Alliance For Children

Child care & education quality service activities include -1) resource center - offers more than 5,000 age appropriate multi-cultural and education materials for checkout. 124 ssrc memberships and 31 renewals. 2) smart start maintaining and sustaining teachers, environments and rating scales(masters) assisted 4 and 5 star child care provider centers and homes in increasing their knowledge of environment rating scales and maintaining their high quality programs through training and technical assistance. Delay in the finalization of the plan for rated license for fy 23-24 prevented increase of rated license scales for data collection. 2 childcare centers participated in the star rated license assessment. 147 technical assistance visits completed. 20 classromms participated in smart start masters. 3) education stars - provides tuition, books and fees for college credit courses to child care teachers in licensed child care facilities. 81 early childhood professionals (ecp) enrolled in class; 181 ecp advised.

Family support service activities include- 1) best start - worked with teen mothers on parenting skills, parent-child relations, and crisis intervention and referrals. 30 clients received 388 individual coundeling sessions and 177 home visit inpacting 25 children. 2) parenting support & nurturing parenting - 13 week evidence based parenting education program. 63 parents registered; 68 children impacted; 33 of parents/guardians completed at least 12 of 13 classes. 501 individual nurturing parenting program sessions completed. 3) community education - worked to increase public awareness of early childhood issues and activities of alliance for children and the smart start and nc pre-k programs. Engaged 15,600 individuals via social media; 12 partnership newsletters/e-news blasts; 129 volunteers contributed over 950 volunteer hours to the partnership; conducted 6 community presentations to strenghten relationships within the community; organized 10 outreach events to support children and families in union county.4) circle of parents - program where parents and trained professionals can openly discuss the successes and challenges of raising children with special needs. Child care is provided at the meetings. 15 parents/guardians attending sessions, 215 sessions held; 12 children impacted.

Health & safety -1) breastfeeding support supplied training and support to mothers. 921 post-partum women served; 531 prenatal breastfeeding class attendance. 2) inclusion support funded an inclusion support specialist to provide training and consultation for child care providers on the pyramid model practices in the classroom. The pyramid model works to build strong universal support for all children and proivide targeted interventions for children with persistent challenging behaviors in order to reduce preschool expulson. Participating classrooms assessed using the teaching pyramid observation tool (tpot). 16 teachers received tpot assessments/coaching; 40 teachers received general behavior support; 127 childcare professional attended training; 162 technical assistance visits conducted (tpot and general). 3) child care health consultant - promote health and safe environments for children in child care settings through consultation, training and technical assistance. 54 childcare facilities received consultation services; 367 staff attending specific child care facility training; 262 general consultation sessions conducted; 66 specific center staff trainings conducted.