National Head Start Association

  National Head Start Association Celebrates "Window of Opportunity"

Champions; Premiers "One Window of Opportunity" Animated Video

(Washington, DC) - As part of Head Start Awareness month, over 200 Head Start
directors and early childhood professionals from across the country gathered at the
Corcoran Gallery of Art to honor three exceptional Head Start champions and preview an
original, two-minute animated video narrated by Maria Shriver.

Sponsored by the National Head Start Association (NHSA), the evening centered on the
enormous and burgeoning need for Head Start programs as more Americans slip into
poverty while battling devastating unemployment. With 46 million people living below
the poverty line, including one in four children under age six, Head Start is a lifeline to
almost one million poor and at-risk children each year. Head Start currently is only able
to serve less than 50 percent of eligible children, with only five to six percent of children
needing Early Head Start able to access programs.

"Recent census data make it abundantly clear how dire the situation is for families
struggling to provide for their children with fewer and fewer resources," said National
Head Start Association executive director Yasmina Vinci. "For five decades, Head Start
has supported the American Dream by providing a window of opportunity for our most
vulnerable children and placing them squarely on a path to lifelong success. Tonight we
reaffirm our commitment to keeping the window open so every eligible child can access
Head Start."

As part of part of a national effort to underscore the importance of investing in early
childhood education, NHSA previewed "One Window of Opportunity," an original, two-
minute animated video, capturing a child's perspective of the vast possibilities Head
Start offers America's youngest minds. Produced by creative agency SS&K and narrated
by Maria Shriver, the animated video spotlights the critical window of opportunity
in the first five years of life, during which essential cognitive, social and emotional
development occurs.

"As Director of President Lyndon Johnson's Office of Economic Opportunity, my father,
Sargent Shriver, created the Head Start program more than 46 years ago," said Maria
Shriver. "My father understood with great clarity the importance of this window of
opportunity and the tremendous value of Head Start, and he fought to get the program
off the ground and to keep it alive. I am proud to join this new fight to ensure that our
country's most vulnerable children don't lose their precious window of opportunity.

As part of the national effort to highlight the lifelong value of Head Start, NHSA is
soliciting videos from across the country, asking participants to share the meaning of the
Head Start window of opportunity.