The Cabarrus County Partnership for Children is soliciting proposals for contracted services to assist the Partnership’s efforts in serving children ages 0-5 years and their families in Cabarrus County in fiscal years 2023-2025. Proposals are being accepted in the following areas:

• Public Education – social media and marketing assistance
• Evaluation – oversight and compliance of funded activities

The deadline for receipt of proposals is 5:00 p.m. on June 23, 2023.

Waynett is the Executive Director and Inclusion Specialist with P.U.R.E. Excellence, as well as the Executive Director of Lockhart Child Development Center in Concord. She has also been recognized for her exceptional work in early childhood education as the Anne Laukaitis Champion for Children Award in December 2022.

Waynett leads, listens and advocates for the young child, their families as well as for the child care industry and early education in our county. She promotes and assists all centers in our county in being high quality learning environments for children and staff, she facilitates high standards in teacher preparation and advocates for a living wage for all who enter this field. She consults and provides support for all Cabarrus County child care directors and assists with children with challenging behaviors and other class management issues. She also provides training for all early childhood professionals.

The Cabarrus County Partnership has been selected for a grant to receive a large donation of "Sleep Baby, Safe and Snug" books by Charlie's Kids, an organization advocating safe sleep to prevent infant death.

Since 2014, "Sleep Baby, Safe and Snug" has been the most beloved and shared safe sleep education product, with over 4 million copies in circulation. Charlie's Kids will be donating 12 cases of "Sleep Baby, Safe and Snug" books in English and 4 cases of books in Spanish to assist the Cabarrus Partnership for Children in its efforts to educate families on safe sleep for babies.

SIDS is the leading cause of death among babies between ages 1 month and 1 year.

Around one hundred early childhood educators came out to Crossroads United Methodist Church on February 25 for the 28th annual Coming Together for Children Conference. This year's theme was "Back Together, Preparing Children for a Successful Future" and consisted of a half day of training as well as an agency and vendor fair.