2022-2023 A Year in Review: Creating Countywide Change
The Smart Start Network works year-round to ensure children and families thrive, creating a brighter future for each child in every community. To celebrate the new year, Smart Start will showcase the impact of the Network with early care and education, family support, early literacy, health and nutrition, and with early childhood system support and building. To learn more about Smart Start, you can read Smart Start’s 2022-2023 Annual Report.
Local Partnerships promote long-term change by convening and coordinating across agencies and taking a systems-approach to their collaboration with the county, state, and national organizations.
Here are some examples of Smart Start Local Partnerships creating change based on specific community need:
- Smart Start of Transylvania County (SSTC) significantly expanded its Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) care network, emphasizing the importance of home-based care. As part of the national Voices from Home initiative, SSTC collaborated with local FFN providers to advocate for broader support. This collaborative effort has resulted in a robust network of 48 new home-care providers!
- The Alexander County Partnership for Children reconvened the local Community Child Protection Team/Child Fatality Prevention Team and Community Child Collaborative. The group branched off into two groups with the hope of pulling in a larger group of community members to participate. The Collaborative has nearly 30 members in attendance each month and has built support across sectors to address the community’s mental health challenges. The Collaborative is creating a community wide strategic plan to secure additional funding for a more resilient community!
- The Catawba County Partnership for Children brings together over 20 child-serving agencies and organizations on a monthly basis to strategize ways to improve kindergarten transitions, support the child care community, and educate about community resilience and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
- Richmond County Partnership for Children (RCPC) successfully collaborated with the Care and Listening Initiative (CandL) to host pivotal listening events with local families. Engaging local families and 14 early childhood practitioners, these sessions illuminated the challenges and hopes for North Carolina’s early education landscape, emphasizing RCPC’s proactive role in shaping the future of its community.
- The Blue Ridge Partnership for Children is the backbone agency of the Avery-Mitchell-Yancey Parent Education System, a collaborative agency built as a regional approach to support families. Caregivers access six evidence-based models through a single portal on each county’s Cooperative Extension website. This continuum of options allows caregivers to select the model that best fits their family’s goal!
