Early Childhood
Action Plan
In February 2019, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services released North Carolina’s Early Childhood Action Plan (ECAP). The NC ECAP puts forth goals that, if achieved, would “provide all North Carolina’s children, birth through age 8, with a fair opportunity to grow up healthy in safe and nurturing families, schools and communities, so that they are learning and ready to succeed.”
Durham will be the first county in North Carolina to create an ECAP specific to our community. To do so, the Durham Children’s Initiative (DCI), with the support of Durham County, will bring together families, community members, and family-/child-serving agencies to envision a future with a stronger, more aligned early childhood system. The ECAP process will build upon the incredible collaboration already underway in Durham.
An Early Childhood Action Plan (ECAP) Rooted in Equity
In Durham, not all children and families have the same opportunities to thrive. The health, safety, and education of a child should not differ depending on the child’s race, the family’s wealth, or any other reason. As we respond to COVID-19 together and address racial injustices in Durham, we have an opportunity to bring our community and resources together towards shared goals in support of all our young children.
ECAP RECAP
Four workgroups (Healthy, Basic Needs, Safe & Nurtured, and Learning & Ready to Succeed) met monthly from September 2020 through January 2021 to create recommendations to ensure all young children and their families in Durham thrive. Materials and recordings from those meetings are posted under each workgroup page.
Check-out the materials below from the ECAP Midpoint Check-in held on January 8, 2021:
The four workgroups have reorganized into 21 Action Planning Teams in order to draft action plans for each of the 21 Durham ECAP recommendations. The Action Planning Teams kicked off in February. Materials from the Action Planning Kickoff meeting:
The 21 Action Planning Teams will be sharing out their progress at monthly Review Team meetings. There are four Review Teams (Healthy, Basic Needs, Safe & Nurtured and Learning & Ready to Succeed) that will meet monthly in March – May to hear from a handful of action planning teams. Click on the portion of the wheel to view the presentations and meeting recordings of the Review Team meetings.
The draft action plans will be shared more broadly throughout the process and there will be many opportunities for your input. To learn more about next steps and to stay up-to-date on ECAP progress, please fill out this form here and stay tuned!
Please reach out to bonnie.delaune@dci.nc.org with any questions, concerns or comments.