Each Child. Every Community.

The Smart Start Network serves as the backbone of North Carolina's early childhood system, connecting state and local efforts to create opportunities for young children and families to thrive. With a coordinated vision for early childhood both locally and...

The North Carolina Partnership for Children (NCPC) has released Shape NC: Celebrating the Shape NC Journey, a report highlighting  Shape NC’s efforts to develop healthy lifestyles in young children across the state by promoting physical activity and healthy nutrition....

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...

Farm to School is a program that ensures communities have fresh, healthy food and local food producers by changing food purchasing and education practices at schools and early care and education settings. This is especially important as healthy...

In a journey that began in 2010, Shape NC: Healthy Starts for Young Children, sunset on December 31, 2020 (the Healthy Starts for Infants and Toddlers project ends September 2021). Over the course of the grant, Shape NC reached...

Shape NC: Healthy Starts for Young Children is funded by AmeriCorps (formerly known as the Corporation for National and Community Service), which is an federal agency whose mission is to engage volunteers in serving directly with nonprofit organizations to...

Over $400,000 is going to communities across the state for Healthy Starts for Infants and Toddlers: Shape NC. The program is designed to promote nutrition and active learning through play with children ages birth to three years of age....

Thanks to programing implemented by Orange County Partnership for Young Children (OCPYC) rates of young children at an unhealthy weight have dropped.  In 2006, OCPYC initiated the Healthy Kids Campaign to raise funds to address childhood obesity. Since then, OCPYC has invested...

This article written by Bruce Y. Lee and published in Forbes shares information from a study presented at Nutrition 2018, the American Society for Nutrition's annual meeting that found 99 percent of children ages 19 to 23 months have...

Click here to see the Healthy People 2020 Infographic published by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.  There are still gains to be made in daily vegetable intake and reductions to be made in adult and child...