Do you have a tiny baby somewhere around your house? Well, guess what — that thing is gonna be toddling soon! That’s going to cause huge problems! It’s going to be almost as much of an alteration to your habits as bringing the baby into your household in the first place!

The time to start preparing is now. And to that end, we welcome Rodney Oien of Northcoast Children’s Services to a Humboldt Conversation. Oien is here to tell us about all the help that his organization can provide to you in the very next crisis that you, the young parent, are just about to experience any day now. Believe me, you’re going to need it!

Video above, rough transcript below.

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JOHN KENNEDY O’CONNOR:

And welcome to another Humboldt Conversation. I’m really pleased to say I’m here today with Rodney Oien, who is the Executive Director of Northcoast Children’s Services. Rodney, nice to see you again and thank you for joining us for a Humboldt Conversation. Now, tell us what North Coast Services actually do.

RODNEY OIEN:

Yeah, so we provide Head Start, Early Head Start and state preschool programs as well as year-round child care programs for families of children 0-5 with income-based program. So Head Start and Early Head Start are federally funded. Primarily we provide preschool services, but we also work with families in acquiring community services, social services, health, dental, medical and mental health services to support them and their children at the beginning of their life.

O’CONNOR:

And what is the requirement to actually participate in this?

OIEN:

Yeah, so depending there’s we have both state and federal programs. So for the federal programs, it’s based primarily on the federal income guidelines.

O’CONNOR:

So families have to be below that…

OIEN:

We are allowed to have a certain percentage of families who are above that So we do have some over income slots and then the state programs have to qualify for our traditional preschool programs They have to meet the state income eligibility guidelines and for the full day, full year child care program. They have to also meet a work requirement or something. They have to have a need for care. So that could be their work. They’re going to school. They’re incapacitated. Those kinds of things

O’CONNOR:

Okay, and so how do people actually become part of the program? What do they need to do?

OIEN:

Yeah, so they start by applying and you can do that online at ncsheadstart.org. You can come into our offices. We’ve started now putting QR codes on our applications so that people can do that and apply online. It makes the process easier. Then there’s an eligibility determination. You know, and some things are categorically eligible. So if someone’s receiving CalFresh, they’re categorically eligible for the Head Start program now. There’s a little bit of an interview process that happens. So someone from our enrollment and recruitment team would connect with you and kind of, you know, make sure we have all the paperwork and documentation to show you’re eligible. And then you’d be put on our wait list. And you know, then we select families from that and we have some ranking priorities like homeless and foster youth first. There’s different criteria that we use to determine who gets into open slots.

O’CONNOR:

And so there is a limit on how many children you can have at any one time? 

OIEN:

Yeah. So our center base, our three year old programs, our class sizes, those three to four year old, they’re 16 children in a classroom. And so sometimes we can go a little over that depending on the need and the community and the families that we’re working with. But yeah, we serve 344 children in Head Start, 198 in Early Head Start, and another 80 in state standalone programs. 

O’CONNOR:

Now we are here today actually at the Arcata office, but there are actually multiple offices around.

OIEN:

Yeah, we go from the southern end of Humboldt County and Redway is our furthest south location. We go all the way up to Crescent City and Del Norte County as well as east out to Willow Creek and Orleans.

O’CONNOR:

And I think you’ve just opened a new facility in McKinleyville?

OIEN:

No, we’re working on a new facility in Eureka, but we do have a few facilities in McKinleyville, one on Hiller Road and one at the Morris Elementary School campus.

O’CONNOR:

And how can people, do you need any sort of volunteer help? Do you need fundraising, et cetera? How can people become involved with the service? 

OIEN:

Yes, absolutely, we’re always looking for volunteers and fundraising. We’re working on some ways for people to be able to donate more easily. Currently, donations are by check, but we’re working on doing PayPal and credit cards so that people can do that more easily online.

O’CONNOR:

We were talking to your colleague, Christy, for a Humboldt Conversation. You’ve got the Rock Search coming up. But any other fundraising events coming up in the future?

OIEN:

Yeah, so every year in the fall, at the beginning of the first Saturday in October, we do our Pastels on the Plaza, where we come here to Arcata. You know, businesses sponsor a square and they either have an artist that they pair with it or that we have artists who are looking for businesses to pair with and we pair them up that way. It’s a great community event. You know, farmers markets going on.

O’CONNOR:

It’s wonderful, and in fact that’s when you and I first met last year and I came along to see it. I mean it was, because that was my first year here, and it was beautiful. But it seems such a shame that they all get one.

OIEN:

Yeah, I know it is, but we do you know we do keep we take pictures of them with a professional photographer.

O’CONNOR:

And so the businesses get that so that they can use it for advertising.

OIEN:

Yeah, it’s a great event we do.

O’CONNOR:

Well, we’ll talk to you further, closer to the time I hope, and we’ll certainly be there for that. Rodney, it’s great to see you again, thank you so much for joining us for a Humboldt Conversation.

OIEN:

Well, thank you, it’s a pleasure to be here. I appreciate it.

O’CONNOR:

And thank you for joining us for a Humboldt Conversation, and join us for the next one very soon.