Head Start is a national program administered through the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In 1965, the Office of Economic Opportunity launched Project Head Start as an eight-week summer program. Head Start was part of the War on Poverty, which embodied a basic belief in education as the solution to poverty. Head Start was designed to help break the "cycle of poverty" by providing preschool children of low income families with a comprehensive program to meet their emotional, social, health, nutritional, and psychological needs.

In 1969, Head Start was transferred from the Office of Economic Opportunity to the Office of Child Development in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Head Start serves many American Indian, migrant farm worker, urban and rural children and families in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Pacific Insular Areas.

Head Start has grown from the eight-week demonstration project to include full day/year services and many program options.

In the mid-1990's, Early Head Start services for ages birth to 3 year olds were formalized and expanded.

Currently, Head Start and Early Head Start serves nearly one million low-income children and their families each year.

Suwannee Valley 4Cs proudly serves 430 children and their families through our programs in Columbia, Hamilton, Lafayette and Suwannee counties in Northern Florida.