Cohen Announces More Than $11 Million to Help Prepare Shelby County Children For School
Funds will be used to provide health, nutrition, social and other services to local children from low-income families
[MEMPHIS, TN] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today announced that the Shelby County Board of Education has been awarded an $11,329,118 grant from the Department of U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) to support Head Start projects.
“Today’s funding for Head Start projects is an investment in our children, an investment in our families, and an investment in our future,” said Congressman Cohen. “Because of this important funding, children from low-income families throughout Shelby County will be better prepared to learn when they enter school. We will see countless benefits down the line as today’s children grow into tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, doctors, scientists, and productive members of our society. Head Start is an important program that I am proud to support.”
Head Start is a federal program that provides comprehensive services to enrolled children and their families, which include health, nutrition, social services and other services determined to be necessary by family needs assessments, in addition to education and cognitive development services. Shelby County Head Start provides these services to over 3,000 children in Memphis and Shelby County.
The Head Start program was founded as part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty in 1965 as an eight-week demonstration project. Since its founding, Head Start has served over 30 million children and their families in urban and rural areas in every corner of the nation and has grown to include full day as well as year services and numerous program options.