Each Child. Every Community.

Smart Start Partnerships can implement 60+ evidence-based and informed solutions with state funding

The North Carolina Partnership for Children (NCPC) and the Smart Start Network developed Smart Solutions: Effective Birth-to-Five Investments, a virtual catalog of effective programs, interventions, and strategies. This catalog outlines over seventy options to support children prenatal-through-five as well as teachers, caregivers, and communities.

Smart Start is a network of 75 Local Partnerships that supports children, families, and children in every county in North Carolina. Each Local Partnership uses state funds   allocated to the Network, as well as private and non-state funds, to support children and families. Smart Solutions is a catalog of all the options the Network uses to create better outcomes for children, teachers, families, and communities across the state using state funding.

Through funding from BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina Foundation, NCPC has expanded Smart Solutions. Options include a comprehensive array of support for children, families, and teachers that focus on early care and education, family support, literacy, child and family health, and system building.

Over 70 Solutions

“Over 100 solutions were reviewed by our evaluation staff to ensure that evidence-based or evidence-informed programs, strategies, and solutions are shared with Partnerships,” stated Casey Strange, Learning & Evaluation Director at NCPC. “The 70+ Selected solutions either have research and evidence showing their effectiveness in supporting children and families or are trusted solutions that have been endorsed by North Carolina state agencies.”

Local Partnerships use Smart Solutions to select the best options for children and families to meet their community’s specific needs, determined through local needs assessments, strategic planning, and collaboration with cross-sector partners around early childhood issues unique to their region.

Partnerships fund and coordinate county solutions based off this information to ensure effective early childhood system-building work, advance child health, support families, expand literacy and establish high-quality early learning opportunities and support the early childhood workforce.

 “By expanding the catalog to include a greater breadth of support for children and families, we can better meet the needs within each community, offering a comprehensive system of services, funding, and programs to cover the full ecosystem of early childhood,” stated Amy Cubbage, president of NCPC. “

Enhancing community collaboration is another important role of Smart Start. Early childhood leaders and advocates outside of the Smart Start Network can identify and prioritize local needs and then use the catalog to explore the best options to advance their plans for children prenatal-to-five in their community.

“We need all of us to make a difference, and this catalog can make finding the right solution for early childhood providers, advocates, and leaders easier,” remarked Cubbage.

Each Smart Solutions entry provides information for planning and implementation. It also includes contact information; expected impact; core components, such as the intended audience of the model and cost estimates; as well as infrastructure needs for each program, allowing users to compare solutions.

To find out more about Smart Solutions, visit smartsolutionscatalog.com.  The catalog will continue to grow to include more solutions for North Carolina as well as evidence-based and evidence-informed solutions for other states. Additional solutions can be suggested for further review by e-mailing SmartSolutions@smartstart.org or using this form.

About Smart Start

Smart Start is a network of 75 nonprofit local partnerships that serve all 100 North Carolina counties. This network is led by The North Carolina Partnership for Children (NCPC) that ensures fiscal and programmatic accountability and coordinates the statewide network to create better outcomes for children and families. For more information, please visit our About Us page.

Media Contact: Jessica Carter, jcarter@smartstart.org, 919.221.1614