Missouri Head Start Association

“Expenses miscellaneous/admin expenses 1,812 web hosting fees 600 travel 3,957 conferences & meetings held 1,917 dollar per child contribution 38 insurance 1,389 region vii dues 5,981 grant expense 6,452 nhsa dues 800 msae dues 250 total 23,196”

“The primary exempt purpose of the missouri head start association is to coalesce, inspire, and support the head start field as a leader in early childhood development and education.”

“Leadership & training- mhsa designs, supports and provides effective leadership and training by: mhsa hosted several virtual learning opportunities for head start program management, staff, community partners, parent leaders and various state and regional partners throughout 2024. Each learning opportunity focused on supporting programs in best-practices, local efforts to further the head start model of service and reports/information sharing from state and regional partners. - mhsa council meetings and instructions: mhsa hosted 4 meetings with approximately 60 participants throughout the year. Meetings were held in february, may, september and december. - mhsa family leadership conference: mhsa hosted a family leadership conference to discuss effective listening and communication strategies and learn from legislative leaders about efforts to support education and advocacy efforts”

“Mhsa works to establish collaborative partnerships with other similar organizations and groups by: - head start directors & partners discussions: partnering with the other state and regional partners, mhsa works to help identify areas of need and opportunities for collaboration for head start programs in serving the needs of programs working with families towards their children's school readiness goals in the context of a community. Regular and consistent opportunities for discussions were hosted focused with head start program directors and state/regional partners. - mhsa representation: mhsa serves as a representative for the head start community on several mo and regional boards and councils, including: the region vii head start association board of directors, mo head start advisory committee, and the missouri community action network. These collaborative partnerships are a particularly important opportunity to allow local program's needs to be heard on a larger platform and to effectively strategize together on ways to support programs, and partners to better serve children in missouri and the region. - partnering with state organizations: during the 2024 year, mhsa established several learning initiatives and collaborative efforts with state organizations like the state collaboration office and healthy blue mo to support head start staff and family leaders regarding healthy practices and teachings to demonstrate best practices to be used in classroom and home-visitation settings. - mhsa serves as a member of the central team and the facilitator for the head start echo that is hosted by mu telehealth network.”

“Increasing public awareness: - regularly writing and sharing email alerts and information with programs and partners which contain information on upcoming events, program highlights and statewide initiatives - mhsa provides information to programs and members through the annual meeting and awards banquet and provides information related to mo head start programs, recognition of awards and scholarship honorees and highlighting special accomplishments - mhsa hosts a website which provides information about the head start program, how to contact missouri programs, a calendar of mhsa events and links to partner resources that might be of interest to those visiting the site along with other missouri-specific details related to head start - mhsa encourages local programs to share information and mhsa also regularly drafts and submits articles for the magazine produced by partners at the region vii head start association. - mhsa shares information, as invited, to local and state-wide audiences at various meetings and conferences and by serving on national and regional conference calls or other outlets to share about the work of head start in missouri.”