$120G grant will expand Head Start program in Riverside, Flanders

Children from the impoverished Riverside and Flanders area could have permanent access to a closer space providing them with educational and art programs as soon as this summer.

Southampton Town was recently awarded a $120,000 grant from New York State’s Regional Economic Development Council initiative to complete a roughly $750,000 expansion and renovation of a 9,000-square-foot town-owned building on Flanders Road in Riverside. Once completed, which Southampton Deputy Supervisor Frank Zappone estimates to be this summer, the building will provide enhanced space for early childhood programs offered by Long Island Head Start and the Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton.

The Head Start program has utilized the building for several years, and the museum has provided arts and child care programs at the space via pop-up visits, Zappone said.

Liz Bard, interim co-president of the Children’s Museum, told Newsday the expanded space will give the museum a "permanent presence" in the area to provide local children and their families — especially those who struggle financially — with closer access to after-school, music and child care programs.

"We’re hoping to bring in more cultural opportunities, more arts programs, more opportunities for families to play and grow together in just a safe community space," Bard said.

Programs at the building will include a science curriculum, such as bringing in coding teachers and experts from local science and technology museums, as well as music classes and after-school programs. The museum also seeks to connect with local artists to help expose children to the arts and culture, according to Bard.

Vincent Taldone, who sits on the board of the Flanders, Riverside and Northampton Community Association and is a former president of the civic group, said the addition would be welcome in the community. Taldone pointed out his group has advocated bringing in such services for children in Flanders and Riverside, and in years past applied for grants with the intention of doing so.

"It’s right in the heart of that neighborhood," Taldone said. "It’s everything we want because it’s in the right spot, so it makes it easy for families to get there."

Angela Huneault, director of communications for Riverside Rediscovered, an initiative program pushing to revitalize the hamlet, said the initiative previously partnered with the Children’s Museum of the East End on a program called "CMEE on Wheels," which brought museum programs to Riverside for families who couldn’t access the museum due to distance, language or monetary issues. The waiting list of children for the program was usually long, according to Huneault.

"The children now are going to have a place of their own that they can enjoy everything that is out in Bridgehampton and it’s theirs and they can call it theirs," Huneault said. "For this to be in their own backyard, it’s going to bring a lot of joy to them."