Early Head Start Center opens in Hattiesburg

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WDAM) - Early childhood development is expanding in Hattiesburg with the grand opening of a new Early Head Start Center.

The program is housed in the former Antonelli College building.

A ribbon was cut Friday to celebrate the grand opening of the Pearl River Valley Opportunity, Inc./John E. Hales Early Head Start Center Facility.

Hales, who worked with Head Start for more than 50 years before his 2017 retirement, said he couldn’t believe he now has an educational center bearing his name.

“It warms my heart and makes me appreciate the fact that Head Start is alive and well and we’ve still got great people doing good work,” Hales said.

This is the group’s fourth location in Forrest County and will hold 88 children from birth to 3 years old.

“This will hopefully help promote more education in this community,” Executive Director Thomas Morris said. “We want to make sure we get as many children as we can.”

Head Start officials said Forrest County needed another location to start early childhood development as enrollment numbers continued to rise.

“We know that early childhood education is important and it’s hard sometimes for parents to be able to afford comprehensive early childhood services and we are honored that we can provide free services,” Interim Director Angela Simon.

The new center holds 13 classrooms with a maximum of eight students in each room.

Students are provided with different health and education services.

“The earlier a child is educated and taught words and things of that nature, numbers, the sooner they get that, the better they are in the future,” Morris said.

Early Head Start is in the process of taking applications for those interested in enrolling.

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