PIC Head Start Families Help to Contribute to Programming In-Kind Contributions

Head Start programs are funded with federal funds. Head Start programming is tasked with a non-federal match requirement each program year. This means that a program must obtain in-kind contributions to equal the amount of the non-federal match which is calculated based upon the amount of funds a program is receiving. In-kind contributions can be obtained in many ways such as: donations of space, supplies, equipment, and/or volunteer time from community members or parents.

At Head Start of Fayette County we take pride in meeting this performance standard each year and we work extremely hard to ensure that we meet the match amount. Some of the ways that we do this are: monthly family activity calendars, monthly in-kind activities, parent events, home visits, conferences, community representatives, etc. Our family activity calendars encourage parents to spend time with their children helping with self-help skills or engaging in activities which focus on reading, using a booklet of activities based on the study of the classroom, or any other activity that engages the family such as a board game. The parents complete the calendar daily, and verify they completed the activities with their initials and signature.

For monthly in-kind activities, the program sends home a prompt for families to complete an activity and send the completed activity back to their classroom teacher or home visitor to display at our centers. Recently, we had the activity titled “Do you Want to Build a Snowman?” where families were provided with popsicle sticks and asked to use materials from home to build a snowman.

Throughout the year, parents are invited to several parent engagement events that the program holds, such as our Dino-Mite Literacy event, HS/EHS Science Fair, and The Colors of HS/EHS Multicultural Literacy Event. When parents attend our parent meetings, policy council, and self-assessment meetings, their time taken to attend serves as an in-kind contribution. We partner with many agencies form the community that attend our parent events or come into the classroom to share information with our families and children. Community representatives also serve on our Policy Council.

Lastly, parents participating in home visits, conferences, or volunteering in the classroom are encouraged to be part of the child’s experience with Head Start and obtaining in-kind for the program. Although only a few examples are explained here, the program has many ways that in-kind is obtained to ensure we meet our non-federal match each year.