Supporting the Whole Child Approach to Health and Well-being in Head Start
Insights from NHSA’s Year of Whole Health Initiative
Head Start is dedicated to providing strong comprehensive services to support the whole child, the family, and the community to serve as a basis for success in school and life. But the success of your Head Start program does not come without challenges.
As part of our work to support effective practice in Head Start, the National Head Start Association surveyed the Head Start community last summer to better understand what obstacles you face to improving practices and services to children and families. Informed by this direct feedback, NHSA developed the Year of Whole Health initiative.
This year-long campaign began at the start of the 2018–2019 program year with the goal being to support better outcomes for children and families by sharing resources, research, best practices, tools, and ideas for improving the culture of health in Head Start programs, communities, and homes. This initiative, guided by the Head Start community, brought NHSA’s effective practice team closer to Head Start practitioners across the nation and allowed us to highlight innovative practices and effective models for supporting the whole health of the child, the family, and the community.
What is Whole Health?
Head Start believes that strong health and well-being serves as the foundation of school readiness and child development. The Head Start model takes a whole child approach to health by providing comprehensive health services and support to children and families.
Across the nation, Head Start programs provide nearly a million children and their families a year with health services such as immunizations and screenings, nutrition and physical health services, dental and oral health services, mental and social-emotional support and services, and more. Since the health of a child is impacted by the environment in which he or she grows and develops, the Head Start model also aims to promote the health of the child’s family, caregivers, and the surrounding community.
The Year of Whole Health aimed to reflect this holistic approach to wellness by dedicating each month to a particular health topic or program service and digging in deeper to understand and share what works, what doesn’t, and creative ideas for improving quality.
What We Covered
Check out the various topics and service areas we supported throughout the Year of Whole Health. These topics ranged from supporting children with challenging behaviors or disabilities, to implementing gardening programs and locally sourced foods to improve nutrition and overall well-being. Each month, NHSA hosted webinars, shared resources, tools, and highlighted best practices to stimulate conversation and knowledge sharing around each of these critical topics.
If you weren’t able to join our webinars or conference sessions or learn about any of the resources and tools we shared, be sure to check out our Year of Whole Health blog series which includes a brief recap of the activities and items shared each month.
Moving Forward
We want to learn more from you! This work is powered through feedback and ideas from Head Start practitioners and parents everywhere. We guide our efforts directly in response to your questions and voiced concerns.
Want to share your successes, ideas, or concerns? Take a few moments to complete NHSA’s 2019 Effective Practice Survey on The Block. If you have any questions about the Year of Whole Health or any of the work from NHSA’s Center for Effective Practice, please email Sarah Neil at sneil@nhsa.org.
To access each of the webinar recordings and resources shared from the Year of Whole Health, sign into NHSA’s online communication platform, The Block. If you have questions about access to The Block or NHSA’s membership, please send a message to TheBlock@nhsa.org.
