According to Florence Kambalang, PHSP Family and Community Service manager, the program’s Family Service Workers (FSW) are going from community to community to enlist children (ages 3 to 5) to become clients of the program – provided that their parents or legal guardians consent to the enlistment.
“One of the fundamental aim of the Palau Head Start Program,” said Kambalang, “ is to help children and their families overcome hindrances to learning; and FSW are sent out each school year – and upon request – to the communities to ensure that all eligible children benefit from the services the program offers.”Kambalang said that PHSP provides its services to enlisted children free of charge and that the services vary depending on the needs of the children and their families – inclusive of services to children with disabilities.Kambalang further added that once a child is placed on the program’s list of children eligible to receive the services, the FSW will continue to work with the child and his or her family to monitor the progress of the services delivered and most of all, to assess other pertinent needs of the family and coordinate services – if necessary, through collaborative efforts with other agencies – to address the needs.In a phone interview with Ruben Inawo, a FSW, he said that child recruitment is an on going process.“We go from household to household in the various states to enlist children into the program,” he said. “We visit the children and their families during recruitment and inform them of the services that are available and at the same time, conduct interviews with parents about additional services that they hope for their children to receive.”Inawo added that, aside from scheduled recruitment visits to the communities, parents could make arrangements with the FSW to visit them and enlist their child or children.“They do not have to wait for us,” he said. “Parents can call our office and we could make arrangements to visit them and their children.”According to Kambalang, recruitments for school year 2009-2010 has been initiated; however, all of the FSW are attending a workshop this week and recruitment visits to the communities are on hold until next week.“I encourage parents to take advantage of the services we offer,” Kambalang said.Moreover, Kambalang added that parents or anyone who has interests, questions, or concerns about the FSW, the kinds of services the PHSP has to offer, or any other issues related to Family and Community Services can call 488-2469.
