“I’ve been with Head Start around two years now. I have one child who has already graduated into kindergarten and I currently have a two year old here. Head Start has been incredibly supportive of my entire family unit which was really what was important to me b/c I needed that support they’re very concerned about the entire family.  From mother to father as well as the children and I think that’s important because if the family base isn’t strong and there’s no support then how can you support the child to be successful

They have policy council and all these workshop that are geared to parents to make sure parents are okay mentally physically and that they are looking at the different levels that are developmentally appropriate for the child and know what to do in school as well as that they should be looking for at home.

They have an incredible dad’s initiative that goes on every month that my husband is a part of. The dads have their own group and they come and talk about struggles of being a single parent or if you’re in a family being a father and having two kids in the house and how do you handle that and handle work and I think that’s important for the family perspective.

I’m so happy my daughter was in Greater Bergen because when my daughter entered kindergarten she was actually advance. She already knew how to write her name she already knew the alphabet, knew her number line and you had some kids that hadn’t had that experience so when she got into the classroom she was actually helping out a lot of her peers. I had even told the school when they asked where was she prior to this and I told them she was at Greater Bergen. The fact that that gave her such an advantage and interestingly enough when she started Greater Bergen she also had a speech delay. So they supported her with that and in addition she also had early intervention

The staff the teachers the family workers the mental health workers… there’s just so much support to help you be successful as a family as well as to help your child be successful and that’s huge

That’s why when I got pregnant I already filled out an application for my son because I knew I wanted him to go to Greater Bergen. It’s just been a really positive experience and like I said it’s not just a child centered program it’s a family centered program and I think you can’t get that at any other site or center this is the only place that I’ve ever heard where its family centered and I think that’s a huge piece that has to be considered.”