Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., said Monday that $2,950,991 in competitive grant funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is being awarded to Early Head Start Programs across southern West Virginia.

The grants will be awarded to five community programs in southern West Virginia to add or expand Early Head Start Programs — an education intervention program focused on children from birth to 3 years of age, and prenatal mothers. The funds will be used to hire staff, cover programmatic costs, and for program facilities to assist families in their respective service-area communities.

Monroe County Early Head Start will receive $448,769 to construct a new facility on the campus of the James Monroe High School and Vocational School to add services for 40 children from birth to age 3. Currently, the Head Start Program serves 59 children and their families across Monroe County.

Jeana Comer Carr, director of Monroe Head Start, said, “Our goal is to help parents be better parents and be more knowledgeable. We need to address learning problems our children may have way before they reach kindergarten, so they are on tract and ready to learn.”

Fayette County Child Development, which serves 248 Fayette County families through their regular Head Start program, will receive $659,814. That will fund a new Early Head Start program to serve 32 additional children, from birth to age 3, plus eight pregnant) mothers. This new Early Head Start program is targeted to start next March, but the hiring process will begin the week after Thanksgiving.

“This ARRA money will allow us to create 11 new jobs and also allow us to increase hours for four current staff people, meaning they will be employed a full 12 months instead of partial year,” explained Keith Young, Executive Director, Fayette County Child Development, Inc.

Community Action of South Eastern West Virginia will expand its program to serve 80 additional children, families and pregnant mothers with the $858,487 it will receive. It will also add eight teaching staff, four home visitors, and three additional support staff. This program will have added focus on teenage mothers and plans call for establishing a new transitional classroom at Hinton High School in Summers County.

Grant funding of $512,034 awarded to MountainHeart Community Services will expand its program to serve an additional 36 families, 26 infants and toddlers and 10 pregnant women, throughout Wyoming County. It will also add eight new job positions and open two new classrooms for infants and toddlers, one in the Pineville area, and one in the Oceana area. MountainHeart currently serves 300 Head Start and Early Head Start families. The total with this expansion will be 336.