School-affiliated organization awarded grant to certify child-care health consultants, improve child-care environments

July 17, 2015

Dr. Jonathan Kotch

Dr. Jonathan Kotch

The North Carolina Child Care Health and Safety Resource Center, a project of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health directed by Jonathan Kotch, MD, MPH, research professor of maternal and child health at the Gillings School, is among the collaborators who have received a $25,000 Ribbon of Hope grant from the GlaxoSmithKline Foundation.

The grant, awarded to the N.C. Institute for Child Development Professionals (NCICDP), will support the design and launch of a first-in-the-nation certification and endorsement process for child-care health consultants, child health professionals who aim to promote healthy, safe environments for children in out-of-home child care and improve overall quality of early care and education programs.

North Carolina has 73 such consultants, one of the largest groups in any state. In 2013-2014, N.C. child- care health consultants served more than 2,000 programs and 65,000 children.

“The number of children served in formal early care and educational settings in the U.S. has soared over the past several decades,” said Sue Russell, NCICDP board chair.

“This rapid rise in the use of formal early care and education programs has brought with it an increase in the need to protect children from illness and injury in group settings,” Russell said. “Without these funds, we would not be able to field-test and implement a model certification process to [develop] a qualified workforce which [can] support early educators in keeping children … healthy and safe.”

“North Carolina is a national leader in child care health and safety generally, and in child-care health consultation in particular,” Kotch said. “If we can make this certification program successful in North Carolina, we hope to begin to institute it nationally, providing a standard of quality for which all child- care health consultants can strive.”

Other collaborators on the grant are the N.C. Child Care Health Consultant Association, the N.C. Partnership for Children and the Child Care Services Association.

About The North Carolina GlaxoSmithKline Foundation
The North Carolina GlaxoSmithKline Foundation is an independent self-funding 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization supporting activities that help meet the educational and health needs of today’s society and future generations. Since its creation in 1986, the Foundation has granted over $61 million to support North Carolina projects and programs that emphasize the understanding and application of health, science and education at all academic and professional levels. Established in 2007, the Ribbon of Hope grant program provides one-time $25,000 grants to nonprofits to establish or expand local programs in the areas of science, health and education.


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Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: David Pesci, director of communications, (919) 962-2600 or dpesci@unc.edu

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