Jennings Florida Center

H and F Architects is probably the designer of more Head Start Child Care Centers than any firm in the United States. After 40 years, they have built over 50 Centers in Florida and the Southeast portion of the United States. They learned early on that the typical solution of moving modular wood framed units on remote rural land where most farmworkers worked and lived resulted in places, that while better than the alternative of taking children in the fields, did not result in places where parents were enthusiastic in leaving their children. We changed that. We invented a hybrid scheme where the modulars were manufactured off site in a factory we monitored and then delivered to the sire. And then we site built courtyards, plazas, covered spaces, and parent meeting rooms that made these centers an oasis for the families that desperately needed more than Child Care. Farmworkers need reassurance, nay, assurance that this country recognizes their critical role in putting food on American tables.

Our centers help that happen by making it easier to provide safe, curriculum based, accessible places for their kids. And, due to the diligence of East Coast Migrant Head Start and the Redlands Christian Migrant Association (RCMA), who together serve about 10,000 children a day in harvesting seasons, make a place that acts as more than Child Care. It’s where they come for all kinds of services that no one else provides. They have become rural Community Centers. We are proud to have been a part of that evolution over the past 40 years.