07/23/12 — Partnership for Children gets grant

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Partnership for Children gets grant

By Staff Reports
Published in News on July 23, 2012 1:46 PM

The Partnership for Children of Wayne County will receive the Spriggles- Spirit and Giggles to motivate and educate young children grant for $760 from the Wayne County Unrestricted Endowment, a component fund of the North Carolina Community Foundation.

The money will be used as part of the Spriggles initiative of the Shape NC program. Shape NC is a partnership between Blue Cross and Blue Shield and The North Carolina Partnership for Children. Locally, the Partnership for Children of Wayne County was selected to participate in the Shape program.

Shape NC prevents childhood obesity by focusing on young children age birth through five in child care and community settings. Shape NC is working to create a statewide health program to ensure that a child's earliest experiences with food and physical activity promote a lifetime of healthy behaviors.

The Spriggles program is a series of motivational books and activities for children designed to inspire health, nutrition, activity and exercise. The program will be modeled at the Shape NC model early learning center at Wayne Community College and then provided to child care facilities across Wayne County.

Spriggles includes interactive story telling, nutrition and health lesson plans and physical activity.

The Foundation awarded this one-time grant to PFCW for the 2012-2013 grant cycle. PFCW is also funded through the United Way of Wayne County as well as Smart Start.

"We are pleased to support Wayne County nonprofits through our growing family of charitable funds. We support the Partnership for Children's Shape NC-Spriggles program of providing health and wellness information to young children in a fun and motivational way," said Bob Logan, president of the Wayne County Community Foundation.

For more information, or to request Spriggles materials, contact Whitney Jansta, Community Services Coordinator at (919) 735-3371 ext. 223 or at wjansta@pfcw.org.