Staff members at Umatilla-Morrow Head Start spent the past year working on the "Free to Grow" project and are now ready to include community members in the process. The organization will sponsor a public picnic Aug. 25 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Victory Square Park to familiarize people with the program and bring neighbors together….The "Free to Grow" program puts Head Start personnel together with community partners to work on community development. The idea is to prevent substance abuse and decrease child abuse and neglect in Hermiston.

The program has a two-pronged approach that involves neighborhood residents in a grassroots-style campaign and community leaders. The idea is to get people to identify issues in their own neighborhoods and then take leadership roles and help get others involved to fix the problems… Neighborhood residents will identify their area's problems and tell Head Start, which will provide support to help address them. The results are more sustainable because the program involves the residents.

"Free to Grow" promotes substance-free neighborhoods. [Shannon] Jackson, [Community Development Coordinator for Head Start] pointed out that it is a contradiction to tell children not to do drugs and then not to do anything about people who they might see abusing substances. "It is the entire community in which the person grows that really has the impact," Jackson continued. "We want to give the kids a safe place to grow up….It is important to make all neighborhoods a part of the community." 

Jackson speculated that Head Start's connection to families in all neighborhoods, even some often overlooked normally, is why officials selected Head Start as the vehicle for such a program. "Free to Grow" will give such families a chance to be an active part of the community."  "We want to involve some of these families and build support networks in the communities… We will work to strengthen the family with our partners which, at the same time, will strengthen the community by involving them."

She added that many strong families in the community want to help other families but do not know how to reach them. This program would give them the chance to help. However, she cautioned that it is a long-term process to affect change. Strong and active families make strong neighborhoods and strong neighborhoods make strong communities. Strong communities give children a safer climate in which to grow and learn. "Really good communities create a barrier to high risk behavior." Jackson said.

(Excerpted from The Hermiston Herald, August 20, 2002, Community, page A3)