Dragon Info Head Start From Preschool to Crisis Intervention 
Dealing with Challenging Kids  MAAC Staff    First Start 
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San Diego MAAC
October 2002 The Metropolitan Area Advisory Committee, or MAAC, began in the late 1960s with one Head Start center in Oceanside. Originally called the Mexican American Advisory Committee, the group was founded by people who came out of the United Farm Workers movement. The staff of the centers were community members with little formal training. MAAC now has Head Start centers all over northern San Diego County, including in Fallbook, Vista, San Marcos, Oceanside, Valley Center, and Rincon. The agency provides a variety of services in addition to Head Start, including programs for drunk drivers and home weatherization and lead abatement services. The staff are highly trained in teaching academic skills and in dealing with children who have mental health issues, learning disorders, and developmental disabilities. MAAC offers a variety of programs for pre-school kids in addition to the federally-funded Head Start program. These include a half-day program for three-to five-year- olds and a newborn to three-year-old early start program. They offer Mommy and Me parenting classes, attended by mothers and their children, including a one-day-a-week class for newborns to 18-month-old children and a two-day-a-week program for one-to three-year-olds. The agency also offers an ongoing, year-round, full-day program for the children of working parents and students. To qualify, a parent must be working full time, carrying more than 12 units, or attending school more than six hours a day.
Jessica Herrera is a family services worker at the San Marcos Head Start Center. In addition to helping parents fill out applications and assessing which of the agency’s programs they qualify for, she also provides case management services. She offers referrals to other social services agencies and community groups that can provide services the MAAC project doesn’t offer. She also attends health fairs and community events to recruit both parents and service providers. Herrera describes her job: “I’m usually the first one to meet with the family and determine what types of needs they have. The first thing they often tell me is that they want to get into Head Start so that they can benefit the child and themselves. Often the parent wants ESL classes or to get a GED. I see what type of health care needs they have. If they don’t have health insurance I help them get MediCal or Healthy Families. If the child has disabilities such as speech delays, we encourage the parents to get the child evaluated. If this is their first child, we encourage them to take a parenting class. A lot of children we see have hearing problems because of earaches so we make sure they have health insurance so they can get the child treated.”
After Herrera completes the parents’ application, they go to Sylvia Icenhour, who processes the application and assigns the children and parents to different classes. Icenhour acts as a liaison between the service providers at the centers and the administration. She is also the trouble shooter if any of the service providers need help in finding services or referrals for the parents. Icenhour understands the needs of the parents. “When I was married for the first time I had never taken any childhood development classes, in school or college. When I had my first child, I had no idea I was supposed to sit down and talk to my son and drill him in learning colors or the letters. Now I enjoy bringing the awareness of how children learn to others,” she says.
Using Peanut Butter Sandwiches to Teach Independence The teachers at the program use basic activities to teach the children social and academic skills and how to be independent. “We teach them healthy decision-making and problem-solving so they can get along with other people in the world,” lead teacher Stacy Van Note states. “Those are not easy things to do in today’s world. We work on sharing and oral communication, helping them read body language and to express their needs in the appropriate manner, and being able to recognize when other children need help.” They encourage the children to teach each other and learn from each other.
When we arrived at the Head Start center it was lunchtime. Van Note and the other teachers were sitting at a table with their students, who were enthusiastically trying to make peanut butter sandwiches. Peanut butter sandwiches are both a basic nutritional item and a basic learning experience. Van Note explains: “It is hard to spread the peanut butter for them at first. It takes patience. This is their first attempt, and it may take them 20 minutes and a lot of help to make a sandwich, but at the end of the year they will be able to make their own, and really quickly. This is a good activity for developing self-help skills. They learn about cooking, food, and nutritional content. Peanuts are protein. We are also developing their fine motor skills so they will have strong muscles and be coordinated enough to write.”
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