CCSA Receives Building Healthy Communities Grant for SHAPE NC

Child Care Services Association receives Building Healthy Communities Grant from Duke Health for Shape NC.

Chapel Hill, N.C., March 30, 2020: Duke Health recently awarded a $25,000 Building Healthy Communities Grant to Child Care Services Association (CCSA) for Shape NC: Healthy Starts for Young Children, a program that aims to reduce obesity and increase physical activity in young children ages birth-5 years old in Durham and Orange counties.

Shape NC aligns well with Duke Health’s mission and vision to improve the health of families and neighborhoods by creating early childhood environments that model best practices in eating and exercise for children and by engaging these children’s teachers and families in these behaviors.

Working with child care centers in Durham and Orange counties, Shape NC’s overall goal is to increase physical activity and healthy behaviors in young children and their families, ensuring the children can enter kindergarten healthy and ready to learn.

“We are so grateful CCSA has been awarded the Building Healthy Communities Grant from Duke Health,” said CCSA President Marsha Basloe. “Not only will the children in participating Shape NC centers benefit from this grant, but so will their families, educators and communities. Having a generation grow up with the skills and knowledge of everyday active play and healthy eating benefits everyone.”

Now in its third year, Shape NC has reached children and families in 20 child care centers (more than 2,500 people), targeting early childhood programs with a high proportion of children living in low-income families. Shape NC also has provided technical assistance, coaching and grants to improve the centers’ outdoor learning environments and specific training to improve meals, increase physical activity and enhance materials.

It is expected that by the end of Year 3 of the program, participating centers will have increased their children’s active play and outdoor playtime to include at least 120 minutes of physical activity daily, limited the children’s screen time and continued to offer healthy food and beverages, including more fruits and vegetables, thereby increasing the number of children at a healthy weight before entering kindergarten.

You can view the Shape NC Year 2 Progress Report here.

Child Care Services Association
Founded in 1974, the mission of Child Care Services Association (CCSA) is to ensure affordable, accessible, high-quality child care for all young children and their families. Using a holistic approach, CCSA supports children and families, helps child care professionals improve the quality of early education children receive and ensures all families can afford and access the high-quality early care and education that is so important for a child’s early development. Through its Meal Services Program, CCSA also provides nutritious meals to children at child care centers, where they may eat 50-100 percent of their meals. Our T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood^®, Child Care WAGE$^® and Infant-Toddler Educator AWARD$ Plus^® programs give child care professionals the means to obtain an education and supplement their salary based on that education. CCSA also licenses T.E.A.C.H. and WAGE$ across the U.S. and conducts early childhood systems research and policy development statewide and nationally. For more information, visit www.childcareservices.org.

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