Head Start / Day Care
PAL Head Start serves over 500 inner-city children annually offering education, social services, health, nutrition, meals and parent involvement. Head Start parents participate in GED classes, exercise, nutrition and educational programs. PAL also operates day care programs for 500 children of working parents each year. Day care centers provide youngsters from 2 to 6 years old with learning experiences, supervised play and nutritious meals. Head Start and day care are funded by the Agency for Child Development of the City of New York. Link to list of Headstart and Day Care Center Locations

During the morning hours before the older after-school kids arrived, PAL transformed the gymnasium at its then Lynch Center in the South Bronx into a younger child friendly classroom and recreation area complete with roll-away cubbies, "learn your letters and numbers" books and blackboards, and lots of games. At 3PM, everyone - staff and children - would roll everything back behind the boards so that the older youngsters could play basketball.

Today, almost forty years later, PAL is one of the major Child Care providers in the city. PAL manages Five Full time Head Start Centers, four full time Day Care Centers, two day care/head start collaboration programs, three part-time after school day care centers and three universal pre-kindergarten programs. PAL serves approximately 1,000 children and their families daily. Each safe and secure center is designed to be child-friendly and welcoming, and provides nutritious meals prepared on site. Each center is staffed with early childhood education professionals, as well various specialists to assist children with learning disabilities and physical challenges. Although hours and programs vary, the PAL Child Care division runs on a daily basis year-round under the direction of Asneth Council, PAL's Director of Child Care, Nutrition and Truancy. Debbie Lake manages all PAL Food and Nutrition Programs. Ret. Lt. Phil Romano manages the Truancy Program. For more information, please call Headquarters at 212-477-9450, ext 328 or email.