Education
Head Start provides full day, full year, quality, developmentally appropriate childcare to low-income children and families. The goals of Head Start are to enhance children’s physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development; to enable parents to be better caregivers and teachers to their children; and to help parents meet their own goals, including self-sufficiency.
This program provides parents with information and activities to help their young children develop the language skills they need to be ready for kindergarten. RED Ahead is offered in four of the five UWECI service area county Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) clinics run by the Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP), RED Ahead addresses the opportunity gap that exists for lower-income children. Modeling provides parents with the confidence to recreate the activities at home and the developmental screening provides parents with tools to check if their child needs additional attention. RED Ahead then helps these parents get the services they need.
Financial Stability
Distribute 5.1 million pounds of food, including fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, and milk to partner agencies and pantries and directly to the community in need through the Mobile Food Pantry strategy. The Food Reservoir also provides SNAP education, screening, outreach and enrollment at partner agencies, mobile pantries, and community events. Operation Backpack provides food for evenings and weekends for food-insecure children.
Transitional housing, supportive services and case management for low-income families including, teaching individuals and families how to obtain and retain permanent housing.
Health
HACAP’s Rural Senior Services provides home and community-based care and caregiver supports to the rural community in Benton Co. including: home delivered meals, center based dining, chore services, and medical equipment lending closet in order to support older adults to remain in their home independently.