A Fairbanks Head Start for Alaska Native families gets five more years of federal money

Early-childhood classrooms and home visits for Alaska Native families in Fairbanks have five years of federal money behind them. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded about $6.18 million to the Fairbanks Native Association for its Head Start and Early Head Start programs, funding that runs through 2031.

The program is one piece of a much larger organization. The Fairbanks Native Association is a long-running Alaska Native nonprofit whose work spans behavioral health, including residential and outpatient addiction treatment, services for Native elders, and a set of education programs. Its Head Start has been part of Fairbanks since 1993, when it opened with services for a few dozen children, and added Early Head Start for infants and expectant families in 1998.

What the money pays for is care and education from before birth through age 5. Head Start serves children 3 to 5; Early Head Start reaches pregnant women and children from birth to 3, including home visits for expectant mothers. The program is funded to serve about 303 children, and it prioritizes families experiencing poverty or trauma, along with children who are homeless, in foster care, or whose families receive public assistance. It is not generic preschool: the program is built to strengthen cultural identity, with activities and field trips to events like the Festival of Alaska Native Arts.

The federal grant does not cover the whole cost. The government requires that 20 percent of it be matched locally, through contributions from parents and the community.

Fairbanks Native Association is one of about 17 Head Start programs in Alaska. Alaska News has previously covered tribal governments' annual say in how the state's Head Start money is allocated, an issue tied to documented funding shortfalls.