Language Wellness in an Inner-City Head Start Center

This project represents a unique and effective partnership of the University of Illinois with a community agency that aims to strengthen the capacity of an education/social service agency in serving young children. The Language Wellness project expands a successful model of early childhood language enrichment developed at an inner-city Chicago Head Start Center. During the period of 1995-1998, the Department of Speech and Hearing Science at the University of Illinois developed a collaborative partnership with a large Head Start Center located in Chicago. The current project extends that program, and emphasizes three key aims. Aim one is to address needs cited by the external partner and assist the external partner in achieving their mission by implementing a language and literacy wellness program in all eight preschool classrooms at the Head Start Center. Aim two is to provide broad public service to the State of Illinois by training graduate students to work in inner-city and classroom settings, thereby helping to address critical shortages of speech-language pathologists prepared and willing to work in the inner-city, multicultural setting. Aim three is to further support public service by disseminating the language wellness model throughout the state of Illinois, including the Champaign-Urbana local community and Chicago metro area.

• City of Chicago
• Nation

• Program
• Materials
• Service

University of Illinois

Chicago Campus - Springfield Campus - Urbana-Champaign Campus