By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor
If it weren’t for their children, Brendia Moses and Connie Sue Barnes might have never gotten involved with KCEOC Community Action Agency.
But since the day they first enrolled their little ones in the Head Start program, the two women have dedicated a good portion of their lives volunteering with the agency. On Dec. 5, they will be receiving the Burchell Sizemore Above & Beyond Award at KCEOC’s 45th anniversary banquet, an award honoring the memory of a 21-year community center specialist at KCEOC.
Moses has been an active volunteer (and later an employee) with KCEOC since enrolling her daughter in Head Start in August 1989.
“She was 4, and I was very reluctant about putting her in because she was a mommy’s girl,” Moses recalled. “My father-in-law worked with the parent involvement coordinator, and she was the one who encouraged me to put her in.”
Created in 1965, the national Head Start initiative is the country’s long-running and largest school readiness program, having served nearly 25 million pre-school-aged, low-income children, according to the National Head Start Association. The program provides education, health, nutrition and parent involvement for children ages 3-4, with Early Head Start serving infants through 3-year-olds.
Eighty-percent of the program is funded federally — the rest comes from local or in-kind contributions. According to NHSA, Head Start serves families who are at or below the poverty level which, in 2009, was a family of four making less than $22,050.
“We not only educate the child, but we educate the family as a whole,” Moses said. “And it helps the transition to go into regular school — it helps not only the child but the family as well. In my case, I had one that if I stopped, she was right on my heels, and it gave me the opportunity to go to school with her if I chose.”
KCEOC operates Head Start locations in six counties (Knox, Harlan, Clay, Laurel, Rockcastle and Jackson), serving a total of about 1,300 children, Moses said. Kids are in class from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and parents are encouraged to volunteer in the classroom.
Moses estimated that she dedicated more than 600 volunteer hours every year with KCEOC until 2000, when she was hired as the agency’s public resource coordinator. She’s also the director of the summer feeding program in Knox County, and is the director of the VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) program in three counties. She is now the Head Start Policy Council Chair for KCEOC, having served on the board of directors for 10 years.
If that wasn’t enough, she’s also constantly recruiting volunteers for a variety of KCEOC projects and is a KCEOC representative on other committees, including the Knox County Chamber of Commerce, UNITE and the Barbourville Main Street Program.
Connie Sue Barnes also first got involved with KCEOC when one of her children enrolled in the Head Start program, about 35 years ago.
Barnes said all three of her children, along with nearly all of her grandchildren, went through Head Start.
“I love it, I love the agency, what I can do for it,” she said.
Barnes volunteers in the kitchen — and just about anywhere else KCEOC needs her. She’s worked with the agency’s homeless shelter, weatherization programs, Ken-Ducky Derby fundraiser and of course, Head Start.
Barnes joined the KCEOC Board in 1999 and has been serving as board chair since 2000.
She said she loves that the agency is “helping people helping themselves,” and mentioned the homeless shelter for battered women, which stays full throughout the year.
Giving that hand up to those trying to better their situation is the greatest accomplishment for the agency.
“That’s why I volunteer, that’s why I do everything,” she said.
