JANUARY 6, 2020 — Lloyd Potter, researcher and director of UTSA’s Institute for Demographic and Socioeconomic Research, is supporting local Head Start and Early Head Start programs toward being more effective. Potter has worked with the City of San Antonio’s Department of Human Services Early Head Start-Child Care and Head Start Programs, and with local nonprofit San Antonio AVANCE Inc. to better assess their programs to provide information about how they are meeting the needs of the children and families they serve.
The Early Head Start and Head Start programs of the Department of Human Services and AVANCE conduct comprehensive community needs assessments every five years and community needs assessment updates annually. The results are compiled into reports that help ensure the Head Start programs’ services are located where they are needed, identify any changes to the challenges of those experiencing poverty, and determine the need for additional services.
Potter and his colleagues have been responsible for the content development, data collection, analysis and final recommendations of the assessments by identifying the conditions contributing to the need for Head Start services for young children and their families and to providing evidence of those conditions for the past 10 years.
⇒ Learn more about Lloyd Potter.
A recent assessment indicated that the most of the population of children eligible for Head Start (children in poverty ages 3 and 4 years) in the programs’ service areas were being served by the Head Start programs. Potter said, “However, when we looked the population of Early Head Start children who were eligible, only a fraction were enrolled.” This has resulted in the programs seeking permission to shift resources to the Early Head Start program and the ramping up of efforts to identify parents who have eligible children to encourage them to enroll.
According to Head Start data, preschoolers develop lasting mental processes that enable children to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, juggle multiple tasks successfully and manage emotions. The San Antonio and AVANCE Inc. Early Head Start and Head Start programs currently serve more than 4,700 ages 6 weeks to 5 years old who live in the Harlandale, Edgewood, and much of the San Antonio Independent School District.
Potter said, “There are numerous examples of Head Start and Early Head Start programs in San Antonio using data from the community needs assessments to more effectively serve our children. When I hear how the information we found and provided the programs is being used to reach and support more children and families in need in more efficient and effective ways, I find it deeply rewarding. Additionally, some of the best parts of this work are having the opportunity to work with dedicated professionals working every day to improve the life chances of our children and meeting parents and caregivers whose children are in the programs.”
Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.
UTSA Today is produced by University Communications and Marketing, the official news source of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Send your feedback to news@utsa.edu. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.
Join the PEACE Center and Wellbeing Services for Denim Day, a day of learning about the importance of consent and why we wear denim on the last Wednesday of the month each April during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Stop by our Denim Day display to take a photo in front of our Denim Wall, spin the "Is It Consent?" Wheel, and get a Concha or goodie.
Student Union Window Lounge, Main CampusLearn to use Zotero®, a citation manager that can help you store and organize citations you find during your research. Zotero can generate bibliographies in various styles, insert in-text citations and allow you to share sources with collaborators.
Virtual EventThis event will acknowledge graduating seniors from the McNair Scholars program at UTSA before inducting the new cohort of scholars into the program.
North Paseo Building (NPB 5.140), Main CampusAt this memorable celebration, UTSA graduates will be introduced one-by-one to cross the stage and accept their doctoral degrees.
Arts Building Recital Hall, Main CampusRoadrunner Walk is an event for graduating students to have a memorable walk on campus to celebrate an important milestone and their achievements. Graduates will walk along the Paseo while being celebrated by the UTSA community, friends, and family members.
Student Union Paseo, Main CampusCelebrate the accomplishments of College of Education and Human Development, College for Health, Community and Policy, College of Sciences and University College.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St.Celebrate the accomplishments of Alvarez College of Business, College of Liberal and Fine Arts and Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St.The University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education .
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to promoting access for all. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.