CRAVEN SMART START INC

Child Care Subsidy PSC:2342 Financial assistance will be paid on a per-child basis as a subsidy to families eligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF). This activity will be implemented through the state-level subsidy contract and will be governed by a Memorandum of Understanding between the Local Partnership and the Local Purchasing Agency (LPA). .

Family Literacy Program: Part- Day Child Care PSC:3318 As part of the comprehensive family literacy model, including four comprehensive components: adult education, parent education, parent and child daily interactions, and early childhood education, this activity will fund the Family Literacy Program: Part-Day Child Care. The Comprehensive Family Literacy Program is offered to adults who will attend school part-time and whose children will participate in an early childhood setting. At least 10 hours per week will be provided, with 6.5 hours per day, and on the fifth day, staff will conduct home visits. The Family Literacy Program: Part-Day Child Care provides developmentally appropriate preschool activities for children not enrolled in full-time care. This activity will provide a high-quality, developmentally appropriate early childhood program that prepares children for school success. This activity may support costs for child care providers and the Parent Coordinator, and, if resources are available, transportation costs. This program will follow Craven County's regular school year.

Community Outreach Coordinator PSC:5517 Community Outreach will increase the community's awareness and support of Craven Smart Start services by utilizing traditional media, community resources, and social networking and website development. The activity will facilitate community planning to improve systems and alignment across programs and/or agencies. The Coordinator will forge alliances in the community to develop the communication and collaboration skills necessary for educators, families, and community members to come together. The Community Outreach Coordinator will also provide technical assistance to service providers to create programmatic coherence by ensuring that providers reflect the organization's mission and collaborate to accomplish the stated goals. This activity will assist in the production and distribution of the annual report. Smart Start funds for this activity may be used for meetings and conferences, and for other staff as needed.

Program Coordinator/Evaluator PSC:5603 The Program Coordination and Evaluation activity, supported by one full time Coordinator/Evaluator, will develop and maintain relationships with service providers, and provide services critical to program accountability including:(1) review progress of programs toward meeting programmatic goals and objectives outlined in the annual plan; (2) development of programmatic short-and long-term outputs and outcomes; (3) measurement and reporting of programmatic outputs, outcomes and performance; (4) compilation and review of programmatic and statistical databases; (5) provision of technical assistance to service providers and grantees; (6) serving as liaison between the local partnership, the direct service providers and the state partnership; (7) development, collection and review of programmatic reports; (8) development, implementation, and oversight of the volunteer program to support partnership efforts, and (9) monitoring of, and enforcing compliance with, legislative mandates; and financial and programmatic monitoring of in-house and direct service providers and grantees. Smart Start funds for this activity may be used for meetings and conferences. A contractor may be hired to assist with some of these tasks, and other staff as needed.

Raising A Reader PSC:5512 A Raising A Reader (RAR) Community Coordinator will implement Raising A Reader, a program that promotes literacy development through daily book-sharing between caregivers and young children. The RAR Coordinator must hold a bachelor's degree in early childhood education or a related human services field and must attend the RAR National Coordinator Training before initial implementation. Coordinators will host two training sessions for the site implementers who have been identified to participate in this project. Identified families will be loaned a book bag containing high-quality, developmentally appropriate children's books. The books will be exchanged each week. Parents of the children in the project will be invited to participate in at least two parent workshops, where they will learn book-sharing strategies. At least one library event will be provided for RAR participants and their families. Participants and their families will be provided with library information, a library card application, and other community literacy resources. The program will be implemented with model fidelity as described above. Childcare centers, childcare homes, or other community sites with a high percentage of low-income children will be targeted. Smart Start funds may also be used for children's books, childcare for participants, and/or incentives for eligible participants and other staff, as needed.

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library (DPIL) PSC:5526 The Dolly Parton's Imagination Library activity will promote emergent literacy skills through a partnership with Dollywood Foundation. Through this activity, age-appropriate books will be mailed monthly to registered children born up to age five (0-5). Families will be recruited in target zip codes. Children are eligible to receive books regardless of family income. The books will be ordered using the Dollywood Foundation Book Ordering System (BOS) database. Smart Start funds will be used to cover program support expenses. The cost of books will be paid through the NCPC BOS account.

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