Farmworker Head Start growth on tap

By MAURA POSSLEY

More resources to help migrant farmworkers' children succeed could be on its way.

East Coast Migrant Head Start wants to open facilities off State Road 64 near Falkner Farms and awaits approval from the county.

If given, building could begin on the nine acres of property, said Commissioner Donna Hayes, whose district includes the area.

"There are a lot of migrants out in that area," Hayes said Thursday. "We have children who need to be enrolled in a Head Start program, which helps them in school later on."

The organization would not comment on the project Thursday.

The group, created in 1974, makes it a mission to focus on migrant children during early childhood and prepare them to do well in the classroom, with locations in Florida and North Carolina, according to its Web site.

It is similar to the Redlands Christian Migrant Association's Head Start center in Palmetto, the only such local program for migrant tots now, officials there have said.

Hayes said eight modular buildings and a playground would be built on the property, to which a long driveway would lead. Eighty-six students could be bused or dropped off, and 22 people would be employed.

The plan could be approved for building as soon as next week, but likely the nod will come in September, Hayes said.

The land, which is about five miles east of Verna Bethany Road, is owned by John Falkner, of Falkner Farms, an operation that employs and houses migrants seasonally, Hayes said. A call to a farm manager was not returned Thursday.

"It sounds like the location is good for it," Hayes said. "It's not going to be offensive to neighbors because they have plenty of acres."

An estimated 18,000 farmworkers lived in Manatee County in 2004, according to a study done by the Latino Community Network, a farmworker advocacy group in Manatee.

But activists say a lot has changed since, though there is no current estimated size of the farmworker community.

They say increased immigration enforcement, a lack of affordable housing, a downturn in the real estate market and storms, mainly Hurricane Charley in 2004, have driven families from the area.

Still, the need for resources for migrant children abound, said Maria Matos, specialist for Manatee's federally funded Title I migrant program.

Programs like Head Start nurture and care for toddlers while beginning language and group skills to better prepare them for public schoos.

"It's very, very much needed," Matos said. "We don't have a lot of resources for the migrant families. It just needs to happen."