The people who run the Head Start program in White Center wished they could build a preschool facility as part of the new Greenbridge mixed-income housing project and now they can with a $9 million grant.

The largest charitable organization on earth found White Center while looking for a pilot program to develop its new "early learning initiative."

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is focusing some of its donations on organizations that encourage early childhood development. The White Center Head Start program was selected as the pilot program for the state of Washington.

Gov. Christine Gregoire and Bill Gates Sr., attended a press conference Monday at Mount View Elementary School to announce the new "Thrive by Five" program. They are co-chairs of the early childhood-learning program and announced that $9 million is being donated to get the public-private partnership started. Other partners include United Way of King County, Boeing Corp., the Allen Foundation, Russell Investment Group, the Medina Foundation and the state of Washington.

That money will help build a new home for the White Center Head Start program on Eighth Avenue Southwest in the middle of Greenbridge. It will also offer a spectrum of services to help the estimated 3,000 children under age 5 in White Center and Boulevard Park.

"It will be a hub to serve all children in White Center and Boulevard Park, even prenatal to age 5," said John Bancroft, executive director of White Center's Head Start program as well as what's being called the White Center Initiative.

He's not sure what services will be provided because first they must research what needs exist in the community. White Center Head Start received a $700,000 grant to do a communitywide campaign to find out where White Center and Boulevard Park children spend their time, what they need, what their parents want for them, and what services are already available, Bancroft said.

The goal is to finish the assessment by the end of December, Bancroft said. He expects to see a major expansion in programs to help infants and toddlers. There also will be money for after-school programs.

Head Start began in 1965 under the Johnson administration as a program for preschool children from low-income families. White Center has had a Head Start program since the program was established 41 years ago, Bancroft said.

Most of the children in the White Center program are 3 to 4 years old. These are among the poorest kids in White Center. A family of three with a yearly income of $18,000 is considered too prosperous for Head Start, Bancroft said.

There are an estimated 1,200 kids living in White Center and Boulevard Park who could qualify to participate in Head Start, but for the past several years the White Center program has had enough money to enroll only about one-third of them, Bancroft said. The program receives about $1.5 million a year from the federal government and $2 million from the state.

The Head Start program used to occupy buildings at Park Lake Homes but had to make way for the demolition of the large public housing community and the rebuilding into Greenbridge. Now the White Center Head Start program operates in portable classrooms previously used at the old White Center Heights Elementary School. The program still maintains a facility at Park Lake Homes Site II by Lakewood Park.

The Gates Foundation did not want to create a new agency to work on early childhood development but rather assist established programs that are succeeding.

Head Start already works with the Refugee Foundation in White Center, the Making Connections program, the preschool Para Los Ninos, Highline School District, Highline Community College and Public Health Seattle-King County.

Money could also be used to help children from various angles. For example, it could help pay for classes to improve parenting skills, job training, family counseling and education, Bancroft said.

Melinda French Gates talked about the White Center project in a June 7 speech to United Way of King County.

"We are creating two demonstration communities - one in Eastern Washington and one in Western Washington. Both communities will include a comprehensive early learning center that will offer high-quality child care and preschool, a strong curriculum and lots of individual attention.

"The centers will also serve as a hub for outreach to other child-care facilities and to families caring for young children so that every child and parent in the community can benefit. Our hope is that these communities will be able to demonstrate approaches that work, and that over time, quality early learning will be made available to every child in the state of Washington."

The Gates Foundation came to concentrate on early childhood programs by learning from earlier efforts to help older children who were in trouble and at risk. Positive school experiences make a critical difference in how kids turn out.

"At-risk kids who get into high-quality early learning programs have shown lifelong benefits," Gates said. "They are much more likely to graduate from high school, enroll in college, earn a higher income, and delay parenting. Every dollar invested in these programs generates $4 to $8 down the line - both increased earnings by the students and decreased costs to the government."

Tim St. Clair can be contacted at 932-0300 or at tstclair@robinsonnews.com