Head Start and Early Head Start Programs are facing major budget cuts that will close programs for 70,000 children. In Lassen County, Sierra Cascade Family Opportunities (SCFO), which is the agency that currently provides Head Start services in and around Herlong, has decided that completely closing the Herlong Head Start center is the best way to deal with these budget cuts. Please sign and support this petition to keep Herlong Head Start open. Lassen County has many Head Start and preschool centers available, only one serves the south county including Herlong, Milford, Doyle and surrounding communities. This Head Start Center is currently at a maximum capacity with a waiting list of children waiting to attend. Official enrollment for the 2013-2014 school year has not yet begun but Herlong Head Start center already has next years list of more than enough children to fill the available spots for the program. Many children and families depend on the center to give them the head start in life they deserve. Its not fair to take this opportunity away from all the children in the south county. The next closest preschool is Susanville, 39 miles away. The families in the community are unable to drive their children to Susanville centers. The gas for the trip alone would break them, not to mention the hour and a half car trip twice a day. The Herlong Head Start is a much-needed comprehensive program that touches on every aspect of these children’s lives. Head Start doesn’t just teach the alphabet and numbers; program requirements also include making individual and family goals and attending well-child and dental visits. The center also provides speech therapy with a licensed speech therapist to several children on a weekly basis and provides monthly access to counseling for children and families if needed. These assistances are not provided anywhere else in south county. If the Herlong Head Start center closes, Herlong, Milford and Doyle children and families will be forced to live without these much needed programs. We also have an amazing group of teachers at Herlong Head Start that would be laid off and, being such a small community with a lack of job availability, may be forced to move to find employment. The parents and families of the Herlong Head Start children have done everything required of us including providing the needed volunteer hours, donations and assistance to the program and the center. We have done this to the fullest and have always been happy to do it to support our children‘s futures. We have always met our goals to support the center. But now our center is threatened and we must do anything and everything we can to keep this center open. This is such an important part of the lives of our children and we cannot let this be taken away from them. Please sign this petition and forward information and ask everyone to help. We must show Sierra Cascade Family Opportunities how important this center is to us and our children and ask them to keep this center open and consider other ways to deal with the budget cuts. Our children cannot afford to be robbed of these opportunities and its up to everyone to help make sure this doesn’t happen. Thank you for supporting our cause.