MOU Full Text

Building Bridges Poem

Missouri Statewide Memorandum of Understanding

The Parties

Administration for Children and Families Region VII Office of Head Start
and
Missouri Association for Community Action
and
Missouri Association of School Administrators
and
Missouri Community Action Directors Association
and
Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
and
Missouri Department of Social Services
and
Missouri Head Start Association
and
Missouri Head Start State Collaboration Office

Purpose

Research clearly indicates that poverty has a detrimental impact on the educational achievements of children. And, the gap in educational attainment between children from rich and poor families is not closing - but is growing larger. The challenge facing the social service and education systems in Missouri is how to narrow this gap - how to ensure that every child in Missouri comes to school ready to learn and that education becomes a pathway out of poverty. This Memorandum of Understanding brings federal, state and association organizations from Missouri representing Community Action, Head Start, and the education system together to strengthen and coordinate efforts to address the effects of poverty by supporting children and families so that ALL children can grow to be healthy, productive and thriving members of the community.

Educators and social service professionals struggle with the myriad of issues connected with poverty on a daily basis. The multi-faceted approach of this MOU reflects the complexity of poverty-related issues, and prevents a dogmatic, "one size fits all" method to promoting child and family well-being. The implementation of this MOU will strengthen systems at the state level in order to support the unique approaches necessary to address the issues of poverty in each and every community in Missouri.

This MOU provides guidance, opportunities, and strategies for the participating entities to work together to support both their shared and individual missions. The ultimate goal of this joint effort is to improve services to children and families in schools and in their communities across the state.

This MOU also seeks to reduce duplicative efforts to provide services, training, or other supports that can be provided more cost-effectively and efficiently through combined efforts.

In addition, this MOU will support strategies to share information about relevant topics so that the knowledge, skills, and expertise of all the parties can be enhanced.