Each Child. Every Community.

In a journey that began in 2010, Shape NC: Healthy Starts for Young Children, sunset on December 31, 2020 (the Healthy Starts for Infants and Toddlers project ends September 2021). Over the course of the grant, Shape NC reached over 13,700 children and over 270 child care centers. Reflecting back over the last 10 years, NCPC has learned vital lessons that will enlighten future endeavors in early childhood health.

NCPC learned that Shape staff were effective at convening stakeholders and participants to foster collaboration that had a positive impact on the program. The Shape NC model brought a host of individuals together, including program participants, core partners, Shape NC Mentor Sites, state Licensing Consultants, Infant and Toddler Specialists and Child Care Health Consultants through their Provider Learning Collaboratives to increase knowledge of evidenced-based strategies to promote physical activity, child nutrition, and natural outdoor learning environments best practices in their communities. This collaboration led to a positive impact on childhood indoor and outdoor learning environments.

Shape is a model designed to achieve outcomes at the center-level. Program activities focused on supporting child care centers in implementing and embedding best practices in early childhood health. Positive program outcomes noted at the center-level include menu changes to increase fresh fruits and vegetables, increasing indoor and outdoor physical activity, constructing Outdoor Learning Environments, and engaging families and staff around healthy eating and physical activity.

Lastly, Shape NC was found to be very effective when paired with other learning opportunities and supports. In addition to learning collaboratives, Shape NC offered  other learning spaces such as Shape NC Summits, aShape NC track at the National Smart Start Conference, an Early Childhood Physical Activity Institute sponsored by Be Active Kids, and the Natural Learning Initiative’s annual Design Institute. Learning opportunities were supported by intensive coaching from Shape NC Implementation Coaches and subgrantee TA Specialists.

NCPC has applied these lessons learned to develop the next chapter of supporting physical activity and nutrition in early care and education settings through a new initiative called Beyond Shape: Coaching for Technical Assistants. Beyond Shape will strengthen early childhood systems across the network by increasing the capacity of Technical Assistants (TAs) to provide coaching and support to child care centers. This coaching and support will help early childhood professionals implement physical activity and nutrition best practices leading to healthier children, families and communities.

View Shape NC’s celebration of 10 years of implementation by watching the 2021 Shape NC Journey Celebration event below. A Shape NC report is being finalized and will be released soon.