Each Child. Every Community.

“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”
— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we reflect on this profound message. Our work at Smart Start requires us to blend both power and love to make sure each young child benefits from a high quality, comprehensive, accountable early childhood system in North Carolina, beginning with a healthy birth. At its most fundamental, our work requires us to ensure young North Carolinians grow up in families, communities, and a state that loves and cherishes them. To do so, we work hard to pay attention to each and every child, engaging in racial equity efforts to change practices that perpetuate injustice and that have caused some children not to have the same opportunities as others for far too long.

There is progress to celebrate in North Carolina. We have a focus on and are improving early literacy practices, with 44.2% of parents reading to babies every day, above the national average.¹ Yet, significant racial disparities exist for children, even at birth, with pre-term birth rates for Black newborns at 1.28 times the rate of all newborns,² demonstrating the need to work harder, not with a sentimental or anemic love but with a powerful love that will not stop until we have reached our mission for each child in every community.

We are so proud to live in the great state of North Carolina, the home of Smart Start, the oldest, statewide, comprehensive system of early childhood in the country. We will continue to work with powerful love to ensure ALL young children in North Carolina grow up healthy and ready to learn.