RALEIGH, N.C. – North Carolina is making strides to support families with young children, according to two new policy assessments by the North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation that say there's plenty of room for improvement, especially when it comes to such basic needs as health care and a livable wage.

Many studies have found that children's experiences in the first three years of life are hardwired into their brains and bodies, making this time critical. Donna White is vice-president of the North Carolina Partnership for Children/Smart Start program. One of Smart Start's initiatives pairs new parents with educators who help guide them through the first few months of life with a new baby.

"Say you have a brand-new mom – that can be the most frightening part of being pregnant, right, is when you actually have the baby in your hands? And now, you have to go home," said White. "The home visiting entails a professionally trained parenting educator who visits the family and provides some coaching, and connection with other services the family may need."

White said North Carolina should spearhead a statewide, centralized effort to help connect more young families to home visiting and parenting-education programs. Experts have said the state also could increase its minimum wage and expand access to Medicaid to reduce families' financial and health burdens, both of which have a direct impact on children's physical and emotional health.

Cindy Watkins, president and chief executive of the North Carolina Partnership for Children, said the state also needs to focus on figuring out how to increase compensation for early-childhood educators.

"They're some of the lowest-compensated people that work in any industry," she said. "So, we're working to not only increase their compensation, but the educational requirements that we know are necessary for them to really provide the sort of care that young children need."

She said those requirements include mental-health training. Watkins pointed out that North Carolina could be working to build its pipeline of mental-health specialists who are trained to work with both young children and their parents.

The policy briefs are online here and here.

Summer day camps are a welcome break for kids and parents when the school year ends. One camp wants to make activities such as craft making, conducting science experiments, playing games and sports much more enjoyable for all camp participants. New Hope of Indiana's Camp Catalyst is an inclusive camp for kids ages 9 through 13 who may or may not have a disability.

Amanda Boyd, manager of achieving inclusion and meeting with New Hope of Indiana's Camp Catalyst, said the camp encourages interaction, independence, competence and productivity.

"Inclusive camps are few and far between, and we're hoping that this experience will help children redefine what it means to have a disability, or to be a friend to somebody that has a disability," she said.

The camp is in its second year and is led by a certified recreation therapist and New Hope's trained staff and volunteers. Boyd said the camp strives to create a community where all kids feel a sense of belonging. According to the American Camp Association, each summer more than 14 million children and adults take advantage of the camp experience.

In a 2016 Camper Enrollment Survey, approximately 80% of responding camps reported the same or higher enrollment than in previous summers. Female campers account for 56% of total enrollment while male campers account for 49%. The most popular session length is one week or less, although the majority of independent camp operators offer four, six and eight week sessions. Approximately 26% of camps serve youths who are transgender and nearly 58% of camps serve youths who are lesbian, gay, or bisexual.

A disability or impairment may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or a combination, and either are evident at birth or occur at some point during a person's lifetime. According to Pacer's National Bullying Prevention Center, children with disabilities are often the target of harassment at school and were two to three times more likely to be bullied than their nondisabled peers. The response from camp attendees has been positive and the children who attend often build lasting friendships, Boyd said.

"We had a couple of campers that gave us some feedback that really expressed how eye-opening it was to be with peers of different skill levels and how meaningful it was to them to see all of the wonderful, personality traits and skills that other people have," she explained.

The center defines bullying as unwelcome conduct, including verbal abuse such as name-calling, epithets or slurs, graphic or written statements, threats. physical assault, or other conduct that may be physically threatening, harmful or humiliating.

A few years ago, Minnesota launched a pilot program to give communities of color more power to improve outcomes for child development as they continue to address long-standing disparities. Supporters hope for robust support as lawmakers decide on extending funding.

At this stage of the Legislative session, larger spending bills do include additional support for the Community Solutions for Healthy Child Development Grants. An example of the support being used is child care training to better serve Latino families.

Dianne Haulcy, co-chair of the Voices and Choices for Children coalition, a key coalition backing the grant initiative, said they have been seeing overwhelming demand as the first wave of funding expires.

"In this day and age, especially post-COVID, and a lot of the racial reckoning and not to mention the violence that's been happening in our communities," Haulcy noted. "Our communities of color are in desperate need of being resourced."

One spending bill includes $8 million for the program, while another sets aside $10 million for the biennium. Advocates argued the higher level would make a big difference given the need and the requests for aid.

Even with a large surplus, it's unclear if the full amount would be approved with many other funding requests before lawmakers.

In the long run, Haulcy pointed out having permanent funding will give communities greater flexibility to decide how to approach child development issues, especially since they already know what the challenges are within in their areas.

"Oftentimes, there are community and cultural solutions to these that only come from the community," Haulcy noted.

She suggested the model will go a long way in closing opportunity and achievement gaps while making communities stronger. Nearly two dozen local-level organizations were awarded grants during the pilot phase of the program.


get more stories like this via email

Georgia's food banks are taking action to address the growing demand for their services ahead of summer break.

Frank Sheppard, Feeding the Valley Food Bank's President and CEO, said many families throughout their 18-county service area have yet to recover from financial hardships caused by the pandemic and inflation. He added families are still in need of assistance one year after the pandemic food benefits have ended. As schools close for the summer, the food bank is proactively preparing to support families.

"We projected on average that 2,000 meals a day in the school year will become about 12,000 meals a day during summer," he explained. "So there are a lot of kids that we are going to see two and three times a day. So, it's a lot more kids from about 2,000 to 5,000."

Sheppard added Feeding the Valley Food Bank will increase the number of locations it serves to approximately 43 sites and expand its current Kids Café program to provide multiple meals to children for ten weeks.

Increased need means that many food banks need additional labor, and it is an area that has also failed to rebound since the pandemic, he said.

"Some groups are still reluctant to volunteer at the level they were pre-pandemic. We definitely continue to need volunteers," Sheppard said. "We're not back to the level we were pre-pandemic and continue to need more volunteer assistance."

The Feeding America network reports that approximately 1 in 8 Georgian children faces food insecurity. Nearly 50% of households receiving SNAP benefits have children.


get more stories like this via email