Each Child. Every Community.

Raleigh –The North Carolina Partnership for Children, Inc. (NCPC) has a “clean bill” of financial health, according to the Office of State Auditor.  An audit of Fiscal Year 2008-2009 Smart Start activities found the organization was in compliance and...

January is The Period of PURPLE Crying: Keeping NC Babies Safe Month RALEIGH - Vivian Muzyk, Communications and Marketing Coordinator for The North Carolina Partnership for Children, Inc. (NCPC), the organization that leads Smart Start across the state, shares...

Smart Start Partnerships to Provide Training to Local Doctors RALEIGH, NC—Children in eastern North Carolina will soon be more likely to receive developmental screenings as part of their well-child visits. Local Smart Start partnerships will work in Craven, Pamlico, Lenoir,...

High quality interactions between children and teachers are the active ingredients through which early childhood programs foster the academic, language, emotional and social competencies of children. Improving teacher-child interactions requires continuing and consistent professional development opportunities. Mentoring and support to...

Being a parent is one of the most rewarding and difficult tasks many people will ever undertake.  And as much as we might hope otherwise, babies do not come with instruction manuals. Fortunately, there are now a number of...

Parents struggling to figure out how to pay the bills, buy food, and afford medicine are under incredible pressure. Such high-stress demands can make the challenging task of parenting even more difficult and overwhelming—putting children at greater risk for...

Smart Start strives to improve outcomes for children by offering family-focused programs that improve parenting, promote parent involvement and impact the environment in which parenting takes place. Home Visiting Home Visiting programs help new parents and parents-to-be by providing education,...

Learning to read is a developmental process that begins long before a child enters school. In fact early literacy skills are nurtured from birth. They begin when a mom talks to her baby; when a dad points to an...

Introductory Video for SparkAction's Early Care & Learning page

“The best part of Raising A Reader was that I watched my daughter finger point to the words as we read.”  - Christie Beach Raising A Reader is a program that encourages parents with children birth to 5 to read together...