The In-home Breastfeeding Support Group pairs mothers who want to breastfeed their newborns with well trained Breastfeeding Program Assistants who have breastfeeding experience. The Program Assistant conducts breastfeeding classes, and makes visits to interested mothers in the hospital when their babies are born. The Assistant makes in-home visits within 72 hours of the mother's hospital discharge, if a first-time breastfeeding mother. If the mother has previously been successful at breastfeeding, she will be contacted by telephone within 72 hours. The Program Assistant is available for consultation 24 hours a day, and makes home visits when necessary. Cooperative Extension provides this program through funding from Carteret County Partnership for Children.

CCR&R provides training and technical support to licensed/legally operating childcare centers and homes. It coordinates training, provides individualized technical assistance, makes referrals, counsels parents on childcare options, and collects data concerning childcare throughout the county. CCR&R maintains a resource library at the Partnership office that is available to both providers and the community.

The Partnership operates a mobile resource unit to start up playgroups in isolated areas of our community. These playgroups are targeted toward stay-at-home moms, dads, or grandparents who are providing informal care for children. It is a time that parents can learn the importance of play in a young child's development. Parents can also network and form support groups with other parents in similar situations. It also affords parents the luxury of time spent solely with their child, allowing no outside distractions.

The Newport Developmental Center provides a therapeutic day program for children with many disabilities as well as providing a licensed day care to typically developing children. Our goal is to provide accessible day care to as many families as possible and encourage the inclusion of typically developing children as enrollees in developmental day cares. By lengthening the hours of operation, working families are accommodated.

This program provides assistance with the cost of health insurance benefits for providers. It is available to both childcare centers and family childcare homes. To participate, both the employer and employee contribute a portion of the health insurance premium, while the Partnership provides the facility reimbursement for the remaining amount. Through the availability of health insurance, the turnover and absenteeism of providers is reduced, allowing for more continuity of care for the children.

Through funding from Carteret County Partnership for Children, home-based family therapy and case management are provided to those children with risk factors that have been associated with the development of negative outcomes later in life. Researchers have determined that certain risk factors exist during early childhood that contribute to later school failure, psychiatric illness, criminal involvement, vocational instability and poor social relationships. The family preservation model provides real logistical support to overwhelmed parents, fosters positive parent-child relationships, assists in the development of household consistency, fosters competence and self-confidence in the child and connects the child and parent with a caring mentor.

This program provides one-on-one support in the classrooms of childcare centers and family childcare homes. The T/A Specialist guides participating teachers on how to better plan, implement and evaluate activities. The intense assistance usually lasts between two and three months and culminates with an overall assessment.

The Carteret County Partnership for Children subsidizes centers to offset the cost of reducing child/staff ratios. In return for paying the extra teacher, we require that ratios be kept at a much lower rate than mandated by the state, and that teachers pursue a higher level of education.

This project provides education-based salary supplements to low paid teachers, directors, and family child care providers. To encourage consistency, installments based on half of the annual award are issued after each six-month period the participant completes in the same childcare program. Supplements also act as incentives to attain higher education levels. Because these supplements reward teacher education and continuity of care, children birth through five benefit from more stable relationships with better-educated teachers made possible through Carteret County Partnership for Children funding.