December 2022

Liz Bell May 13, 2022 NC early child care capacity by county, compared with need - EducationNC (ednc.org) North Carolina child care providers have the space to reach only about a quarter of infants and toddlers with working parents, a report released this week shows. This supply of infant/toddler care compared with the need (or the number of infants and toddlers with working parents) also varies greatly by county. You can explore the map below to see for yourself. Child care for infants and...

How common are harmful pre-K suspensions? (ednc.org) Katie Dukes August 10, 2022 Each year, hundreds of North Carolina children experience “exclusionary discipline” — removal from their usual learning and social settings — before they even reach kindergarten. The ill effects on their brain development, mental health, future education outcomes, and family well-being can be so dire that some experts call exclusionary discipline the “preschool-to-prison pipeline.” But in North Carolina, those...

Best practices for students who have experienced the death of a caregiver (ednc.org) Katie Dukes June 8, 2022 Behind the Story In January, EdNC reported that evidence suggests at least 3,600 children in North Carolina have experienced the death of a caregiver due to COVID-19. Experts now put that estimate closer to 6,000. In February we distributed a survey to principals, school counselors, and EdWeekly newsletter subscribers asking how they and their communities support grieving children.

by Kaiser Health News December 13, 2022 Find the Full Article here: Cost of opioids outweigh money to address them - NC Health News (northcarolinahealthnews.org) For North Carolina counties, the rates of opioid deaths were calculated by dividing the sum of opioid deaths from 2010 to 2020 by the sum of the annual population estimates from 2010 to 2020. By Aneri Pattani and Rae Ellen Bichell Kaiser Health News Tim Buck knows by heart how many people died from drug overdoses in his North...

Story by WECT Staff B LADENBORO, N.C. (WECT) - Bladenboro received a $325,000 grant as part of $19.7 million in American Rescue Plan funding awarded to rural projects in North Carolina. Governor Roy Cooper announced the funding in a press release on Wednesday, Dec. 14. “More support for North Carolina’s rural communities is on the way with these transformative grants, made possible by President Biden’s American Rescue Plan,” said Cooper. “These funds, backed up by the expertise of our rural...

The New Town section of Elizabethtown will benefit from two grants recently awarded to the Town of Elizabethtown with the development of a new community center and improvements to the streetscape along part of Martin Luther King (MLK) Drive. The Town of Elizabethtown, in conjunction with engineering consultant Paul Mattox, Libby Smith, and E.L. Robinson Engineering, applied for and was awarded $2,575,000 to design and construct an 11,000 sq ft Community Center on Martin Luther King Drive.

The Kiwanis Club of Elizabethtown was excited to continue with tradition this past Tuesday. Members of the local civic group met girls from the Boys and Girls Homes of North Carolina (BCHNC) Lake Waccamaw campus at Leinwand’s to give them the gift of a shopping spree. “They really enjoyed themselves,” Ray Cockrell, CFP® Interim President of the BCHNC, said about the young ladies shopping at Leinwand’s. “I appreciate the Kiwanis. The girls had a great time shopping.” Dr. Cathy Gantz,...

Credit to Bladen Online article here: Bladen County Department of Social Services Angel Tree Project A Heartwarming Experience – BladenOnline Elizabethtown, N.C—Beta Club members from Clarkton School of Discovery have adopted 75 “angels” from the Bladen County Department of Social Services Angel Tree Project. Under the guidance of their club advisor, Elizabeth Priest, and the support of their families, Clarkton’s Beta students are going above and beyond a Beta’s call to serve. “I am so proud...