History

In 1995, the Office of Child Development became one of the initial 17 sites across the country to operate Early Head Start programs. For more than two decades, the Office of Child Development has grown its Family Foundations Early Head Start program to serve more than 300 low-income familes expecting a new child or families with children under 3 years old. The program provides individualized services to infants, toddlers, and their families through infant mental health–informed relationships through weekly home visits and twice-a-month socialization experiences.

Mission

The University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Development‘s Early Head Start Program‘s primary purpose is to provide support to enhance positive developmental outcomes for children. Our focus is to provide a vehicle through which infants and toddlers with the support of their family and community will obtain optimal development and school readiness. We serve and partner with infants/toddlers, their parents, extended family members and their community to self-assess, identify goals, develop and implement action plans to enhance children‘s development.

Program Goals

• Children’s physical health, social, emotional, cognition and motor development will be enhanced in order to improve their readiness for school.
• Parents will be supported and engaged in their role as caregiver, teacher and provider so that parent/child relationships and families will develop to their fullest potential.
• Existing community resources will be enhanced for the benefit of children and families.
• The highest quality services will be provided through caring and well trained staff.
• Management and fiscal oversight for all EHS programs will ensure quality service delivery to EHS children and families.