RALEIGH – Gov. Roy Cooper proclaims September Smart Start Month. This proclamation acknowledges the Smart Start Network’s commitment for over thirty years to ensuring all North Carolina’s young children enter school healthy and prepared for success.
Investments in high-quality early childhood initiatives like Smart Start can yield substantial long-term benefits for children, families, and society through increased educational attainment, higher earnings, reduced crime, and better health outcomes.
Smart Start is a Network of 75 local nonprofit partnerships serving all 100 North Carolina counties to create better outcomes for children birth-to-five. NCPC guides and facilitates the Smart Start Network, supporting the work of Local Partnerships and connecting them to the statewide early childhood system. Local Partnerships have the flexibility and the data to determine how to improve the health, well-being, and development of children in each community based on local needs and resources.
“We are honored that the State of North Carolina is recognizing Smart Start in September,” said Amy Cubbage, President of the North Carolina Partnership for Children (NCPC). “This recognition underscores the vital importance of investing in a comprehensive approach to supporting our youngest children and their families that is both statewide and locally designed. By working together with families, educators, and communities, we can build a brighter future for our children and our state.”
The first five years of life are a critical window of development, shaping a child’s brain architecture and building the foundation for future cognitive, social, emotional, behavioral, and health outcomes. Through Smart Start’s comprehensive approach, North Carolina’s youngest and those that care for them can receive the support they need to thrive.
Smart Start helps to provide critical infrastructure for North Carolina’s early childhood system through collaboration and partnerships with state and federal agencies and other nonprofits, bridging service gaps and providing needed administration to statewide programs. This includes the administration of state, federal, local, and private programs and services such as NC Pre-K, child care subsidy, Head Start, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, and more, serving as North Carolina’s infrastructure for promoting early childhood development.
Smart Start fosters collaboration among local partners, engages community stakeholders, and advocates for policies that support early childhood learning, health and family engagement. This comprehensive approach ensures that children and families receive the support they need from a network of community resources.
Investments in high-quality early childhood initiatives like Smart Start can yield substantial long-term benefits for children, families, and society through increased educational attainment, higher earnings, reduced crime, and better health outcomes.
“Smart Start is a proven example of a public-private partnership and the impact that sound investments, leveraging public and private dollars, can have on the development of our state’s youngest,” continued Cubbage.
