Each Child. Every Community.

My first year with NCPC and Smart Start has come to a close. Like many folks, these past 12 months were a time of tremendous change for me, both personally and professionally. I’ve learned about so many places across North Carolina – from Pamlico County to Watauga County and many places in between. I’ve sampled delicious food: peach ice cream in Scotland County, ham biscuits in Yadkin County, and even lobster from my friends at the Wayne County Partnership for Children. I joined Education Secretary Miguel Cardona for a visit in Raleigh, and I met with legislators outside the General Assembly.

I had many, many meetings over zoom. It has been an honor to meet so many North Carolinians — members of the Smart Start network, our partners, and leaders – who care so much about young children and their future. North Carolina is truly a pioneer in early childhood, a shining star that is unique among states and provides an example of how, from the highest state offices in Raleigh and prestigious private business board rooms to the smallest county seats, mom and pop main street storefronts, churches and synagogues, and the many places in between, we have a home state that puts a priority on caring for its youngest children and, at its core, honors and respects families and communities, with all their diversity, for knowing what is right and best for them.

• Supporting early care and education providers as they adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic with strength and resolve, providing child care for essential workers and keeping the economy going, as well as maintaining high-quality early learning experiences for children at the time of most critical brain development.
• Addressing the immediate needs of families and child care providers during COVID-19 with supplies (gloves, sanitizer, masks), transportation, and diaper banks, and by providing a sense of normalcy and constant support.
• Collaborating with the state’s Division of Child Development and Early Education, Division of Public Health, and Child Care Resource and Referral agencies to share information and coordinate communication between child care providers and local public health departments about vaccines.
• Helping families and providers pivot to a more digitally-based, virtual world, including providing tablets and hotspots to allow families to connect virtually when the pandemic disrupted in-person parenting education and to help providers and families access resiliency training at a time of utmost stress.
• Providing disaster response to communities when Hurricane Isaias hit, just one among many storms and other natural disasters this year.
• Strengthening racial equity work across the network, with collaboration in local coalitions, development of a new Racial Equity Workgroup, and a commitment to support and engage with a new research project focused on understanding and eliminating racially disparate, exclusionary early childhood discipline practices.

It has been an honor to work in partnership with each of you during my first year: the local partnership leaders, parents and grandparents of young children, business leaders, teachers, researchers, child care providers, policymakers, health care workers, and other early childhood heroes and advocates who are part of our Smart Start family in any number of ways. Thank you for your support, and I look forward to working with you in my second year and beyond.

In partnership,