Our Services

Our wide range of free services offered to qualifying children and their families, ABCD Head Start offers additional services to parents who may not be eligible for free care, but who can pay to receive supplementary care. These full-day and full-year programs include:

Childcare Services

ABCD Child Care Services operates within the Head Start program to provide full-day, full-year childcare to help meet the needs of families struggling to fulfill welfare reform work requirements. Funding to achieve the goals of Child Care Services Program comes from several sources, including: Community Partnerships, childcare vouchers, and income eligible contracts through the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care.

Community Partnerships for Children

ABCD Head Start has been a major partner in the Massachusetts Community Partnerships for Children program. In addition to the Community Partnership Council with Boston Public Schools, ABCD Head Start is a recipient of its own Community Partnerships grant (CP CARES) with a focus on at-risk children. The ABCD CP CARES grant provides new and extended day classrooms focusing on developmentally and culturally appropriate learning environments and services for at risk children and their families.

Specialized Care for Children in Need

ABCD Head Start strives to stabilize the lives of homeless children and those children living in extreme need, in order to ensure that they are receiving access to educational opportunities and comprehensive care. The Head Start for Homeless Children initiative, which began with a short-term grant, now receives ongoing federal funding to provide comprehensive Head Start services to homeless preschool children and their families. Children are integrated into classes at the South End Head Start program. The Homeless program includes intensive case management services, a strong mental health component, and linkage with ABCD's extensive support programs in housing, literacy, employment and training, and health. It also provides referrals to relevant community agencies.

Additional Services for the Whole Community

At ABCD Head Start, we are not only committed to serving low-income children, but also their parents and other family members, as well as people from the local community. These programs include services aimed at helping teen parents, pregnant women, and low-income adults in need of educational assistance and professional development training services. We strive to assist the whole person, the whole family, and the whole community, in order to help the people we serve achieve the highest quality of life possible and contribute to the neighborhoods in which they live.