Lori Trahan, Making Opportunity Count celebrate nearly $6 million in federal funding

By: Shane Rhodes

FITCHBURG — The city’s youngest students — and their parents — just received a significant boost courtesy of U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan.

On Tuesday, Trahan, joined by state Sen. John Cronin, state Rep. Michael Kushmerek, Mayor Stephen DiNatale and several Making Opportunity Count leaders, celebrated nearly $6 million in federal funding for MOC’s Head Start education initiatives. The programs promote school readiness and provide quality educational and community-based services to local children and families.

Trahan stressed that such Head Start programs are “critical” from an early educational perspective as parents look to re-enter the workforce post-pandemic. She also referred to MOC as a “shining example” of the effectiveness of those programs and said she “couldn’t be happier” to deliver federal funds to such a deserving “community action agency.”

“Head Start and other high-quality child care and education programs are more important than ever,” Trahan said. “They’re critical in that they let parents get back into the workforce and are hugely important as far as preparing our students to enter the classroom for the first time, limiting learning losses and ensuring they have the ability to hit the ground running.”

“Making Opportunity Count has served countless families through their exceptional programs and, as a proud supporter of Head Start in Congress, I couldn’t be happier to see these federal funds go towards expanding and improving MOC’s services in the Third District,” she said.

The $5,681,284 secured by Trahan will be used to enhance MOC’s center-based Early Head Start and Head Start programs. Both programs stimulate interest in education in a “developmentally appropriate environment” and promote students’ social, emotional, physical and cognitive development.

Each program serves children between the ages of 15 and 33 months or 3 and 4 years old at the time of application, respectively. The Early Head Start program is available in Leominster and Gardner, while the regular Head Start program can be found in, Fitchburg, Leominster, Gardner, Athol, Clinton and Winchendon.

MOC Executive Director Kevin Reed called the funding “essential” and said MOC was “grateful” for Trahan’s continued support and investment. DiNatale exclaimed that, through MOC, Trahan “once again” delivered “much-needed resources” to the people of Fitchburg.


“I would like to thank Congresswoman Trahan for her commitment and advocacy to our Head Start programs,” Reed, said. “This essential funding allows us to provide services that lead to family success and prepare children for bright futures beyond the classroom.”

“We’re grateful for this investment in our future,” he said.

Beyond their Head Start programs, MOC also serves the local communities in a variety of other areas, including healthcare, social services as well as housing, food and fuel assistance. Trahan said she was thankful for the opportunity to work with and support such a “credible” and “trusted” partner that truly “understands the needs of the community and can meet those needs every single day.”

“[MOC] serves families across North Central Massachusetts and I always look for ways that I can help bolster those efforts,” she said. “It’s so helpful to have a credible, trusted partner on the ground, whether we’re talking about child care, fuel assistance, rental assistance, SNAP or WIC, you name it.”

Trahan also thanked her local and state partners — DiNatale, Cronin and Kushmerek, among others — for their continued dedication to and advocacy for their shared constituents.

“We work hand in glove on so many of these programs,” Trahan said. “And it’s not just federal investments, it’s bolstering state investment, it’s identifying where those investments go and are needed at the local level.”

“We can’t do it alone — and I’ve just been so lucky in my four years to have a working partnership with [DiNatale], [Cronin] and [Kushmerek],” she said.

Looking ahead, Trahan emphasized the importance of continued investment in childhood education and said she hoped to see further investments like Tuesday’s in the future. She also said reverting to pre-pandemic problems that plagued the childcare and education sectors “just isn’t an option” going forward.

“I’m a firm believer that we should continue to increase that federal investment in the years ahead,” Trahan said. “There’s no greater return we’ll see than from an investment in our children, their education and future success.”

“I think a lot of people forget that we were on the brink of a childcare crisis in 2020, so simply reverting back to the issues we faced before the pandemic just isn’t an option. Families here in Massachusetts and across the country deserve better — and it’s on us to continue working at all levels of government to deliver for them,” she said.