Head Start of Northern Fairfield County
Since 1965, Head Start has provided low-income children and families across the United States
with a comprehensive program to meet their emotional, social, health, nutritional and psychological needs.
This highly successful program works to break the cycle of poverty for families and improve preschool children's opportunities for academic achievement.
Locally, Connecticut Institute For Communities, Inc. operates the Head Start of Northern Fairfield County Program, annually serving more than 300 low-income preschool children and their families through center-based programs and services. The need for Head Start in our community is great. Connecticut is a state of sharp economic disparities, with Fairfield County, which includes Danbury, as the most inequitable county in the state, and third in the nation. The number of Danbury families living under the federal poverty line jumped from
just under 1 percent two years ago to 7.1 percent last year, making the need for Head Start programs and services even more critical.
Head Start is an especially important response to that need. From birth to age five, children are learning more rapidly than at any other time in their life span. The experiences a child has during this time period, both at home and in their early care and education settings, is by far the most important and will have the greatest influence on their social, emotional and educational development. It is the foundation that supports later school achievement, future economic earning potential, and the ability to become a responsible adult.
Without Head Start, hundreds of children would be left behind each year.
Service Area: Danbury, Bethel, Brookfield, Newtown, New Fairfield, Redding, Ridgefield, Sherman.