As the government shutdown continues, the Central Kentucky Community Action Council Head Start and Early Head Start programs are among the organizations that have grants expiring on October 31.
“November 1 is a time where the Central Kentucky Community Action Council will no longer have access to federal funds to operate our Head Start and Early Head Start centers across our six counties, and so that does put us in a situation where our 400 children and their families, as well as almost 150 staff members, are in a precarious situation,” said CKCAC Executive Director Bryan Conover.
With the November 1 cutoff approaching, the Central Kentucky Community Action Board of Directors on Monday unanimously approved a stop-gap solution. The organization is pursuing a line of credit from People’s Bank of Lebanon that will allow normal Head Start operations to continue until November 21.
Conover stressed that this is not a permanent solution, and said reopening the government to support programs like Head Start is not a partisan issue. It’s a people issue.
“We need our people taken care of and we need to make sure that our children, the most vulnerable of us in our communities, are able to get the early childhood education they so desperately need, and the nutrition services and the therapy services and just the socialization opportunities,” Conover said. “It’s really just a really important opportunity for the federal government to reopen and let us take care of our kiddos and our families.”
Contact Central Kentucky Community Action for more information.
