In 1964, a panel of experts developed a blueprint for the Head Start program. It was designed as a comprehensive child development program to help communities find culturally responsive ways to meet the needs of disadvantaged preschool children. Establishing community health and mental health partnerships strengthens the comprehensive health and mental health services you provide to benefit children, families, program staff, and your communities. Leaders who manage health and mental health services and collaborate with local partners build community-wide capacity to promote better health for all families. Leaders do this by:

• Building effective partnerships between health and behavioral health providers and Head Start programs that enable everybody to respond to the health, wellness, and safety needs of children and families.
• Using community assessments as a starting point for understanding community assets and gaps in services. This is one way of identifying potential partnership opportunities and areas of concern. The community assessment provides Head Start programs with a mechanism for remaining responsive to the needs of the children and families they serve.
• Improving Head Start services by engaging families and community partners in determining how to implement their health and mental health services and establish partnerships that reflect the experiences of their families and communities.
• Developing partnerships that reflect the ages of the children they serve and provide expertise about services to expectant and postpartum women, if applicable.

Head Start Health Services Competencies

• L-3 Know how to access and use external health resources, including technical assistance providers, health consultants, and state, Tribal, and community agencies.
• L-16 Establish partnerships with local health care providers to support the health needs of children and families and promote healthy communities.
• L-17 Maintain a Health and Mental Health Services Advisory Committee (HMHSAC) that includes engaged Head Start families, health professionals, program staff, and other community volunteers.

Performance Standards Related to Community Health Partnerships

• Purpose, 45 CFR §1302.40
• Community partnerships and coordination with other early childhood and education programs, 45 CFR §1302.53

Social Determinants of Health Considerations

Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age. SDOH affect a wide range of health and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. They provide a framework for understanding the many conditions that put individuals at greater risk of negative health outcomes.

Head Start programs are committed to giving everyone the opportunity to achieve optimal health and well-being. But, they don't need to do this work alone. Community partners can also help children and families. Community engagement is a pillar of the Head Start approach to helping families move closer to being as healthy as they can.

Understanding the SDOH that affect the children and families in your communities is essential to developing and implementing services that can help families improve their health outcomes. Your community assessment can reveal some of the SDOH your families may experience.

To know how to interact effectively and respectfully with people from a wide range of cultures is important. Make sure your community assessment collects information about the availability of services that reflect the health beliefs and practices of your families and their cultural and linguistic backgrounds. You will obtain useful demographics, and information about existing strengths and gaps, and it may also help you identify partners to include in your program. Having some community partners who understand the primary languages and cultures of the families you serve is important. Invite representatives from these organizations to serve on your HMHSAC.

Last Updated: April 21, 2025