Since 1993, Cumberland County has seen unprecedented shifts towards improvement in the early childhood landscape. Our Partnership and our partners across the sectors, are demonstrating the power of collaboration.  Individual efforts, combined with the efforts of thousands of leaders in hundreds of organization, has reshaped the early childhood landscape in Cumberland County as well as the state of North Carolina. Our work has been applauded for breaking new ground, developing new models, and pioneering new approaches.

  • Cumberland County was selected as a pioneer SMART START county (1993-1994)
  • Child care resource and referral services for Cumberland County were established (1995-1996)
  • Significant investments in Research & Development (1997-1998)
  • Established an innovative, professional, and collaborative hub for services: The Family Resource Center (1997-1998)
  • Conducted the county’s first comprehensive community early childhood needs assessment (1998-1999)
  • Invested in 15 safe, developmentally appropriate play areas for preschool children (1999-2000)
  • Our Partnership, in collaboration with United Way of Cumberland County and Bank of America, hosted the the Early Childhood Summit, Invest in the New Millennium (1999-2000)
  • Adopted the NC School Readiness Goal Teams definition, acknowledging school readiness as both the condition of children entering kindergarten and the condition of schools attended by kindergartners (2000-2001)
  • Became an accredited Child Care Resource & Referral (CCR&R) service (2001-2002)
  •  Conducted a county-level School Readiness Assessment, capitalizing on the statewide Ready for School Goal Team work (2001-2002)
  • Selected to implement the NC Pre-kindergarten Program  (2001-2002)
  • Addressed the digital divide of nonprofits through shared Information Technology Services (2002-2003)
  • Began the Early Childhood System Mapping project (2004-2005)
  • Conducted One Building, One Focus Capital Campaign (2004-2005)
  • Purchased the second wing, Omni II, of the Omni Family Resource Center (2005-2006)
  • Developed the Partnership for Children Strategy Map  (2006-2007)
  • Awarded the Air Force Quality Family Child Care and the Army Sponsored Quality Child Care Grant (2006-2007)
  • Opened the Professional Development Career Center for early childhood educators (2007-2008)
  • Established a unique staff position, Military & Government Affairs Liaison (2008-2009)
  • Hosted the Inaugural Forward March Conference (2010-2011)
  • Became the Region 5 Child Care Resource & Referral Lead Agency (2011-2012)
  • Created the Partnership for Children Endowment Fund (2011-2012)
  • Accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) as an Authorized Provider(2011-2012)
  • Hosted the First 2,000 Days Faith Summit  (2013-2014)
  • One of 80 Strengthening Families Framework Certified Trainers throughout the US and the first in NC (2014-2015)
  • Recognized in President Obama’s Playbook for Becoming an Early Learning Community as making …”significant gains in designing and implementing coordinated data systems that meet the needs of their communities.”  (2014-2015)
  • Played a key role in establishing the states first Community Child Abuse Prevention Plan (2017)

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