North Carolina’s children and youth are our future leaders and our greatest asset. Ensuring they are well cared for helps put our communities on a path to a better future and greater prosperity. Across North Carolina in any given year, 1 in 5 children face food insecurity, and too many children have difficulty accessing the physical and behavioral health care they need.  Our health systems struggle to coordinate with the other supportive networks that are involved in caring for children and families.

A key group of leaders from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS), Duke Health System, and UNC Health System have teamed up to take on those challenges and improve the health and well-being of children in central North Carolina. When the federal government released a funding opportunity through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to develop an innovative model for improving care for children and families, North Carolina jumped on the opportunity to apply.  With leadership and support from the NC DHHS, Duke and UNC came together as two of the larger systems serving children in central NC to spearhead the application.  The NC InCK champions from Duke, UNC, and NC DHHS built a coalition of child health leaders from across the NC InCK region and state.  The coalition included public and private groups within the healthcare system (e.g., healthcare providers, insurance companies) and those from core child service entities outside of healthcare (e.g., schools, childcare programs for infants and toddlers).