Riddle Center receives multi-million-dollar grant

The J. Iverson Riddle Developmental Center will receive approximately $1.42 million over the coming nine months and $1.9 million in 2010-11 to expand its Family, Infant and Preschool Program.
In addition to the program-support funds, the Morganton-based center will receive $1.4 million in start-up money to prepare classrooms in family resource centers, for playgrounds and to purchase equipment and educational materials.
The federal Early Head Start Expansion Grant comes from the Administration for Children and Families Office of Head Start in Washington, D.C.
The money will allow the Riddle Center to expand an existing Alexander County-based Early Head Start Program into Burke and Caldwell counties, serving an additional 140 children and their families in both home- and center-based settings, according to M'Lisa Shelden, director of the Family, Infant and Preschool Program at the Riddle Center.
Part of the start-up funds will go into new construction in Morganton and into renovation and expansion of facilities here and in Lenoir and Taylorsville.
Expanding the program also will help create approximately 32 jobs in Burke and Caldwell counties, according to Lanier Cansler, secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
At least 10 percent of the children in the program will be eligible based on their disabilities.
"For these children," Shelden said, "FIPP will provide occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech-language pathology, special education, psychology and nursing services."
Other children will be selected based on family income, with the priority going to the neediest families, Shelden said.
"I anticipate we'll have more applicants than slots," she added.
There will be room for eight more children in Alexander County; a total of 132 in Burke and Caldwell counties.
Many of the new jobs will be for educators. Federal guidelines require two teachers for eight children in a classroom, Shelden said.
There will be new classrooms opened this spring in Taylorsville, Lenoir and Morganton.
Here in Morganton, the program will start up in an existing facility. Shelden said the Riddle Center will reopen the house formerly called Family Place on Enola Road just north of Liberty Middle School.
Quaker Meadows Presbyterian Church has plans in the works to build a new Family Life Center on Table Rock Road. Shelden said the Family, Infant and Preschool Program will partner with the church to construct that facility and ultimately occupy two classrooms there.
The Riddle Center has an existing rented facility in downtown Lenoir. FIPP will expand into adjacent quarters there.
The program also will open a new classroom in Taylorsville where the program currently serves 60 children and their families.
In addition to providing a classroom environment for preschool children, Shelden said there is an active home-visiting program that the new funds will expand.
Each of the home visitors has a caseload of 12 families and spends at least 90 minutes per week with each. In addition to providing help with parent-child interaction, the staff helps arrange for immunizations, dental care and medical exams for all of the family's children.
The Family Resource Centers offer more than classroom education, Shelden continued.
Federal guidelines require the preschool Head Start programs to provide at least two family activities per month. Shelden said the Riddle Center's program provides 10 per week. And she pointed out that they're not programs in which parents can simply drop off their children.
"Parents are required to stay, learning to help their children learn," Shelden said.
"The purpose of Early Head Start," she explained, "is to promote healthy prenatal outcomes for pregnant women, to enhance the development of very young children and to promote healthy family functioning for low-income families with infants and toddlers from birth to 3 years of age and women who are pregnant."
Beyond supporting the local program over the next two years, Shelden said the federal award will help validate the Riddle Center's program to state officials who were considering cutbacks due to revenue shortfalls.
Cansler said nothing about that in a statement accompanying the grant announcement.
"We are pleased to be able to expand this outstanding educational and health program for children and their families into two more North Carolina counties," he said. "DHHS is committed to finding new and unique ways of providing all types of community-based services to help families in need 'heal' in their community and, whenever possible, not have to go out of county to receive treatment."
The Family, Infant and Preschool Program is a community-based program begun by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services in 1972 . It is believed to be the first state-funded early intervention program in the United States.