SMART START OF NEW HANOVER COUNTY
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Smart Start of New Hanover County (SSNHC) provides services to support families through increased access to childcare, family strengthening programs, and early literacy programs. We support early childhood educators through programs that enhance quality, professional development, and consumer education and supports. We support the community and early childhood systems through awareness and capacity building services. SSNHC is part of the nationally-recognized, early childhood initiative created by the NC General Assembly in 1993. The SSNHC partnership was incorporated in 1995 as a non-profit 501 © (3) and has been administering funds since 1997, providing financial support and weaving services together in public/private efforts to answer unmet needs. These programs are designed to help ensure children are ready for success when they enter school.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Parents As Teachers
Parents are supported in promoting healthy development of their children and school readiness through the use of an evidence-based home visiting model. Parent knowledge of child development and model parenting practices are fostered, and the early detection of developmental delays is improved
Behavioral Inclusion and Support
Provides training and technical assistance to child care facilities to allow for the inclusion of children with special needs in daily classroom activities and support for individual children. Consultation and training for families is offered.
Young Parent Support Program
Intensive support for the entire family is provided for teen parents. Weekly meetings nurture family and social relationships, assist in accessing community support services, and emphasize setting and reaching educational goals
CCR&R
Comprehensive child care resource and referral services
Triple P
Family strengthening programming
Dolly Parton Imagination Library
Through the Dolly Parton Imagination Library foundation and the State of North Carolina, we are able to offer families a free book, mailed directly to children at their home, from birth until the month of their 5th birthday.
Where we work
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Percentage of children with early education teachers with an associate's degree
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Average star rating for children in early education programs
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Average star rating of children in early education programs whose parent are recieivng subsidies
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Percentage of children who receive Medicaid who recieve an annual well-child check up
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Percent of children who recived special needs services
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Smart Start of New Hanover County envisions every child entering school with the health, family support and early education necessary to succeed.
•All families will receive the support and education that they need in order to have healthy children with necessary preventive and routine health care
•Every child will grow up in an environment that is free of abuse, neglect and violence
•Families and their children will have the necessary assistance in their efforts to reach their full potential
•Affordable, quality early education will be available to all families, as appropriate, meeting individual child and family needs
•New Hanover County corporate, philanthropic and community leaders will make quality early childhood services for children and their families a priority
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
We offer a range of family strengthening programs that include home visiting (Parents as Teachers), group learning (Circle of Parents and Triple P group classes and seminars) and individual supports (Triple P standard and a resource room. We offer multiple strategies because not all parents have the same level of need and have individual learning preferences.
We offer a range of services to early childhood educators to increase quality. These include supporting education and professional development, offering trainings, on-site technical assistance, coaching, and assessments.
We work with the community to expand awareness of the importance of early childhood systems and brain development.
In 2018-2019 we offer:
Program Supports
• Program Coordination and Evaluation
• Community Outreach and Awareness
Family Strengthening
• Parents as Teachers – home visiting program
• Triple P – parenting program with multiple levels and delivery strategies
• Circle of Parents – support group, one for parents of children with special needs and one for young parents (15-24)
• Attachment and Bio-behavioral Catch-up (minimal services at this point)
Emergency Literacy
• Imagination Library – books sent directly to the home
• Reach out and Read - books provided as part of a well-child visit
• Raising a Reader – book sharing through NCPK
Child care related
• Child care subsidy dollars
• Professional Development – awards for educational attainment
• Behavior and Inclusion – working with childcare centers with behavior/inclusion concerns
• CCR&R – training, coaching, technical assistance to childcare programs
• Curriculum & Assessment – training, coaching and on-line assessment tool for NCPK classes
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
All of our programs to families are evidence-based/evidence informed. All staff in these programs have bachelors degrees in fields related to their work and/or additional coursework to support their professional knowledge. All staff in these programs have met all training and/or accreditation requirements in the respective program models.
We have an active and engaged board. As part of our bylaws we have selected a board structure with up to 21 “mandated” seats. This ensures that we will have representation from key stakeholders. These seats include a parent of children with special needs and of a child receiving services, child care providers, county government, business leaders, the faith community, education leaders and health leaders. The board may also elect additional “at large” community members. By engaging both members whose roles are important to early childhood and members whose personal interests are aligned with early childhood, we have established a dynamic and diverse board. All members are assigned to at least one committee and thus have the opportunity to become more deeply involved in our work.
As part of the Smart Start Network we have access to programmatic and organizational supports.
We are fiscally sound and have not had an audit finding in over a decade.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Smart Start program statewide, including Smart Start of New Hanover County, met community assessment standards initiated in the early 2000s. In 2016-17 a new, higher, level of assessment standards was implemented to show continued growth in creating a system that supports early childhood. We are well on our way to meeting all of those new standards.
Locally we have greatly improved the quality of early care and education in our community. We are moving now toward an additional focus on teacher child interactions in addition to teacher education and program level assessments.
We are consistently moving from a family support to a family strengthening model where families are seen as the experts in their own children. As an agency, and as a community, we are also moving to having a resiliency focused lens. This means first moving from "what is wrong with you" to "what happened to you" and then to "what are your core strengths" to move forward.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
-
How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
-
Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.)
-
What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, It is difficult to identify actionable feedback
Financials
Unlock nonprofit financial insights that will help you make more informed decisions. Try our monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights?
Learn more
about GuideStar Pro.
Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
SMART START OF NEW HANOVER COUNTY
Board of directorsas of 09/13/2022
Mr. Craig Kelly
Community Member
Term: 2018 - 2024
Justin Lewis
Business Leader
Ken Sarvis
Sherriff Department
Shannon Smiles
Headstart NCPrek Representative
Ron Zapple
NHC Commissioner
Meredith Jones
Community
Lisa Trotta
Business
Diane Pappayliou
Community
Marie Bergh-Cook
Community College
Susan DeMarco
Library
Brittany Fountain
Business
Cheryl Aguilar
Child Care
Clayton Roberts
Municipality
Craig Kelly
Community
Lisa Wurtzbacher
Rep for County Manager
Mary Beth Rubright
Rep. for Dept. Social Services
Carla Turner
Rep. for Health Director
Josh Smith
Rep. for School Superintendant
Sarah Flarherty
Community
Charlrean Mapson
Faith Community
Michelle Catts
Business Community
Morgan King
Rep. for Coop. Ext.
Ginny Morris
Community
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
-
Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 09/02/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.