There are a variety of professional development opportunities, both Virtual and In-Person, available through Wake County Smart Start
Virtual Professional & Family Development
On Pathwright, you’ll find a variety of virtual trainings, developed by WCSS, for ECE staff, families, and community partners. To use, you will first need to set up a free account and will receive no subsequent marketing emails. See instructions below.
Online Classes for ECE Professionals (For NC Child Care Credit)
- Child Care Staff Orientations
- Healthy Habits for Young Children
Online Classes for Community Partners and Families (Not for Child Care Credit)
- Coming Soon
- Coming Soon
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New Users:
1 – Navigate to Pathwright Website
2 – Go to “Browse Library” on the menu. Select a course to see more information and preview the course Path.
3 – Select the “Take course” button to begin the registration process.
4 – Create an account. Enter your name, email address, and password.
5 – After creating an account, a Learner Guide can be found in your library.
6 – To learn how to access courses, proceed to Step 3 below.
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Existing Users:
1 – Navigate to Pathwright Website
2 – Sign In
3 – Go to “Browse Library” on menu and select a course.
4 – Select “Take Course”. If signed in, you will be enrolled immediately.
5 – For help recovering login info., select “Need Help” on menu.
In-Person Professional Development
Social Emotional Learning
The SEL project was designed to support children’s healthy social and emotional behaviors as well as to improve/maintain high levels of quality in publicly funded early childhood programs in Wake County. The project aims to support the process by which children and adults develop fundamental emotional and social competencies and experiences over time, ultimately impacting positive outcomes for children.
Social and Emotional Learning works to build and deepen a positive learning environment by engaging with providers on practices that support how children understand and manage emotions, set, and achieve positive goals, establish/maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted children’s ability to develop healthy social skills. It is essential that social and emotional learning is embedded into the fabric of the early childhood environment to improve children’s development and combat the negative effects of the pandemic.
Building Family Engagement & Leadership Capacity with Providers
Our WCSS Family Engagement Staff facilitates family engagement and leadership (FEL) work with EC Professionals to help them create welcoming tables for families. Our workshops focus on:
Family engagement
is the process of building genuine relationships with families to help children grow and thrive. Family engagement means doing with–not for–families.
Family leadership
occurs when parents and family members have the knowledge, skills, and opportunity to represent a “parent voice” to help shape their communities, programs, and policies at the local or state level.
Why does FEL matter?
Family leaders are experts on their own lives and experiences and their perspectives are necessary to create effective programs and systems.
Types of FEL Workshops
Teacher Workshops:
We help teachers build skills to foster strong home school partnerships.
“Starting Strong” Community Trainings:
We work with community partners (grassroots, faith, agencies) to build skills for engaging families in their work and programs. These workshops are co-facilitated by parent leaders and WCSS FEL staff.
Webinar:
Creating A Welcoming Table:
WCSS presented a FEL webinar for providers, facilitated by Moms Rising, to help organizations create tables where family leaders feel valued, empowered and excited to be part of the process. Click below to watch webinar
Additional FEL Resources
FEL Action Guide and Toolkit from North Carolina Partnership for Children (NCPC).