SMART START OF PENDER COUNTY

COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND EDUCATION (5517): The Community Outreach, Education, and Systems Building activity will increase awareness and improve the early childhood experiences for young children and their families in Pender County. This activity will serve to establish, build, and strengthen stakeholder relationships, improve collaboration and coordination between community organizations serving children birth to five and their families, and integrate resilience strategies and best practices across the community. The work in this activity may include communication between TA and child care facilities; Early Learning Collaborative meetings; Resiliency Trainings and collaborative resilience efforts; the work of Pender County Resilience Task Force, and planning, hosting, or attending community events. The work will also involve identifying potential community collaborators through intensive outreach and partnering with educational, business, faith, civic, social, and health organizations. Publications and communications strategies will be implemented, including the quarterly newsletter; the e-newsletter; Ready for K; the annual report; SSPC social media platforms; management of the SSPC website, all relevant brochures, flyers, and posters, and the distribution of early education books and materials.

DOLLY PARTON IMAGINATION LIBRARY (5526): The Dolly Parton Imagination Library activity will promote emergent literacy skills through a partnership with the Dollywood Foundation. Through this activity, age appropriate books will be mailed to registered children birth to age five monthly. Children residing in Pender County are eligible to receive books regardless of family income. At registration families will be encouraged to complete a survey. Books that are returned as non deliverable can be distributed to young children at early literacy events and or at locations in the community that serve children birth to five.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACCESSING HIGHER EDUCATION (3105): The Professional Development Grant: Early Educators working in child care facilities and attend the SSPC grant information session may apply for professional development awards related for credit courses. Early Educators must complete a grant application, enroll and complete an ECE course of study with a C or higher participate in SSPC outreach or advocacy, attend one SSPC training per grant cycle, implement one developmentally appropriate literacy activity per semester, and must be a member of the SSPC Resource Library in good standing. Funds will be paid to the early educator after course transcripts and all other required documentation is submitted to SSPC. Individual professional development awards will not exceed $600.00 per semester.

PROGRAM COORDINATION AND EVALUATION (5603):Program Evaluation/Coordination (PE/C) may employ up to one full-time Program Evaluation/Coordination staff person to provide Evaluation/Coordination. Up to two additional staff persons may cost allocate time to this activity. The program will offer technical assistance (TA) to all Service Providers. Individualized meetings and/or training sessions and TA may be held with all service providers to orient them to Program Evaluation/Coordination and to provide an opportunity to assist with the development of outcome strategies. TA will be provided on-site or telephonically to ensure the quality of service provision, to encourage program development, and to assist in the delivery of services. PE/C will offer on-going TA and conduct an on-going evaluation with all service providers to include reviewing and measuring activity outputs and outcomes and reporting efficiency and effectiveness of each program on a quarterly basis. PE/C will monitor each activity to assess compliance with the funded activity description at a frequency consistent with the Monitoring Policies and Procedures and PE/C will provide bi-annual reports to the partnership board as well as the Finance/Grant Review Committee. Program Evaluation/Coordination may host an annual community planning event to assess community needs, and may serve refreshments at sanctioned events.

RAISING A READER (5512): A Raising A Reader (RAR) Community Coordinator will implement Raising A Reader, a program that promotes improved literacy development through daily book sharing between caregivers and young children. The RAR Coordinator will hold a Bachelor's degree in early childhood education or related human service field and is required to attend the RAR National Coordinator Training prior to initial implementation. Coordinators will host two trainings for the site implementers that 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, library card application, and other community literacy resources. The program will be implemented with model fidelity as described above. Child care centers, child care homes, or other community sites with a high percentage of low income children will be targeted. Smart Start funds may also be used for books for children, child care for participants, and/or incentives for eligible participants.