Each Child. Every Community.

The Smart Start Network works year-round to ensure children and families are supported, creating a brighter future for each child in every community. Each Local Partnership provides critical social and emotional support, needed resources and referrals, crucial infrastructure support, and innovative solutions to ensure children have what they need to thrive. To celebrate the new year, Smart Start will showcase the impact of the Network with early care and education, family support, early literacy, health and nutrition, and with early childhood system support and building. To learn more about Smart Start, you can read Smart Start’s 2021-2022 Impact Report.

The Smart Start Network creates large scale impacts on the early childhood system. In particular, the North Carolina Partnership for Children (NCPC) works at the state level to strengthen governance coordination; organize early childhood professionals, organizations, and partners to support children and families, and to lead statewide projects and initiatives to enhance the state’s ability to ensure each child can thrive.

Some examples of how Smart Start creates critical impact on the state early childhood system include:

• Coordinating the implementation of a delivery system and the creation of infrastructure to drive change across the state
• Supporting family engagement and leadership coalitions in 14 Local Partnerships across the state to lift up family voice as part ofNCPC’s Family Engagement and Leadership Initiative
• Investing in a series of projects to increase Smart Start capacity for systems leadership, supporting leadership development tools, creating opportunities for Smart Start Network-wide learning, strengthening data systems, and streamlining contracting as part of a multi-year grant from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation
• Convening and offering support to local coalitions to address adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) as part of the NC Healthy and Resilient Communities Initiative which works to build resilience across the state
• Launching and acting as the administrative and fiduciary agent for the North Carolina Home Visiting and Parenting Education (HVPE) System which works to align funding and resources for HVPE, improve services, and link programs to other supports.
• Launching Family Connects Pilots in eight rural counties as part of NCPC’s work through the Preschool Development Grant (PDG) B-5  

Smart Start Local Partnerships are also creating system-level impacts.

For example, in Mecklenburg, Smart Start of Mecklenburg County launched a landscape study of prenatal-to-age 3 services and supports. The goal of the study was to provide a comprehensive, baseline inventory of family services and support for families expecting and with a child between birth-to-three years old. The study will identify gaps and opportunities in service access and referral processes, provide recommendations for improving family utilization of relevant services, and support county efforts to build capacity to address the needs of families.

You can learn more about the impact Smart Start has had across the state with early care and education by reading Smart Start’s 2021-2022 Annual Report.