Buncombe Partnership for Children

Mission: To strengthen the capacity of educators, families, and the community to build a strong foundation for children’s learning and development beginning at birth.

Buncombe Partnership for Children (BPFC) is an Asheville-based nonprofit organization working to ensure that all children, birth to five years of age, in Buncombe County have what they need to thrive. BPFC envisions that every child in the community will reach their fullest potential and be prepared for lifelong success.

Buncombe Partnership for Children partners with local organizations to provide programs in the following areas:

• Affordable Childcare: Projects that increase families’ access to high quality, affordable childcare, such as a voucher program that helps families afford high quality childcare, and a pre-kindergarten program providing 4-year-olds free, high quality care focused on enhancing their school readiness.  
• Childcare Quality Improvement: Projects that include onsite training, technical assistance, and consultation in areas that improve the quality of early childhood education, such as effective classroom practices; health, safety, and nutrition; and services to children with developmental delays or challenging social/emotional behavior.  
• Early Educator Supports: Projects that support early educators’ professional growth through professional development opportunities such as trainings, workshops, communities of practice, and a resource library, and through education-based salary supplements for teachers, directors, and family childcare providers. 
• Family Support: Projects that provide opportunities for parent-child interaction, such as playground activity events that provide unstructured, child-directed play opportunities using nontraditional, found materials; and adult-child play groups that include songs, stories, art, outdoor play, puppet shows, and crafts.  
• Early Literacy: Projects that expose children to age-appropriate books and print and encourage parent-child reading opportunities through ongoing book distributions to children and families. 

BPFC also works toward systems level change by taking a leadership role in three collaboratives that work across sectors to set goals, plan, and advocate for increased investments that strengthen the early childhood system in Buncombe County.