Smart Start of Brunswick County

NC Pre K - Provides Pre-K services for 223 four year olds who are at risk for school failure due to family economic and/or development challenges.

Early Childhood Connections is an activity aligned with the North Carolina CCR&R System. Services in this activity include technical assistance and grants to child care sites, training for early educators, information and/or education to families about quality child care and child development, and a Lending Library.

Kaleidoscope Play and Learn provides weekly groups for caregivers and children birth to five. Facilitator(s) will offer structured activities, model developmentally appropriate interactions with children and caregivers, and facilitate social exchanges among the caregivers who attend.

Program Planning, Coordination, and Evaluation: This service includes the following: Planning (conducting needs assessment, strategic planning, researching); Coordination (support to service providers and grantees regarding program management); and Evaluation (developing and measuring goals, monitoring programs for compliance, collecting and analyzing data).

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is a book-gifting program for all children, birth to age five. The mission is to foster a love of reading and learning while promoting book-sharing, bonding between caregivers and their child, and increased communication skills.

Triple P: The Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) is an evidence-based parenting program which includes various levels of intensity that are aimed at either prevention or intervention. The session can be offered individually or in a group setting - depending on the level and the need.

Community Outreach: The Community Outreach and Education project (COE) works to build awareness of early childhood development and will strive to strengthen the early childhood system through relationships that increase cooperation, increasing resources, and supporting access to services that support a happy and healthy community. The COE team will also create and disseminate publications, and participate in community collaborations, events, workshops, etc. (hosted by SSBC and/or community partners).

Reach Out and Read Smart Start purchased books and coordinated the effort of trained medical care providers to incorporate Reach Out and Read(R) (ROR) at their medical practice. During each of the routine visits, children received a new, culturally-and developmentally appropriate book to take home and read with their parents. The medical care providers discussed the importance of reading, model reading a book aloud to the child, and encouraged parent-child interactions as part of pre-literacy and language development.

Little Free Library book-sharing boxes are open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and are freely accessible to all - removing barriers to book access. Smart Start of Brunswick County, with support of donations, volunteers and special partnerships, currently maintain 13 of the boxes throughout the county - filling them regularly with children's books.