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:

Smart Start Early Care and Education

Early Childhood Connections: Consultants help improve and maintain the quality of licensed child care centers and homes through consultation, assistance and teacher training.  Small grants and incentives are available to eligible facilities. Smart Start of New Hanover County, 815-3731.

Child Care Subsidy: By mandate, Smart Start of NHC gives 30% of our total state funding to the 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 5 and under. New Hanover County Department of Social Services, 798-3400.

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 for classrooms with children age birth-5. New Hanover County Public Library, 798-6308.

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 North Carolina and Virginia, Inc. , 392-7003.

W.A.G.E.$. : Stability among the child care work force is encouraged using professional development incentives to child care workers based on education level and length of employment at a facility. Child Care Services Association, 919-967-3272 or Smart Start of NHC, 815-3731.

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.

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 , 798-6308  

Smart Start Health Services

Child Care Health Consultant:  Health professional provides training, consultation, and technical assistance to child care facilities, and consultation to families in their care, to promote safe and healthy environments in child care settings.  Support for establishing and implementing health and safety policies and procedures is offered. Smart Start of New Hanover County, 815-3731

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.

Lay Health Advisor: Provides peer support and mentoring regarding nutrition and physical activity to Latino families with young children. Smart Start of New Hanover County, 815-3731. 

Smart Start Family Support

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.

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 More At Four programs. (Support from Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. and the New York Times Foundation) Smart Start of New Hanover County, 815-3731.

Information Services: Community resource information related to health, family support, and child care services for families with children, birth to age five.  Smart Start of New Hanover County, 815-3731.

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.

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.

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.

Latino CCR&R: Bilingual staff provide Spanish-speaking parents with resources, information and options for child care in New Hanover County and collaborates with a coalition of local agencies in providing Child Care Resource and Referral in 5 area counties. Smart Start of New Hanover County, 815-3731.