On August 27, 2025, Capita, in partnership with the North Carolina Partnership for Children (NCPC), hosted a one-day, in-person workshop at the JC Raulston Arboretum at NC State University. The event Strengthening the Resilience of NC’s Child and Family-Serving Programs and Systems brought together nearly 25 leaders and stakeholders from early care and education, philanthropy, and local and state government to address how communities across North Carolina can better support young children and families facing growing challenges, particularly weather-related disruptions. 

With generous support from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, the event fostered cross-sector dialogue, identified opportunities for collaboration, and explored strategies to build long-term systems of support. Participants shared insights on what is and isn’t working for programs and systems serving children and families, with an emphasis on planning for and recovering from climate disasters and other weather-related events. Contributions from leaders across the state who are already engaged in efforts to create more resilient communities and families further enriched the discussions. 

Recommendations for Enhancing Resilience for North Carolinians

Healthy, resilient children and families are the foundation for flourishing communities, yet little attention and investment have been devoted to strengthening their children’s resilience or adapting family-serving systems and programs to withstand the disruptions caused by extreme weather events. Ultimately, this places the health, security, and future of North Carolina’s children and families at risk. This memo summarizes the key outcomes, insights, and next steps identified during the workshop. It also recommends that key leaders in North Carolina strengthen the resilience of the state’s child and family-serving programs and systems. 

1. Prioritizing Direct Support to Families and Communities: Participants emphasized the importance of prioritizing direct support to families and communities, rather than focusing exclusively on programs and services. Families furthest from opportunity are disproportionately impacted by disasters and often face the most significant barriers to accessing programs intended to provide support. Trust in families was a recurring theme throughout the workshop. Families know what their children need, especially in times of disaster and crisis, but they require the resources and flexibility to act on those instincts.  Providing cash assistance to meet individual family needs and fostering mutual aid within communities was identified as one of the most direct—though challenging—ways to build resilience for families with young children. Such approaches give families greater agency to make choices that align with their circumstances, values, and priorities,  both before and long after weather-related events.
   
   Participants also emphasized the importance of direct support through trusted, community-based child and family organizations, which often serve as “lighthouses” in times of crisis, helping families navigate uncertainty and access resources. Smart Start partnerships, for example, were cited repeatedly as critical during recovery efforts because they not only functioned as a program funder and provider, but also as a vital social infrastructure that helps to anchor local networks in care, trust, and coordination. Sustained investment in these hubs is essential to helping families and caregivers recover and adapt in the wake of disruption.
2. Philanthropy’s Role in Reframing Narratives and Building Political Will: A recurring theme was the need for philanthropy to shift its focus towards creating the enabling conditions for systemic change. Participants highlighted the importance of building political will and reframing narratives around children, families, and resilience in North Carolina. Many of the recommendations and ideas generated during the workshop depend on advancing strong, predictable, and quality family life amidst growing environmental, social, and technological risks. However, current philanthropic efforts in North Carolina often prioritize short-term, programmatic initiatives rather than the sustained, sophisticated policy work needed to drive long-term change. This presents an opportunity for North Carolina to lead the nation in reimagining young children’s resilience.
   
   What is most needed now is not only innovation in policy design, but also in new approaches to organizing, storytelling, and collaboration. Philanthropies can also strengthen the ecosystem of local advocates and community organizations by identifying areas where there is natural resonance and opportunity for innovation. Crucially, funders must work to mobilize in advance of crises, rather than only stepping in to fill gaps after they occur.
3. Reframing Early Childhood Beyond Programs: The workshop underscored that early childhood is not merely a collection of programs, but a critical phase of life in which an individual is most sensitive to adversity. Resilience during this period depends heavily on relationships with parents and caregivers. Confusing programs with policy—or with the developmental needs of young children—has led to ineffective solutions that fail to address the root challenges families face. While, for example, a program like Home Visiting might be salutary for ameliorating the effects of poverty and building skills that foster resilience, there is no substitute for shoring up families’ economic security. Addressing the root causes of instability and providing direct support to families are essential for fostering long-term resilience during this pivotal stage of life.

Building the Resilience of Families is Pivotal

During the workshop, the focus on building the resilience of families directly, rather than focusing solely on strengthening specific programs, was notable. While recent weather events in North Carolina, such as Hurricanes Helene and Milton, have severely damaged programs—especially child care facilities—and limited their ability to provide critical services to families, participants overwhelmingly prioritized getting resources directly into the hands of families to foster long-term resilience.

At the same time, some participants highlighted the chronic underfunding of existing systems, which has left them particularly brittle and ill-equipped to withstand weather-related disasters. Strengthening these systems remains a critical need, as their fragility exacerbates the challenges families face during crises. Balancing direct family support with investments in robust, well-resourced systems was identified as a key area for future work.

Proposals to Enhance the Resilience of Child and Family-Serving Systems

Participants were tasked with designing four impactful yet feasible “moonshots” to enhance the resilience of child and family-serving systems in North Carolina. Their proposals included:

1. Integrated Post-Disaster Support: Provide cash and other assistance to families with young children for up to one year after disasters.
2. Public Goods for Families: Establish health care, paid parental leave, and universal child care as public goods to promote family resilience against various risks.
3. Permanent Universal Child Tax Credit: Implement a lasting tax credit to support families and build resilience.
4. Universal Child Care: Ensure access to child care for all families, aligning to promote resilience through essential public goods.

Evolving Disaster Preparedness and Coordination Efforts

These times are not unprecedented. We have faced serious systemic challenges before. However, we now live in an era of proliferating risks, eroding constraints, and a breakdown in bipartisanship and cooperation, particularly on issues like climate change and human security. This landscape of vulnerability demands new ways of acting, especially from local and regional philanthropic leaders, who wield significant influence over the priorities of advocates and policymakers addressing child and family well-being.

As we mark the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene, the Helene Child Care Task Force is reviewing its approach and meeting structure to determine how it aligns with the Western North Carolina (WNC) Rebuild and Recover Committee. The Task Force is expected to evolve into a broader early care and education (ECE) disaster preparedness, recovery, and coordination hub. The Governor’s Office requested that NCPC coordinate the task force when Helene hit and collaborate with many state partners, including the Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE), as DCDEE is responsible for maintaining a disaster preparedness and recovery plan within the state’s Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) plan. The goal is to ensure coherence across disaster recovery efforts and strengthen the state’s overall capacity to support young children and families before, during, and after crises.

Looking Ahead: A Call for Leadership and New Approaches

Our actions in the coming months and years, both here in North Carolina and globally, must be more attuned to the risks families and local communities identify as most urgent and the solutions they most value. Current programmatic silos, often shaped by public and private funding streams, are failing to address these challenges adequately, and as such, they are making families more vulnerable. 

As we think about the future of families and communities, we must confront the forces that shape their flourishing. Early childhood leaders and allies should renew their commitment to whole-child, whole-family, whole-community approaches and recognize the interconnectedness of child and family-serving systems. This begins with leaders, such as Head Start and Smart Start,  reinforcing and communicating the specific value of these approaches in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery, and sharing examples of how to strengthen community resilience in the face of weather-related disruptions.  

We must also prioritize designing for the margins, ensuring that families who are often left out of resilience planning are intentionally centered in future strategies. This includes medically fragile children and families, such as those with children on the autism spectrum or with significant health needs. Resilience planning must consider how these families fit into emergency response and long-term recovery systems, including the need for respite care, specialized support, and tailored communication and recovery services. Integrating mental health support for children and their caregivers into resilience planning is also vital. Disasters often leave lasting emotional and psychological impacts that contribute to ongoing trauma in the months and years that follow. Long-term mental health recovery should be recognized as a core component of any comprehensive family resilience strategy. 

Resilience efforts must be more inclusive and movement-oriented. There are opportunities to partner with and learn from organizations, such as the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI) and the Chisholm Project, that are already invested in future work and are at the intersection of racial equity, environmental justice, and community resilience. Collaborating with such organizations can help align North Carolina’s early childhood and resilience initiatives with broader, people-powered movements. 

We must also remain aware of the broader political climate and the context that shapes this work. Government shutdowns, which have become increasingly frequent, pose a serious threat to the stability of programs and services that families rely on during times of crisis. Future resilience strategies must anticipate these disruptions and how North Carolina’s child and family-serving systems can continue to support families when they are needed most.

Moving Toward a Stable and Predictable Future for Families

Our new approach should also prioritize the stability, quality, and predictability of family life, particularly for families with young children, rather than being dictated by the constraints of existing programs or funding mechanisms. Family resilience requires more than responsive aid; it depends on baseline economic security and sustained investment in families and communities. By ensuring families have stable incomes, accessible child care, and supportive networks before disasters strike, North Carolina can strengthen its capacity to withstand and recover from weather-related disruptions.

In sum, what is needed first isn’t necessarily new programs, interventions, or services but an entirely new approach from those in leadership positions in organizations dedicated to the well-being of children and families. With their leadership, we will be more able to advance a bold agenda focused on the resilience of all children and families in North Carolina.