Head start and early head start

The Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families awarded Youth In Need $32,021,643 on November 1, 2025, under the Head Start program (CFDA 93.600) for a five-year period ending October 31, 2030.

Youth In Need, a St. Charles, Missouri-based nonprofit, delivers comprehensive early childhood education and family services for low-income children through Head Start Preschool and Early Head Start programming serving infants, toddlers, pregnant women, and 3- and 4-year-old children in Missouri. The award funds educational, health, nutritional, social, and related services designed to enhance cognitive, physical, behavioral, and social-emotional development and promote school readiness. Services include parent engagement as partners in child development and family well-being.

Youth In Need's broader federal grant portfolio encompasses additional programs supporting vulnerable youth and families, including emergency shelter, transitional housing, counseling, education and employment assistance, life skills training, and prevention services for homeless and runaway youth, sexual abuse prevention, and human trafficking intervention. The organization operates under sub-awards from the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County through the Continuum of Care Program and serves multiple program areas administered by HHS and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Performance occurs in Missouri.