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Migrant Head Start helps make summer harvest possible in Box Elder County By
Sally H.N. Wright
Box Elder County farmers depend on migrant agricultural workers to make their summer harvest successful, and those workers depend on federally funded programs such as Migrant Head Start to care for their children while they are in the fields. Migrant Head Start, which is supervised by the Utah state organization Centro de la Familia, provides day care and preschool services to several hundred migrant families who live in Box Elder County from June until November. In order to qualify to receive services, families must prove that 51 percent or more of their income comes from doing migrant agricultural work. However, according to Centro's chief executive officer, Graciela Italiano-Thomas, as much as 10 percent of Migrant Head Start's enrollment in Box Elder County is not actually migrant. "If they qualify for aid with regular Head Start, and we have the room, more children can come," she said. Curriculum for Migrant Head Start is similar to that of regular Head Start preschool, but the program for migrant families serves infants and children through age 5, in way that accommodates the participants' culture. Regular Head Start focuses on helping four and 5-year-olds, while a separate program called Early Head Start provides for younger children and babies. "We've requested a grant to expand and do more Early Head Start things at our facilities, but really, we've been doing similar things to Early Head Start forever," said Italiano-Thomas. Migrant Head Start workers pay close attention to their charges' physical and mental development, teaching reading and writing skills, and helping families follow through with routine health check-ups. Graciela-Thomas said families who move often have trouble keeping vaccinations current and maintaining contact with a regular physician. "It's hard, but we try to fill in some of the gaps," she said. Italiano-Thomas also said some people in the English-speaking community are hesitant to lend their support to a program that caters to Spanish-speaking families. However, there's no need to worry about Migrant Head Start contributing to cultural divisions in Box Elder County, she assured. "All our programs are bilingual," she said. "We have a strong commitment to prepare our students to enter the public school system and we teach them the dominant language: English." Italiano-Thomas and the Box Elder County Migrant Head Start supervisor, Tom Hogan, say they are interested in acquiring the Honeyville School building. The school will close after this school year and the Migrant Head Start representatives say it would be a perfect spot for their program, which has started to outgrow its Brigham City and Garland buildings. The Box Elder School Board has yet to comment on the possibility of selling or donating the building to Centro de la Familia.
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