Pre-K classroom was filled with creativity, collaboration, and joyful learning experiences! We kicked off the week with Music Monday, where students designed their own musical instruments using paper plates and dried...
Families enrolled in Head Start and Early Head Start of Fayette County were invited to “The Garden Party” held at the Lemont Furnace Head Start Center on April 15, 2026. The theme of the event was to focus on skills from the program’s School Readiness Goals. We also...
February is National Children’s Dental Health Month and our afterschool students at Nicely Elementary learned about good oral hygiene and developing good dental habits to promote healthy teeth and gums.
The Private Industry Council (PIC) was pleased to serve as a valued partner to the Western PA Operating Engineers, beginning with preparation coursework on January 10th & 17th, 2026 and concluding with testing held from January 21st - 27th. Operating engineers are...
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Head Start / Early Head Start FAQs The Private Industry Council discusses frequently asked questions for Head Start and Early Head Start students. Private Industry Council operates the Head Start / Early Head Start program for Beaver and Fayette Counties in the...
The Private Industry Council of Westmoreland/Fayette, Inc. (PIC) operates over two dozen programs within three divisions and receives funding from numerous federal, state, and local grants as well as philanthropic funding. Managing these funds requires both fiscal administration and corporate-wide compliance with the rules set forth within each grant contract. Grant management includes strategic planning, program development, sufficient metrics to track outcomes, and having competent resources to both manage the process as well as carry out required deliverables.
There are three basic phases within the overall grant process; however, the majority of our organization is mostly impacted within the post-award phase, when the grant is implemented and tracked. Below outlines the varying grant requirements and how they affect both the financial and operational teams at PIC.
The fiscal aspect of grant management encompasses a wide range of responsibilities to include adherence to reasonable and customary cost expenditures, budgeting constraints, fund allocation through relevant and consistent application, reporting requirements for both internal and external recipients, documentation and auditing requirements, and implementation of appropriate internal controls. The Fiscal Department must ensure that all administrative and operational activities within each grant are funded within the approved budget and that all costs are allowable under the grant requirements.
While grant management may seem solely the responsibility of the Fiscal Department, there would not be a grant to fiscally manage if performance standards within grant operations were not being met. For example, compliance requirements specific to the Head Start programs within PIC include fully enrolled classrooms, sufficient staffing and applicable staff certifications, child transportation standards, just to name a few. These are the factors that if not in compliance within the mandated grant requirements, could reduce or eliminate funding. And these are all factors that require documentation and disclosure.
Success for every program at PIC – regardless of funding source – takes an organization-wide effort. There must be fiscal management, operational compliance, team collaboration and communication; along with celebrating success stories and learning from the inevitable bumps in the road.
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