The federally-funded Head Start program, which provides child care for low-income families, is bringing a $18.4 million boost to the historic nonprofit Grand Street Settlement in the Bronx. With the funding, six new centers will open throughout the borough, plus one in Brooklyn, serving 538 children.
In a July 16 announcement, Bronx elected officials at the city, state and federal level, plus other community leaders and local parents, celebrated the Head Start expansion and the many partnerships that will come with it.
Grand Street will partner with the New Settlement Community Center, where the announcement was held, to lease space for a Head Start center that gives families easy access to New Settlement’s programming for infants through high schoolers. The funding will also allow for 17 partnerships with family child cares in addition to the six new centers.
Grand Street Settlement originated on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and Brooklyn, and the Head Start expansion marks the nonprofit’s reach into the Bronx for the first time in its over-100-year history.
In preparing for the potential expansion, Grand Street officials met with existing childcare providers in the Bronx to make sure that an expansion would be supported in the community — and the answer was a resounding yes, said CEO Robert Cordero. He heard from providers that the need for quality childcare is so great that more options were welcomed, he said.
Bronx kids have five times less access to Head Start programs than Lower East Side kids, Cordero said. “A child’s ZIP code should not determine their destiny.”
The Head Start program has been a “booming” success since it launched in the mid-1960s, according to Cordero. Children who participate have better outcomes in nearly every aspect of their later life, including educational attainment, emotional development, physical health and lower incarceration rates, according to the National Head Start Association.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, who among the many elected officials who spoke, said that Bronxites already spend the highest percentage of their income on childcare in the city. The market rates for center-based childcare would cost families in Mott Haven and Hunts Point 63% of their income, according to a 2023 report by the Citizens’ Committee for Children in New York.
The Bronx has been historically underrepresented in Head Start offerings, said Torres. This expansion brings hope for families struggling to afford childcare nationwide because “as the Bronx goes, so goes the rest of the country,” he said.
Bronx elected officials vowed to push for even more funding for Head Start and similar programs that serve the youngest Bronxites.
“If you really want to transform New York, it starts with our children,” said Assembly Member Landon Dais, who represents the Bronx’s 77th district.
The Head Start expansion is expected to create about 140 jobs. Locations will be announced as lease agreements are finalized.
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes