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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Alaskan Early Head Start Grantee Named HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced that the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments (CATG) located in Fort Yukon, Alaska, will receive an $850,000 grant to establish an Early Head Start and family development program today. The program will begin on October 3, 2003. “Head Start gives children all over the country a chance to succeed,” Secretary Thompson said. “Now infants and toddlers in this remote area of Alaska will benefit from the wide variety of child and family development services that Early Head Start offers.” The grant will allow CATG to provide Early Head Start services to 60 children and families in the Yukon Flats region of Alaska. The program will serve children from birth to three years of age and their families in their homes, using trained home visitors who will assist parents in fulfilling their role as their children’s first and most important teacher and caretaker. “We know that the years from birth to age three are critical to every child’s physical, intellectual and emotional development,” said Wade F. Horn, Ph.D., assistant secretary for children and families. “Early Head Start will help this group of children and families to reach their full potential.” Since 1995, Early Head Start has provided high-quality comprehensive child and family development services to low-income pregnant women and families with infants and toddlers. It has grown from 68 programs to its current level, with programs in some 600 communities serving more than 60,000 children and families.
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