Supporting Our Children & Their Caregivers
GetSet Transylvania is a collaborative of local non-profits, government departments and offices, faith-based organizations, child care providers, concerned community members, and businesses.
Our shared mission is to promote lifelong learning, health, and resilience in all young children in Transylvania County.
A Grassroots Effort
This is truly a grass-roots effort where there is no official GetSet organization or membership roster. Organizations and individuals show-up and participate as their capacity allows — or sometimes doesn’t, but they show up anyway. They show-up because we all know, in the tight-knit yet diverse communities within Transylvania County, we are able to serve more families and children when we can coordinate each other’s resources and leverage connections.
Achieving Our Mission
How are we working toward our achieving our mission? The coalition has a multi-pronged effort to lay foundational programs and resources to encourage growth, learning, and resilience for all children and their families. While most groups leading these efforts consist of staff from organizations, we welcome parent and caregiver involvement.
What’s Happened Recently
Family Support
In the realm of family support, the group addresses a wide variety of topics and opportunities to engage with families. They span the gamut from organizing family-friendly community events such as Fun in the Park and the Family Dinner Series to designing some of our family toolkits. If you are interested in engaging in their work, have an idea for or an event, or just want to learn more, contact Erin Drew or Erika Brock to get involved.
Physical & Mental Health
Physical and Mental health of children in our county is of great concern and attention and only increased during the pandemic time period. Led by Transylvania Public Health and Vaya Health this group focuses on ways to promote the services and providers available for families experiencing physical and mental health challenges. They also contribute to prevention programs such as designing the toolkits for Exploring Emotions and Handling Tantrums, Dental Health, and Healthy Eating. Contact Laura Rinehart or Angie Garner to get involved.
Play!
Did you know play is children’s work? It’s true. Unstructured and structured play forms the building blocks for skills we all need for success in life: experimenting (trial and error), problem solving, conflict resolution, communication, fine and gross motor movements. Transylvania county has a variety of play environments and we want families to know how to take advantage of them. This group promotes and designs play programs for kids 0-5. Contact Mandi Bentley to learn more or get involved.
Early Learning Educators
Early Learning Educators provide an essential service to so many families in Transylvania County. As a coalition, we recognize the importance of investing in the learning and growth of our early learning professional community. We look for ways to assist early learning programs in meeting training requirements and explore new methods and tools for early childhood development. Quality early learning capacity is also behind demand and the group has explored and implemented programs to increase capacity in our county. Contact Deb Tibbetts to learn more.
Child Abuse Prevention
The Child Abuse Prevention group focuses on evaluating and improving the structures in our community that support the five protective factors to protect against abuse and neglect: Social and Emotional Competence; Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development; Social Connections; Resilience; and Concrete Support. This link will take you to the most recent Community Prevention Action Plan (CPAP). Contact Denise Gonzalez to learn more.
In The News & Online
Though relatively small in population compared to the other 99 NC counties, the work of GetSet Transylvania has received the attention of media on several fronts. Take a peek through our media mentions below!
+ Learn more about our roots, past projects & Sesame Street collaboration
The Early Childhood Initiative (ECI) Task Force was formed in 2015 with a mission to build the capabilities of caregivers and to strengthen the communities that together form the environment of relationships essential to children’s lifelong learning, health and behavior.
The ECI Task Force, comprised of key stakeholders from a range of organizations in Transylvania County, authored a December 2015 State of the Young Child Report that identified the problems and challenges facing Transylvania County 0-5 population and explored opportunities for collaborative solutions.
You can find the full report here.
Between 2015 and 2018, the task force, along with other interested organizations and volunteers, acted on many of the insights and recommendations, strengthening and enlarging the support for Transylvania County’s child population in profound ways.
In October of 2018, the ECI developed a brand identity – GetSet Transylvania – to make it easier for parents and caregivers to access the support they need. In addition to continuing to be an advocate for Transylvania County’s 0-5 population, GetSet Transylvania will utilize tools like this website to become a one-stop clearinghouse for the myriad services, programs and activities that will help ensure a bright future for Transylvania County’s youngest citizens.
Coinciding with the re-branding to GetSet Transylvania, the work of the ECI was instrumental in attracting the attention of Sesame Workshop, the non-profit educational organization behind Sesame Street. In 2018, Transylvania County was chosen to be the first rural county in the United States to be chosen for Sesame Street in Communities (SSIC). SSIC is a major initiative to support parents, caregivers, and community providers in their efforts to give all children, especially the most vulnerable, a strong, healthy start.
Thanks to this unique and valuable collaboration, Transylvania County has access to Sesame Street resources that include videos, storybooks and training that help children navigate through challenges large and small. Additionally, professional development resources for providers are available to better understand age-appropriate lessons on literacy, numeracy and more. We showcase these SSIC resources to families through our toolkit program.
The Sesame Street in Communities affiliation presented Transylvania County with a unique opportunity to become a model for how to improve early childhood from the ground up, family by family, community by community, and county by county. Indeed, our county has won several awards and been pursued for other partnership opportunities, like PBS NC and Waterford UPSTART, based upon the success we’ve seen.
In July of 2019, two of our coalition partners, Smart Start of Transylvania County and The Family Place, were awarded a Preschool Development Grant to create an Action Plan focused on improving Family Engagement and Leardership in Early Childhood programming. The resulting Transylvania County Family Engagement Action Plan, finalized in November 2019, can be found here.