Smart Start

Smart Start is North Carolina's nationally recognized initiative to ensure that every child reaches his or her potential and is prepared to succeed. Smart Start helps working parents pay for child care, improves the quality of child care, and provides health and family support services in every North Carolina county.

Smart Start measurably increases the health and well-being of young children birth to five, building the foundation for all future learning, by:

• Improving children's early care and education programs so they are safe, healthy and provide opportunities for children to learn skills they need for success in school.
• Providing parents with tools that support them in raising healthy, happy, successful children.
• Ensuring that children have access to preventive health care.

Smart Start local organizations such as the Guilford County Partnership for Children serve as a system to convene stakeholders to assess local needs; ensure accountability; and leverage community, state and federal resources. Local partnerships have established community networks in all of North Carolina's counties to bridge education, health services, and family supports to best meet the needs of young children and their families. The power of Smart Start is in its public/private partnership that mandates outcomes, while giving communities local control to determine the best approach to achieving them.

Additional information about Smart Start is available at the North Carolina Partnership for Children website: http://www.smartstart-nc.org/