Theresa Perez learned about Pathstone Carbon County's Early Head Start program when she enrolled her daughter Jaylyn, 3, in the regular program. At the time, her youngest child, Brayden, was but months old.
Early Head Start, offered through the Pathstone Carbon County Head Start centers in Lehighton and Coaldale, is for pregnant women, and children from birth to age 3. The program is offered free of charge to low-income families and works through home visits from specially trained staff members.
Perez, of Lansford, had her doubts at first.
"Honestly, I expected a little personal invasion. I wasn't really looking forward to a stranger coming to my house," she said. "But it's great. It's nothing like I thought it would be. It's excellent."
Perez said the home visitor, Cerissa Kibler, is "really friendly, not intrusive at all. It's just like having a friend over for an hour-and-a half each week."
Even though she's already an experienced mother – Perez and her husband Robert also have an 11 -year-old, Aliyah, and a 9-year-old, Milena, in addition to Jaylyn and Brayden – she said she's learned from the program.
"Things change. For instance, they had information about car seats. The rules for car seats have changed drastically since my 11-year-old was born," she said."It's something I never would have looked into because you assume that you know it from the first time."
As Perez recounts her experiences while sitting in a classroom at the Coaldale center, Beth Schreffler, of Nesquehoning, plays with her little girl, 20-month-old Hunter.
Schreffler enrolled in Early Head Start when Hunter was three months old. She learned about the program as she enrolled her second-oldest daughter, Hilary, now 5, in Head Start. Hilary is now in kindergarten. Schreffler also has a 3-year-old, Hannah, in Head Start, and an 8-year-old, Hailey, who is in third grade.
Schreffler said her home visitor, Holly Watson, is good with giving each child one-on-one time, and letting Schreffler know about changes in immunization schedules.
"They really help you with everything," she said.
Shreffler said she didn't know what to expect when she signed up.
"I really had no idea what they were going to teach a baby. But instead of teaching her, they taught us stuff – different things that we needed to know, like about car seats and immunizations, and getting help with WIC (the federal Womens, Infants and Children nutrition program).
Early Head Start came about in Nov. 2009, when the Pathstone Carbon County Head Start program received a letter of financial award for $920,520 from the federal Health and Human Services department that allowed the program to serve 72 Early Head Start children, from birth to age 3, and pregnant women.