Partnership for Children of Cumberland County

Child care & education quality - professional development, quality enhancement and technical assistance encouraged early care and education professionals to continue their professional growth and awarded them professional development supplements. The Partnership advanced 11 direct teaching staff from 7 child care facilities to increase higher education by providing support for college-level course credit. 12 staff from 7 child care facilities participated in consultation and coaching with professional development advising and plans. 764 direct teaching staff from 172 licensed child care facilities attended non-credit based early childhood education training or workshops. 236 child care professionals representing 101 child care facilities or family providers were issued education-based salary supplements through the wage program, impacting 4,250 Children. 88% of wage participants remained at their child care facilities. 98% of evaluation respondents indicated that receiving a wage supplement helps ease financial stress. The child care health consultant program trained 17 child care staff in 9 child care centers in health-related topics in collaboration with the Cumberland County health department. This program supported child care centers in both Cumberland and hoke counties. Coaches provided services and support to 16 child care centers and family child care homes that participated in technical assistance to increase or maintain star levels.

Family support - 7 parents/guardians participated in parent education, impacting 6 Children through the nurturing parent program. The Partnership enriched the home literacy environment by providing books to at-risk young Children through the medical practice-based reach out and read program. 10,553 Children received age-appropriate books monthly through the dolly parton imagination library program. In addition, the Partnership increased 698 parents' knowledge in how to identify quality child care by providing best practice child care consultation grounded in a parental choice model; 414 parents/guardians received child care referrals. The Partnership for Children's family resource center provided a hub for organizations providing programs to patrons to strengthen families through parenting support, information and referral, child care, child development activities, and other programs. It also provided a shared office infrastructure and high-quality training and educational space for partnering organizations.

Child care and education affordability - subsidies offset the cost of early learning programs for Children from low-income working families, increasing the likelihood that parents will be productive members of the workforce. In Partnership with the Cumberland County department of social services, the Partnership allocated 2,431,000 to provide low-income families access to high quality child care by offsetting the cost of 3-5 star rated child care facilities for 264 Children through the child care subsidy program. In addition, the Partnership provided subsidy support to assist with access to high quality, inclusive child care for 41 Children to help parents meet employment, education, or other needs. The nc pre-k (pre-kindergarten) program offers Children a high-quality preschool experience at no charge to parents, with smoother pre-k to kindergarten transitions. The program is a state-funded, community-based pre-kindergarten program designed to provide 4-year-old Children, who may not otherwise be served, with a valuable educational experience. This part-day program provides young Children with access to a specific curriculum and preschool experience to enhance their school readiness. The nc pre-k program standards are built on the premise that in order to be academically successful in school, Children need to be prepared in all five of the major domains of development outlined by the national educational goals panel. Each of these domains is critical to Children's well-being, in particular for their success in reading and math as they come to school. The nc pre-k program provided a high-quality preschool program for 1,392 Children, including 52 sites with 88 classrooms supported by approximately 191 teachers. In addition, the program enriched brain development of 600 preschoolers through kindermusik and music therapy, including 111 Children with identified special needs. The program collaborated with 73 teachers in 36 classrooms and provided 600 child home kits. All classroom teachers received digital at home material access for additional kindermusik resources, and 5 classrooms received a set of kindermusik instruments. Music therapy early intervention services were provided to 72 Children in 6 classrooms at 5 schools, collaborating with 13 teachers.

Program support, coordination, and evaluation - program management activities included conducting on-site fiscal and programmatic monitoring of all funded projects, as well as the ongoing coordination of projects and activities, to determine if short-term and long-term goals were being achieved. The Partnership for Children supported 17 in-house and external direct service partners through onsite monitoring visits, planning sessions, in-service, and consultations. In addition, the Partnership supported multiple counties with one or more of the following shared services: multi-partnership accounting and contracting (mac)services, region 5 child care resource and referral, information technology services, and grant evaluation management solutions (gems) services. The Partnership's information technology services provided reliable and affordable technology services for early childhood organizations to enhance or improve the services provided to families and Children in the community. Health and safety - through the assuring better child health and development program (abcd), the Partnership strengthened the developmental screening and referral practices of 23 medical practices representing 52 providers, impacting an estimated 22,552 young Children. In addition, the Partnership provided the family connects program, a 3-county regional pilot for universal newborn home visiting. The program is primarily funded with a multi-year preschool development grant for eligible births. 4,646 babies met the residency requirements, of which 4,638 families were offered newborn home visits. 1,282 families completed the program with up to 12 weeks of support and received newborn home visits. A total of 5,992 referrals for services were made for participating families. The Partnership for Children also furthered its mission through community collaboration. In collaboration with the diaper bank of north carolina - truckload of hope - the Partnership served an average of 483 Children monthly, to an average of 247 families per month from july 2022 through march 2023, with a total of approximately 1,145 Children in 703 families receiving diapers to meet this essential basic need. The Partnership also advanced the collaboration and alignment of organizations coordinating and implementing effective models and strategies to address specific community issues/needs through community engagement efforts, including over 204 meetings, 31 briefings or presentations, and 96 events hosted or attended. Through the community engagement and development (ced) program, the Partnership leveraged community volunteers contributing 952 hours valued at 27,571. The Partnership for Children continued providing services to the child care community of professionals, Children, and their families through regular programming until an international pandemic required programs to shift into a new norm. The Partnership's activities became flexible and innovative in providing services remotely and virtually, with some staff continuing to work remotely throughout the year. The Partnership and its teams continue to be able to see community needs through a different lens that taught them that they could think on their feet in a crisis, learn from it, and become more effective. The Partnership's activities are back to pre-pandemic levels with a few exceptions. However, the level of quality and excellence demonstrated by the Partnership's staff and external partners can still be seen in the number of individuals, Children, and families benefiting from the Partnership's work.