Enhanced Early Head Start (EHS) provided low-income families with standard EHS services, including intensive early childhood development services and family support, with additional program enhancements designed to address parents’ employment and self-sufficiency needs.
The program enhancements included partnerships with local agencies that provided employment and training services with on-site self-sufficiency specialists who worked directly with families on setting and achieving self-sufficiency and employment goals. Enhanced EHS offered health and mental services to families.
All services were available either at home or at the center. Families that participated in enhanced home-based services received visits from staff up to four times a month. Families that participated in enhanced center-based services were required to have four parent education meetings per year.
Families were eligible for the program if they (1) were at or below the federal poverty threshold, (2) had a child younger than 3 or were expecting a child, and (3) lived in one of the areas served by the program. Services were available to families for as long as they had a child younger than 3 or were expecting, with the average family participating in the enhanced program for 11 months. The program took place in Girard, KS, and St. Charles, MO.