The Scoop on North Carolina’s Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five Renewal Award
In December 2019, DCDEE was notified that North Carolina was one of 20 states and territories awarded the three-year renewal grant through the B-5 Preschool Development Grant. There are four new activities planned for North Carolina. The funded activities will also align with North Carolina’s Early Childhood Action Plan. Click here to view North Carolina’s application.
In late 2019, 26 community-based organizations throughout 16 NC counties collected information from a total of 871 families through surveys and interviews. Families shared information about the social and emotional health of their children, family engagement and leadership, as well as parent education needs and resources. These findings will inform the PDG B-5 Strategic Plan, Pathways Action Framework, NCPC’s work to improve statewide family engagement and leadership, and home visiting and parent education efforts.
In addition, a total of 204 EC professionals gathered during nine input sessions to provide feedback on strategies in four areas:
- Increasing access to early learning
- Improving quality of early learning programs
- Supported and supportive families
- Social and emotional health and resilience
There was diverse representation from educators of children birth through eight, school principals, healthcare providers, Smart Start, Head Start and social services and public health departments. See the findings here.
The North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation (NCECF) engaged CounterPart Consulting to ensure that the PDG B-5 initiative uses an equity lens in three projects:
- The Child Development at Kindergarten Entry Data Workgroup
- The Early Childhood Data Advisory Council
- B-5 Strategic Plan
Applying the racial equity lens ensures that the stakeholder process is inclusive of groups and families that represent the breadth of North Carolinian’s lived experience, allowing for feedback to be accurate and actionable.
