Each Child. Every Community.

Daphne Alsiyao, NCPC Family Leadership Officer

Daphne Alsiyao and her family. Photo courtesy of Ashley Latham Photography.

When I began my career in Smart Start almost a decade ago, I was serving as a case manager for young parents at the Rockingham County Partnership for Children. A few months into my role, it became evident that many of our families were facing similar challenges: lack of access to affordable high-quality child care, lack of access to medical care, difficulty obtaining and retaining jobs with livable wages, exposure to trauma and more. When a group of people are having similar experiences, solutions must shift from focusing on individual problems to addressing systemic issues. This understanding, along with becoming a parent myself, shifted the way I thought about solutions to barriers and advocated for change. As I began to understand how systems change, I realized the power of honoring the expertise of family leaders and centering their voices at decision making tables.

The North Carolina Partnership for Children (NCPC) also recognizes the importance of family engagement and leadership, and the significant value family leaders bring to decision making tables. With funding from the Preschool Development Grant (PDG) awarded by the Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services, NCPC provides funding and support through peer connection opportunities and individualized technical assistance to Local Partnerships in the PDG-Family Engagement and Leadership cohorts. With these resources, Local Partnerships work with stakeholders, including community partners and family leaders, to build local capacity, improve outcomes for children and their families, and strengthen early childhood systems in their community.

As the Family Leadership Officer at NCPC, I have the privilege of supporting Local Partnerships across North Carolina as they work to strengthen family engagement and leadership efforts in their communities. Across the Smart Start Network, we have seen that when the adults in a child’s life are authentically engaged in and informing the decisions being made in local communities, more positive, effective, and sustainable solutions are created. Acknowledging family leaders as the change agents they are can lead to true systems change that responds to community needs and addresses root causes including historical racial inequities.

This November, as we recognize Family Engagement Month, I celebrate the family leaders who recognize and step into their power as change agents and the Local Partnership staff who support and mentor them along the way. Together, our stories are a powerful force leading to stronger early childhood systems for each child in every community.