“I’m a Head Start kid,” Craig Melvin shared. “I don’t think a lot of people fully appreciate how much of a head start it actually gives kids who were born in circumstances that are far beyond their control.”
When an early draft of President Trump’s budget proposal threatened to defund the Head Start program that helps support nearly 800,000 children and their families nationwide, advocates like Jennifer Garner leapt into action.
There’s nothing more optimistic than reaching a kid when they’re young,” Garner said to NBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff.
In fact, TODAY’s own Craig Melvin was one of the kids who grew up with support from a Head Start program.
“I’m a Head Start kid,” Craig told Jacob. “Before preschool I went to Head Start, Head Start summer camps, family members have gone through Head Start. I don’t think a lot of people fully appreciate how much of a head start it actually gives kids who were born in circumstances that are far beyond their control.”
Garner has been a board member of Save the Children, which sponsors nine Head Start locations, since 2014. She and Jacob toured a Head Start facility in Concord, North Carolina, that serves over 100 children and families with programs like free early childhood education. It also provides mental health services and meals for children who may otherwise not have reliable access to food.
“We think of childcare as graham crackers and a nap and a wipe (of) the nose,” said Garner. “That is not what we’re talking about here. These teachers, these professionals, these educators, they are brain architects. They are training these brains to become learners.”
“It doesn’t feel like a school,” Jacob commented. “It feels like a place where these kids are loved.”
Jacob also spoke with two sets of parents who currently enroll their kids in Head Start programming.
