Aired by the Public News Service on February 22, 2012

NEW BERN, N.C. – The fight to curb childhood obesity has inspired at least one group of North Carolina teachers to drop pounds of their own.

The Shape NC program offers support to help child-care providers around the state improve physical activity and nutrition for children, with a goal of prompting healthier habits for the youngsters and their families.

After Excel Learning Centers in New Bern began participating in Shape NC, school owner Zac Everhart said they soon realized it should be a school-wide effort.

“We just felt like that if we were going to ask kids to be in better shape and eat correctly, that we really need to go to where it started – and that was with our staff.”

Listen to the full radio story on the Public News Service website.

Over the past year, the National Association of Workforce Boards and  The Partnership for America’s  Economic Success (recently renamed ReadyNation), a project of America’s  Promise Alliance, have been working closely together on making the link between  early childhood investments and workforce development. Earlier this month they hosted a webinar featuring Pennsylvania State Senator Pat Browne and representatives from several Workforce Investment Boards, who discussed practical strategies for how the Boards and communities can better align resources in early childhood education and workforce development.  Listen to the audio recording and view the materials here.

The webinar focuses on the “Investing in America’s Future Workforce” business brief, which explains how investing in early education builds human capital.

For more information visit ReadyNation.org.

The Let’s Move! Child Care (LMCC) initiative was launched by the First Lady and is an effort to promote children’s health by encouraging and supporting healthier physical activity and nutrition practices for children in child care. Now Let’s Move! Child Care, the Administration for Children and Families Office of Child Care and the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) are working together to reach more children and providers through the Lets Move! Child Care State Challenge, a nationwide challenge recognizing states with the highest participation rates in LMCC.  States will be recognized in two categories:

• Highest percentage of licensed or legally operating child care programs that sign up as
  Let’s Move! Child Care participants
• Largest percentage of Let’s Move! programs that successfully complete the initiative’s
  checklist quiz and action plans

Winning states will receive national recognition including an award presentation during the 2012 Weight of the Nation conference.

To learn more about the state challenge, see NACCRA’s Let’s Move! Child Care State Challenge press release.

To understand, improve, and make the case for investments in children and young people, we need the right data in the right format. Yet it is often difficult to find the facts you need when you need them. This is particularly true when it comes to specific data on the youngest children across the country.

That’s why ZERO TO THREE has put together State Baby Facts, a series of online factsheets covering every state and the District of Columbia and presenting infant and toddler data in the framework of good health, strong families, and positive early learning experiences.

For North Carolina Baby Facts and more information visit www.zerotothree.org.