Getting Involved

While ABCD Head Start is a federally funded organization, we cannot offer the depth and breadth of services we strive to provide to low-income families in Boston without additional support from the local community, in the form of volunteers, financial donations and partnerships and collaborations with corporations, colleges, hospitals, and social service agencies.

A full 95 percent of the government funding we receive is already earmarked for specific purposes within the program." And as a nonprofit organization, we need additional support in order to continue to evolve our services and meet the emerging needs of the community we serve." 

Financial Contributions Demonstrate Community Support

At Head Start, we rely on a range of funding sources as diverse as the population we serve. This includes the contributions of individuals who wish to demonstrate their support of the work we are doing to provide local low-income children with the educational, social, and health interventions they need to succeed in school and life. It also comprises the corporate partnerships we form, which allow us to develop new programming to meet community needs as we see them emerge. For example, our collaboration with the Boston University School of Dentistry allows us to provide a comprehensive dental screening and training program for our Early Head Start children and families through our Johnson & Johnson Health Care Institute. Through this institute, Head Start and Early Head Start parents participate in a training program that educates them about the health care needs of their children.

Join Our Valued Volunteers

Both our individual volunteers and the local community's involvement are an integral part of ensuring that ABCD Head Start and Early Head Start continue to be the vibrant, comprehensive sources of support for low-income children and families that we aim to be. We continually seek to involve the parents and family members of our Head Start children, as well as individual volunteers from the community, including college students, and those who serve our programs through corporate partnerships. For example, our Student Interns come from local public and private high schools and middle schools to read to our children as often as once a week. And our relationships with area colleges, including Boston College, Boston University, Salem State, Cambridge College, Emanuel and Wheelock, allow us to provide internship sites for students from licensed social worker programs at both the bachelors and masters levels.

A Network of Caring

Because we are locally administered by Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD), which serves more than 100,000 low-income Greater Boston residents, the families of children enrolled in Head Start gain access to ABCD services, such as housing, food and fuel assistance, and education and training programs. We are constantly striving to partner with other community agencies, including homeless shelters, food pantries, and health centers, in order to better meet the needs of the families we serve. ABCD Head Start partners with five local childcare programs, to provide Head Start's support services to child and families in their programs.

Those individuals, corporations, and community agencies who wish to learn more about partnering with Head Start should contact us to request additional information.