Each Child. Every Community.

In celebration of the upcoming new year, Smart Start is celebrating our hard work and taking this time to recognize the role of Smart Start local partnerships in each community. Smart Start is working across the state to create a brighter future for each child in every community. Throughout the first weeks of December we will be showcasing the impact of Smart Start by diving into our work with early care and education, family support, early literacy, health and nutrition, and our innovation throughout the pandemic. To learn more about Smart Start, you can read Smart Start’s 2020-2021 Impact Report.

The pandemic – and the changes it brought to North Carolina’s communities – have been challenging for the entire state, but especially for the youngest children, their families and those who support them.

Amy Cubbage, NCPC’s President, recognizes the impact of the pandemic. She stated, “The pandemic changed how our youngest children grew and learned. Safety restrictions limited access to early learning environments, impacted socialemotional development, and transformed many of their earliest experiences. For families, the pandemic meant added stress – from changing schedules and isolation to economic uncertainty and health fears”.

To ensure families felt supported, local partnerships found new ways to support children and families—providing technical assistance online for child care teachers, providing out-of-the box solutions like virtual classrooms to children, and even facilitating vaccine distribution in communities for child care professionals.

NCPC and the Smart Start network also launched a series of initiatives to support families and children through an additional $5 million in federal CARES Act funds.Smart Start provided training for parents and early childhood professionals to address ongoing stress, collaborated with family child care providers to adjust their operations and maintain access to care for families, and distributed devices and broadband technology to increase virtual access for families and early childhood professionals.

Smart Start local partnerships also addressed effects of the pandemic at the county level. The Blue Ridge Partnership for Children parented with local agencies to provide school supplies. Wake County Smart Start (WCSS) found new strategies to meet the need for virtual connection and digital access during the pandemic. In Moore County, Partners for Children & Families, was a a “one-stop-shop” for child care centers to ask licensing, health, and safety questions. These are just some of the many ways local partnerships created an impact during the pandemic.

You can read these stories in more detail in the 2020-2021 Impact Report.