The Umatilla-Morrow County Head Start program received a grant for more than $88,000 last week from the Oregon Community Foundation.

The grant is part of a multi-year initiative to improve access to parenting education programs throughout the state.

Parents often dont know where to go to get information or receive services for their families, Mary Louise McClintock, OCF director of early childhood programs said. OCF and its foundation partners have invested in regional parenting education hubs to make access much easier.

Cathy Wamsley, executive director of Umatilla-Morrow County Head Start, said the organization is in the third year of a five-year grant program.

She said the organization has been getting an average of about $85,000 per year, although the fourth and fifth years will be less.

The money is used to provide parenting education and training to facilitators in research-based parent education curriculum, she said.

We are basically trying to make parent education a norm so that any parent who wants to access parent education will know how to access it, where it is at and the cost, she said.

Parenting education is and will be available in both English and Spanish, she said.

Umatilla-Morrow County Head Start currently offers a variety of parenting classes and programs available to Umatilla and Morrow county residents, in addition to activities, awards and volunteer opportunities.

Wamsley said organizers know parents are a key to a childs success, so one of the goals of the initiative is to promote school readiness by getting the parents involved through their variety of programs and opportunities. The OCF was joined by The Collins Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust and The Ford Family Foundation in support for the initiative.