Head Start hits 50

LYNN – Fifty years ago, the Lynn Economic Opportunity Inc. (LEO) held its first year of Head Start, the then-new federal preschool program introduced as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty.A lot has changed in the program since 1965, most notably, the participants. So in celebration of LEO’s golden anniversary, the organization is asking for help finding and identifying people in pictures from the program’s first year.”There are faces we don’t know,” Kathleen McDonald, director of development and communication at LEO said Wednesday. “Who are these children? What was the first year like? What do they remember?”The Head Start program started in 1965 in Lynn as an eight-week summer program providing preschool services to local children. The program has expanded dramatically, currently running several programs year-round throughout the city and serving 416 kids from 6 weeks to 12 years old.There is a site for 3- to 5-year-olds on Blossom Street and on Commercial Street, and there is an Early Head Start program at the old St. Alban’s Church on Waitt Street that began in 2010.An after-school program for children up to age 12 is housed at the administrative building on Broad Street.LEO also provides services such as fuel and weatherization assistance, housing and emergency assistance, home visits to meet with clients, educational and family services and more, providing multi-faceted, individualized care, McDonald said.”We are much more outward focused and collaborative than the program was 50 years ago,” McDonald said. “If you don’t have food, toys, books and warmth, you’re not developing properly for your age, and that’s going to set you back for the rest of your life,” McDonald said.About 99 percent of LEO’s clients are in Lynn – almost all of whom are living below the federal poverty line of $11,000 per person – although LEO serves residents of Swampscott, Saugus, Lynnfield, Marblehead, Nahant and Wakefield. It currently has a wait list of 653 people for the Early Head Start program (servicing clients from 6 weeks to 3 years old) and a 937-person wait list for the Head Start Program for 3- to 5-year-olds.”There are thousands of people in Lynn who still need this,” McDonald said.And while 3-to-5-year-olds might not remember much of their experiences – especially 50 years later – McDonald said she’s hoping the photographs will spark some information”We would love to know where they are!” McDonald said.