For the CommunityBecome a Corporate PartnerThank you for your interest in and past support of Virginia Head Start Association. We know that you share our vision of providing a quality early childhood experience for children from low income families. I am writing to urge you to consider your commitment to the most vulnerable of Virginia’s children by continuing your support of our corporate partners program. This year we are making some small changes to our Partners program. Memberships will run from January 1, 2011 -- December 31, 2011. Your participation gives you an opportunity to be a part of one of the most exciting early childhood programs in the United States. Since its beginning in 1965, Head Start has offered a comprehensive approach to child development that addresses the needs of whole child. As such, Head Start not only provides cognitive learning, but also addresses the strengths and needs of the family. Parents are encouraged to set goals that will lead to future success for themselves and their families. Head Start children receive health services, including nutrition, dental, physical and mental health. Our goal is to send children to public school ready to learn and to succeed. It takes many people to help us accomplish our goals. You can read about some of them in our current Annual Report and Outcomes Report. (We know these are a year behind; that’s because of the delay in getting the aggregate data back from the Federal government.) The Annual Report highlights the role of some of our corporate partners in helping us achieve success. We are delighted that we were able to increase the numbers of children served last year by 924. Funds for this increase were made available through Federal stimulus dollars. While these funds are temporary, we are hopeful that we will be able to sustain these gains in future Federal budgets. Of course, every Head Start program must contribute matching funds of 20% of their Federal budget in order to retain their grants. As a professional organization, the Virginia Head Start Association is dedicated to advocacy, training and providing support which enhances and fosters growth of our individual members, member agencies, partners and others who impact the lives of children and families. The foundation of our funding comes from our member organizations in the form of dues. Every Head Start program in Virginia contributes to the ongoing funding of the Association in this way. I am pleased to extend several opportunities to you and your company to increase its visibility in the Virginia Head Start community. Our corporate partnership program is open to all profit and non-profit organizations seeking a collaborative effort to represent products or services to the Virginia Head Start community. Our corporate partnership program offers interested parties opportunities to demonstrate their support and maximize exposure around the Head Start community -- over 15,000 children, 54 agencies, $100 million in combined budgets. Many of our Corporate Partners choose to participate in our annual training conference -- the largest single even the Association sponsors. Should you choose to participate as an exhibitor, you may be assured of reaching a large number of Head Start decision-makers, including directors, executive directors, and others involved in program operations. In 2011, we will be taking our conference to the Southwest Region for the first time. We are excited about being in Abingdon at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center, April 5-7. We hope you will be there as well. In addition, there are opportunities for our Corporate Partners to be a part of other Association activities. Already we have two smaller conferences planned in 2011 -- the Health Institute in late January and the Infant-Toddler Conference in August. Additionally, the Association’s four regions have smaller training events throughout the year. Many of our partners have participated in these regional events. We hope you will continue to show your support by renewing your Corporate Partner pledge.See below to see an explaination of Partner benefits. Please let me know if you have any questions (email me at vahsa@shentel.net). This year we are making it possible for you to pay online. Thank you for all you do to support Head Start in Virginia. Sincerely, Features of 2011 Corporate Partners Program$250 – Associate
$500 – Corporate Member
$1,000 – Partner
$2,500 – Champion
$5,000 – Major
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