Children of farm workers getting a 'Head Start'
May 8—Agri Business Child Development (ABCD) has 13 centers across the state and works to assist agricultural workers — including migrants, seasonal workers and local agricultural workers — by giving their children a classroom and safe place to learn and grow while their parents work essential jobs — eventually transitioning into a school district when they graduate pre-K at the center.
"People just don't understand how much agricultural is in New York state and what it takes for that agriculture to work," Susan Dingee, director of development for ABCD, said. "How essential farm workers are. Migrant, settled, local. The people who are working in the fields, the farms, the packing houses. These are the people who make our lives livable."
ABCD was founded in 1946 when a group of growers decided there needed to be a safe place for the children of farm workers. Since that time ABCD has grown to become a place where children between the ages of eight weeks and school age are cared for and given a Head Start education to get them ready for kindergarten.
"We service infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers," Dingee said. "Kindergarten readiness is the goal from the very start — from infancy up. All of our children. We are a Head Start program and we serve the whole child and family." This includes providing for the nutritional needs of a child, making sure children are immunized and have dental and medical screenings and monitoring their developmental needs. If a child could have a developmental delay, they will have all the correct services to help them along, Dingee said.
Children are not the only ones being helped by ABCD. Families are also helped to become advocates for their children's education and feel comfortable speaking to their children's future teachers.
Once the children are well on their way, the team at ABCD helps parents fill out registration applications, tour schools in the area and take the last plunge before placing their kindergarteners in the hands of their new school district.
"When they go into the school districts, they're actively engaged in their children's academic lives," Dingee said. "(It's) reducing those barriers that can exist that increase isolation and fearfulness in a community, especially during COVID. It's working to mitigate the even deeper feelings of isolation that this last year has brought on people. Parental mental wellness has such an impact on children and the stress levels of a family have an impact on children's healthy development."
Through the program, ABCD is a resource to parents, making sure they have food, diapers, formula, resources to perform educational activities with their children and an opportunity to visit the center, as well as participate in virtual conferences with teachers which have become particularly important in the last year during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Our staff will do anything," Dingee said. "I can't even tell you how many child births they've attended! Any support we can offer a family and their children, we're going to do it."
