Aware Inc., Early Head Start
Tom Richards, Director
237 East Mercury
Butte, MT 59701
Phone: (406) 782-0455
Fax: (406) 782-0733
E-mail:
trichards@aware-inc.org
www.aware-inc.org/headstart
Counties Served: Beaverhead, Madison, Silver Bow
AWARE, Inc. Early Head start has a funded enrollment of 40 with 34 center based and 6 prenatal/postnatal. 20 of the center based is in Butte and 14 center based in Dillon. The 6 prenatal/postnatal are used between Butte and Dillon. All 6 can be in Dillon or Butte or in any combination.
We have five environments 3 in Butte and 2 in Dillon. Each environments is staffed with a Lead Educator and an Educator. We then have a Team Leader in Butte and Dillon whom help the Child Development Specialist supervise the environments. We operate a full year full day program and are open for children 10 hours a day 5 days a week.
Currently there are 25 staff members including; 1 Director, 1 Child Development Specialist, 1 Family Enrichment, 1 Health and Wellness Specialist, 5 Lead Educators, 8 Educators, 2 Team Leaders, 5 Subs, and 1 Janitor.
New Happenings
We received a Fatherhood Grant and are using it to conduct a Dad’s group two times a month in Butte and two times a month in Dillon. I have teamed up with the Health Department and A.W.A.R.E. Mental Health Center to help facilitate this group. As part of this group we are also going to introduce a literacy project where we distribute a literacy kit to each Dad and discuss the important role fathers play in helping their children read.
We are working with Butte High School to help teach a child development class and they are using our center as a lab site for this class. We are also working with the University of Montana at Western Early Childhood Department and they use our center as a lab site for observations.