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Head Start offered for migrant's children Parents can get information at fair tonight in Medford By VICKI GUARINO A child-care and education program targeting the youngest children of migrant workers is seeking participants for the coming harvest season. Migrant Head Start is sponsoring a recruitment fair from 6 to 8 tonight at the Santo Center, 701 N. Columbus Ave., Medford. The program is designed for families that could benefit from child-care assistance. There will be a barbecue, games for children and information about the program for parents. Migrant Head Start in Jackson County is just beginning its second year. The program uses Spanish-speaking, registered child-care providers to get federal Head Start care and educational services to needy preschoolers. Service is provided in homes to small groups of migrant children across Jackson County, says coordinator Jill Ramirez of Child Care Unlimited. The decentralized program, she says, "is almost unique to the entire country." More typical are Head Start centers situated near migrant worker housing serving hundreds of families. Jackson County's approach was built on a large network of Hispanic families that have been providing registered child care in their homes for a number of years. Ramirez says the Head Start service was designed to capitalize on that resource. "It's been very popular," she says. "The families choose that. "It felt to us like we would undermine what they were doing if we tried to set up a huge center." In Hispanic homes, with small numbers of children, youngsters are around sights, smells and voices that are familiar. Often, Child Care Unlimited staff have found, families enrolling in the service know providers through family and community ties going back to hometowns in Mexico. The in-home program gives some additional stability to children who could benefit from it the most. The Oregon Employment Department estimates that some 1,200 migrant farm workers move into Jackson County every summer for agricultural work. Some are families that work in various communities around Oregon; others travel the West Coast and Mexico for jobs. Often, the families coming to Child Care Unlimited are in the process of finding more permanent work and settling in Jackson County. Head Start helps prepare these youngsters for local kindergartens. Most of the families speak Spanish exclusively. That language barrier, combined with the transitory lifestyle, long work hours and low family income, create severe education impediments for the children. Child Care Unlimited launched the Head Start program with a $267,000 federal grant last summer. The program served about 60 kids with care and preschool through December. Child Care Unlimited serves Jackson and Josephine counties and links families with quality, registered child care. Staff members monitor the services of participating in-home child care providers. This summer, the organization expects to continue the special Head Start program for 60 kids with a similar grant. Ramirez says the program will start around the beginning of August. "We start when the crop is ready," she said. To be eligible, families must be below the federal poverty level, have proof of migratory status and earn at least 51 percent of income from agricultural work. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA