CORE VALUES

Provides quality Early Childhood Education services for birth to five and pregnant women by incorporating Lakota Value and promoting self-sufficiency

We, the Sicangu Lakota Oyate Head Start/Early Head Start value our children, families and community agencies through:

Teaching and modeling Lakota Values
Creating an enriched learning environment that supports individual child development families and staff
Advocating for all children, families and community agencies;
Empowering and supporting positive growth for our children, families, and staff

Our Core Values

Recognizing that children, families, and staff have roots in many cultures and that by working as a team we can effectively promote respectful, sensitive, and proactive approaches to diversity.
Promoting life-long learning in supportive learning environments.
Nurturing the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development of each child.
Fostering community partnerships to support families and children during and after the Head Start experience.
Valuing individuality while recognizing that children and adults develop and prosper within the context of relationships.
Empowering families to achieve self-sufficiency by identifying their own strengths, needs, and interests while finding solutions and making positive changes.
Implementing shared decision making as a collective responsibility of families, governing bodies, and staff where ideas and opinions are heard and respected.
Supporting healthy behaviors that enhance wellness.

Parents are a child’s first “teacher” and most important influence throughout their life.
Families must be encouraged to help themselves.
Services must be future-oriented; offering skills, knowledge, and intervention that can be expanded by the family and child after the Head Start experience ends.
Community services must be maximized and not in any way duplicated.
A child’s physical health must be improved or maintained for intervention to be successful.
Patterns and expectations of success for the child must be established to create a climate of confidence for present and future learning and development.
The sense of dignity and self-worth within the child and family must be enhanced.
Programs should be designed to meet local needs.
Services should be individualized and development.