Smart Start Receives New Federal Grant to Fight Early Childhood Obesity

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – August 16, 2016
Press Contact: Heather Strickland – 919-821-9564,

$4 million from Social Innovation Fund will instill healthy behaviors in our youngest children for communities across North Carolina

[Raleigh, NC] – Today, the North Carolina Partnership for Children (NCPC)/Smart Start announced that it has received a federal grant from the Social Innovation Fund, a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service totaling $4 million for four years to increase the number of children starting kindergarten at a healthy weight and ready to learn.

shape nc logoThese funds will mobilize public and private support for Shape NC: Healthy Starts for Young Children Initiative. Shape NC, an initiative of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) Foundation and NCPC created in 2010, assists communities across the state to promote healthy eating and active play among North Carolina’s youngest children, from birth through age five.  The initiative works with child care programs to instill healthy behaviors early on, creating a solid foundation for a healthy life. 

“Shape NC is working in 213 child care programs impacting over 10,000 children across our state and the results are already impressive,” stated Cindy Watkins, President of NCPC. “Communities are coming together to build outdoor learning environments that promote exercise and children are eating vegetables right out of their own gardens. We are grateful for this funding that will allow us to reach more communities, teachers and children.”

The Social Innovation Fund (SIF) is a powerful approach to transforming lives and communities that positions the federal government to be a catalyst for impact – mobilizing private resources to find and grow community solutions with evidence of results. As part of the SIF, NCPC must match the federal funds dollar-for-dollar and again by the organizations selected to receive grants. NCPC’s federal grant will leverage approximately $4 million in private funds.

“The Social Innovation Fund is an innovative program that seeks to invest in truly compelling solutions to the persistent challenges facing our communities,” said Lois Nembhard, acting director of the Social Innovation Fund at CNCS. “NCPC and Smart Start have a proven track record for finding solutions that work, and CNCS is thrilled to award them a Social Innovation Fund grant. The competition process is highly selective, and we are eager to have the opportunity to work with NCPC to expand their high-impact work to serve more children in North Carolina.”

“This investment of federal dollars reemphasizes how critical this work of starting during the earliest years with healthy behaviors and lifestyles is to our local communities, our state and our entire nation,” stated Kathy Higgins, President of the BCBSNC Foundation, which has been the primary funder of Shape NC to date. “The partnership between NCPC and the BCBSNC Foundation has had a tremendous impact on the health and lives of not only our youngest children, but also their families and teachers. This generous commitment will strengthen the foundation for success for even more of our future leaders.”

In the next several months, NCPC will hold an open competition to select community-based organizations serving young children at the 200 percent or below federal poverty to receive subgrants of at least $100,000 for periods of three to five years. The selected organizations will expand their reach to impact more people and will participate in evaluations to continue learning what works.

Since its inception in 2009, the SIF and its private-sector partners have invested almost a billion dollars in compelling community solutions.  In 2014 the SIF launched its Pay for Success program to reinforce its commitment to supporting innovative solutions and changing how public and private sector investors allocate philanthropic resources.  The SIF portfolio includes 46 awards to grantees who have selected over 458 nonprofit organizations to grow and further evaluate proven solutions to our nation’s challenges in 46 states and the District of Columbia.  In total, as a result of $295 million in federal grants, more than $627 million in non-federal match commitments has been leveraged.  

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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, Inc. (NCPC) that ensures fiscal and programmatic accountability, and coordinates the statewide network to create better outcomes for children and families.

 The Social Innovation Fund is a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency that engages millions of Americans in service through its AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, Social Innovation Fund, and Volunteer Generation Fund programs, and leads the President’s national call to service initiative, United We Serve.

 

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