October is Head Start Awareness Month!

By Karah-Leigh Hancock
October 1, 2019

Did you know that October is Head Start Awareness Month? You probably did, but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about it!

While Head Start officially launched in 1965 by its first director, Jule Sugarman, it began as a part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society (or War on Poverty) campaign.

“The program was conceived not so much as a Federal effort, but really as a neighborhood effort, and the response we have received from the neighborhoods and the communities has been most stirring and the most enthusiastic of any peacetime program I can remember,” President Johnson said in his speech on May 18, 1965.

However, Head Start Awareness Month didn’t begin until President Ronald Reagan established the holiday on October 22, 1982 with Proclamation 4990. Reagan proclaimed October as a time to share the power of Head Start at the local, state, and national levels.

President Reagan described Head Start as “a quality program that truly provides young children with a ‘head start’ in life.”

Throughout October, ChildPlus Software will be showing our Head Start pride and celebrating on social media with posts, videos, and more.

Be sure to tag your social media posts with #HeadStartAwareness!