<p>Head Start childcare director, Starla Halverson, shows off the free parenting bag for any parent or guardian of a child under five. The bag is available at all Umatilla Morrow County Head Start locations in both English and Spanish. </p>

Umatilla Morrow Head Start received an $88,000 grant for the third year of an initiative to centralize parent education opportunities in the region.

Now that they know theyre now on track for an additional two years of grant funding from the Oregon Community Foundation, the program coordinators are glowing. They received about $85,000 each year for the first three years and expect slightly less funding for the fourth and fifth years.

As long as we do everything were supposed to, this will be extended to five years, training coordinator Erin Richards.

The grant initiatives goals are broad. The idea, said Richards, is to bring agencies from all over the region together to improve early childhood parenting education.

This isn’t just our grant, it’s everybody’s grant, she said.

The Department of Health Services, WIC, BMCC Early Childhood Program, Pioneer Relief Services, area schools and more are all involved with the program.

The grant allows Head Start to train agencies and lead classes on evidence-based parenting.

Theres a lot of information out there but the primary sources for parents are friends and relatives, childcare director Starla Halverson said. We want to broaden parents options and expand on their strengths.

With help from Greater Oregon Behavioral Health Inc. (GOBHI) and Good Shepherd Community Foundation, the grant also allowed Head Start to develop a free resource bag for parents of children under five. Available in both Spanish and English, the bag is filled with books and brochures on how to bring up healthy children.

There are no qualifications, said Halverson. Parents can walk in and pick up a bag from any Umatilla Morrow Head Start.

Contact Natalie Wheeler at nwheeler@eastoregonian.com or 541-564-4536.