Head Start
PICA’s Head Start program helps prepare children for success in school and provides comprehensive, individualized services for preschoolers that support healthy cognitive, physical and social-emotional growth and development. PICA offers several Head Start program options to meet families’ needs, including:
Split-Week | PICA’s Split-Week program option is our most popular option. Children attend classes six hours a day, two or three days a week from September through early June. Class schedules switch mid-year.
Double Session | PICA’s Double Session program option allows children to attend classes three-and-a-half hours a day, five days a week from September through early June.
Full Day | PICA’s Full Day Head Start program option operates year-round, five days per week and is available from 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with a maximum of 10 hours per day for each child. Families must have a childcare subsidy to participate in this option.
High Five | PICA’s High Five program option is a developmental kindergarten program for children who miss the September 1 cutoff birth date to enter public school kindergarten.
Project TOPS (Training Opportunities for Parents) | PICA’s Project TOPS program option provides services for children five days a week, while offering additional support for their parents, who are enrolled in one of PICA’s parent training opportunities and/or transitioning into the workforce.
Early Head Start
PICA’s Early Head Start (EHS) program is designed for infants, toddlers under three-years-old and pregnant women. In EHS, infants and toddlers receive comprehensive, individualized services to support healthy cognitive, physical and social-emotional growth and development. Pregnant women also receive prenatal and postnatal education and support. PICA offers several EHS program options to meet families’ needs, including:
Split-Week | In PICA’s Split-Week Early Head Start program option, children attend classes six hours a day, two or three days a week from September through early June. Class schedules switch mid-year.
Full Day | PICA’s Full Day Early Head Start program option operates year-round, five days per week and is available from 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with a maximum of 10 hours per day for each child. Families must have a childcare subsidy to participate in this option.
Project TOPS (Training Opportunities for Parents) | PICA’s Project TOPS program option provides services for children five days a week, while offering additional support for their parents, who are enrolled in one of PICA’s parent training opportunities and/or transitioning into the workforce.
Pregnant Women | PICA’s Pregnant Women program option provides prenatal and postnatal education and support for pregnant women to ensure healthy pregnancy, birth and post-partum outcomes.
Project Secure
Children and parents living in one of four shelters in Minneapolis (Families Moving Forward, Mary’s Place, People Serving People or St. Anne’s) receive comprehensive Head Start or Early Head Start services through our Full Day Project Secure program. Infants, toddlers and preschoolers are cared for at our Fraser and McKnight centers, and their parents receive additional supportive services to help them stabilize their family and seek employment. Children enrolled in Project Secure are given priority for enrollment in PICA’s other Head Start or Early Head Start program options when they and their families move from the shelters.
