Loxley Team welcomes farmworker families back to our Head Start Center

Lauryn Sosa has worked with East Coast Migrant Head Start Project for ten years and currently serves as the Center Director of our phenomenal Loxley Center in Baldwin County, Alabama. I was able to catch up with Lauryn recently via telephone and email. Lauryn has been super-busy as the Loxley Center geared up for its opening day on May 2nd, but she was happy to take some time and chat with me about the latest happenings at the Loxley Center.

Lauryn shared that farmworker families in Baldwin County have been very worried about the new enforcement efforts targeted at immigrant communities in Alabama. This worry, she said, has created a feeling of “intimidation” in the farmworker community and parents have been slow to enroll their children in our Head Start program. However, with farm work to be done, parents are enrolling their children with more frequency in recent days and the Loxley Center opened with twenty children and on schedule. As ECMHSP commences transportation services with our wonderful school bus drivers and transportation team, we know enrollment will continue to surge.

When asked to provide a description of what opening day was like Lauryn reported the following:

Children were excited and eager to start at the center. Today, as well, parents arrived bright and early at the center. We currently are working on the enrollment of more children. I have to give thanks to my Loxley Team – a team that is always working hard and together to provide a high quality service to our farm working families. Family service staff and health services staff have done a great job working with the families and expediting enrollments regardless of the challenge of time limitations. Early Childhood Education Coordinators have worked hard with teaching staff to ensure that classrooms were ready and the Coordinators have provided great training to staff. Also, I have to give thanks to my kitchen staff, who have worked diligently to ensure that we have everything needed for the food service and I have to give thanks to the center Program Assistant who has helped a lot in the hiring process of new staff at the center. We have a successful opening and the expectation is to have a successful season!

Last year, the Loxley Center served 121 children and met its funded enrollment. This year, with lots of work at the sweet potato farms, watermelon, pepper and corn fields, as well as abundant work in the nurseries, Lauryn is anticipating another year of meeting funded enrollment. We are so fortunate to have dedicated staff like Lauryn and her Loxley team.