Alexander County Partnership for Children has been selected to implement Shape NC: Healthy Starts for Young Children. Shape NC is a groundbreaking initiative that tackles the childhood obesity epidemic by focusing on young children, from birth through age five, in child care and community settings. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation has partnered with The North Carolina Partnership for Children, Inc. (NCPC), the organization that oversees Smart Start, to invest $3 million for 30 Smart Start partnerships to administer Shape NC over three years. In this second phase, the program expands to10 Smart Start local partnerships serving Alamance, Alexander, Anson, Carteret, Chatham, Iredell, McDowell, Mecklenburg, Mitchell-Yancey, and Wayne counties.
Last year, eight child care programs in Buncombe, Guilford, Onslow, Orange, Randolph, and New Hanover counties as well at the Nash-Edgecombe area and the state’s Western-most counties, launched the program. After the first year, 120 early childhood and other related professionals are more effective at engaging children in physical activities indoors and outdoors, improving activity levels for 600 children birth through 5. Through Shape NC, Alexander County Partnership for Children will provide nutrition and physical activity programs to over 500 children in Alexander County.
Susan Cogdill, Executive Director of the Alexander County Partnership for Children, shared “Alexander County young children will be the recipients of this wonderful opportunity. Shape NC gives Alexander County the initiative to focus on keeping our children fit and healthy as we work to prevent childhood obesity. Alexander County cares about young children and Shape NC will give us a chance to collaborate with community partners to make a deep impact at the local level”.
North Carolina has the 11th highest childhood obesity rate (18.6%) in the nation, according to a 2011 report by the Trust for America’s Health. Shape NC seeks to create a replicable, sustainable statewide early childhood model to reduce obesity rates among young children by improving their daily nutrition and physical activity as well as their outdoor environments in child care and the community in general.
“From Cherokee County to Edgecombe County, local child care programs will become the centers to help bring the benefits of nutritious foods, physical activity and healthy living to children, their families and teachers,” said Kathy Higgins, BCBSNC Foundation president. “The expansion to include these ten communities continues our progress at addressing the childhood obesity epidemic.”
For more information about Shape NC or other Smart Start programs, visit www.smartstart.org or contact your local Smart Start partnership. Alexander County Partnership for Children is funded by Smart Start and United Way of Alexander County.
