A Message from King - #Eyeontheprize

My favorite and most inspiring clip of a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speech at the Washington Cathedral. In his last public speech (not the famous, I Have A Dream Speech) he discussed/exposed Head Start and the inequitable funding practices in the South, this is the motivation of the Mobile CDA Prep. It is hard to discuss this publicly but I feel it is an appropriate opportunity. I too run into how grantees handle funding, I am not qualified as a CPA and will not dare to state I understand the budget; but I do see the indifferences in treatment, the direct treatment of staff, the lack of appreciation of the work of the workers and the expectation of standards program to program. I am directly aware there are still Head Start employees who have not been offered benefit packages, payment of credential courses and the varying practice of pay increase. I have fed just recently a Head Start program staff sitting in an 8 hour day with no planning of food. Food insecurity is a huge part of the staffing dynamic, many of these individuals depend on the food they eat with the children and when instructional opportunity is not in their building or a work day they do not plan for lunch because many cannot afford it. I order pizza and call it a "celebration of them" to allow them dignity and always order enough for them to take home. I do not ask for Achilles or program reimbursement for what I do only awareness. I have also left programs in tears because I know the practice is unjust and imperfect. We have a lot to do, much work still in the area of justice, fairness and to balance the racial and regional scales. I do my part and thank all that are doing their part. As we Celebrate and Reflect during this day, I hope we search our hearts and recognize although the fight is not typically around the "bootless" required to pull their bootstraps, it still exist in mentality. I am a proud alumni of Head Start and this is my #kingday#headstartalumni#headstartworks#contribution the entire speech can be found below.