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At the local/regional level, VECF convenes an alliance of Smart Beginnings initiatives across the Commonwealth. Smart Beginnings is a locally-driven enterprise that creates community commitment to school readiness by bringing public and private leaders together to collaborate on priorities for their youngest citizens. Local Smart Beginnings partners help communities deliver on ensuring conditions for a strong, healthy start for young children and their families. An important role for Smart Beginnings is to ensure that families can access existing programs supporting children’s healthy development. VECF provides to Smart Beginnings entities resources through grant agreements, technical assistance, and peer learning opportunities. This fosters evidence-based practices, serves as a problem solver, drives policy solutions, and supports use of data to guide local decision making and strategic development. VECF creates uniform data collection and evaluation.

At the state level, VECF partners with state government to advance early childhood development, to engage the private sector, and seek private sector resources and solutions to promote school readiness (not to include organized fund raising). This informs policy and budget decisions, provides strategic direction, and sets performance targets for school readiness.

At the local level, VECF provided comprehensive technical assistance to 17 Smart Beginnings initiatives. Nine initiatives received funds for their systems-building efforts from VECF through TANF; the remaining eight Smart Beginnings initiatives sustained operations through funds from other sources. Additionally, VECF awarded Data Capacity Booster Grants (which included development of Community Early Childhood Demographic and Risk Factor Profiles, Data Capacity Plans, and 8 individualized capacity-building sub-projects) to eleven Smart Beginnings initiatives. Six awards were made for Innovative Partnership projects (which support potentially replicable, local data-informed innovations) with two of the awards supported by TANF funds. Smart Beginnings entities have indicated improvements such as increased early childhood program participation in Virginia’s quality rating and improvement system, increased community utilization of state pre-kindergarten slots which have chronically been un- or underutilized, and increased Ages & Stages Questionnaires® screenings for early identification of young children’s developmental needs.

Visions of Truth Youth STRIVE In FY23, the General Assembly has appropriated $75,000 to the Visions of Truth Youth STRIVE program.

Visions of Truth operates the STRIVE Program (Students Taking Responsibility in Valuing Education). With the funding provided tutoring and homework help will be available as well as individualized study/progress plans, based on pre and posttests. STRIVE will engage parents to