Smart Start of New Hanover County collaborates with a network of community services for children and their parents to ensure that every child has the opportunity to enter school prepared for success. Towards this goal, we focus our efforts in the following three areas:

 

Early Care and Education

 

 

Smart Start Early Childhood Connections : Provides grant opportunities to licensed child care facilities and improves and maintains the quality of environments and care that includes learning materials along with consultative support and specialized training.  Smart Start of New Hanover County, 815-3731.

 

 

Smart Start Child Care Subsidy : By mandate, Smart Start of NHC gives 39% of our total state funding to the NHC Department of Social Services for use in their child care subsidy program, providing a parent who works or attends school/training assistance in paying for high quality child care for children ages birth to five.  New Hanover County Department of Social Services, 798-3400.

 

 

Smart Start Growing Readers : Staff enrich learning environments in child care facilities by modeling for and training child care providers in early literacy teaching techniques and providing age-appropriate books and other early literacy materials for classrooms with children ages birth to five.  New Hanover County Public Library, 798-6308.

 

 

Smart Start Intervention/Inclusion Services : Staff provide training and technical assistance to child care facilities to include children, age 5 and under, with special needs in daily classroom activities. Also offers consultation and training for facilities and children who experience difficulty in the child care setting.  Easter Seals UCP of North Carolina & Virginia , 392-7003.

 

 

Smart Start Professional Planning Services : Consultation and enrollment assistance for child care providers to increase education levels of the child care workforce. Assistance with professional development plans, accessing financial support, and other appropriate resources.  Smart Start of New Hanover County, 815-3731.

 

 

Smart Start Provider Wellness Program: Facilitates support groups and provides individual counseling for child care providers.  Smart Start of New Hanover County, 815-3731.

 

 

Smart Start Raising A Reader™:   Early literacy consultants provide child care providers with books, materials, and strategies for engaging families in reading activities anchored to language development research and storytelling traditions.  Program focuses on school/home book bag rotation, literacy events, and library utilization.  New Hanover County Public Library , 798-6367  

 

 

 

Smart Start PUZZLES Center: The Smart Start PUZZLES Center is a centralized service relating all parts of the child care delivery system-- families, employers and employees, early care and education and school-age child care professionals, advocates, schools, business and policy makers.  It offers New Hanover County a wide array of bilingual resources and support by:

 

 

• * Helping parents find child care
• * Supporting families in raising healthy children
• * Building the supply of child care
• * Improving the quality of child care
• * Bridging child care and education
• * Documenting child care needs and trends
• * Engaging new partners

 

 

Health Services

 

 

NC Health Check/Health Choice : A free or low-cost health insurance for children of families that qualify based on income.  Application assistance is offered and insured families are linked to physicians, promoting preventive health care.  Smart Start of New Hanover County, 815-3731.

 

 

Family Support

 

 

Smart Start Family Community Connections : Educates the community about child care quality, school readiness, child development, health, and family support services.  Provides enrollment assistance for NC Health Check/Health Choice insurance.  All services also provided in Spanish.  Smart Start of New Hanover County, 815-3731.

 

 

Smart Start B.E.A.R. (Building Excitement About Reading) : Promotes early literacy by offering free literacy events and books to children in public Pre-Kindergarten, Head Start, and NC Pre K programs.  (Support from Reading Is Fundamental, Inc.) Smart Start of New Hanover County, 815-3731.

 

 

Smart Start Welcome Baby Packets : Each mother giving birth at New Hanover Regional Medical Center is provided with resource and referral information pertinent to families with young children.  Smart Start of New Hanover County, 815-3731.

 

 

Smart Start Touchpoints™ : Provides community-wide training to multi-disciplinary audiences of professionals working with families of children, ages birth-5.  Training is based on the Touchpoints Approach™ developed by renowned pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton, MD, at Children's Hospital Boston.  Smart Start of New Hanover County, 815-3731.

 

 

Smart Start Baby FAST (Families and Schools Together-Babies) ™: Intensive support activity that incorporates the entire family in the mentoring and education of teen parents through weekly meetings that nurture family and social relationships and assist in accessing community support services within a setting of peers.  Setting and reaching educational goals is emphasized.  Communities In Schools of Cape Fear , 343-1901.