Partner Profiles are our way of highlighting organizations that we work with both in general and on specific campaigns. The North Carolina Housing Coalition values partnership–we would not be a true coalition without the numerous individuals, community groups, and organizations that contribute to our housing movement and ecosystem, and more importantly strive to make North Carolina a better place to live and thrive with dignity and opportunity in a number of different ways.
NC Child was founded in 1983 by John Niblock, then Executive Director of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Children and Youth. In forming what was initially called the NC Child Advocacy Institute, Niblock and his partners believed that they should be part of a unified voice for children with four key strategies: data gathering, strategic communications, community organizing, and lobbying.
There are four key opportunity areas for children and families in which NC Child prioritizes their advocacy:
- High-quality Early Childhood Education
- Healthy Children
- Nurturing Homes and Communities
- Family Economic Security
The partnership between NCHC and NC Child began through The Opportunity Starts at Home campaign (OSAH), launched by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The campaign focuses on building a movement of stakeholders from many sectors to generate support for federal policies that will correct historic racial and economic inequities by ensuring quality affordable housing for people with low incomes.
Our partnership with NC Child operates within the OSAH framework by using collective resources, media, and community engagement to recruit and train stakeholders across the state on affordable housing policy and advocacy. The goals of OSAH are to advance federal housing policy that:
- Bridges the growing gap between renter incomes and rising housing costs
- Provides aid to people experiencing job losses or other economic shocks to avert housing instability or homelessness
- Expands the affordable housing stock for low-income renters
- Defends existing rental assistance and other targeted housing resources from harmful cuts
We are proud to call NC Child a partner and excited to continue broadening our coalition, because we know that no one issue is truly siloed. We see the key areas of NC Child’s advocacy and mission as complementary and necessary intersections to housing: with housing being at the foundation of one’s social determinants of health, children and families must have stable housing to thrive. As we build coalitions across sectors to advance the mission of NCHC, partners like NC Child prioritize the vital intersection of affordable housing and child advocacy; with the goal of pushing legislative wins that ensure that every North Carolina child and family has a quality and affordable place to live.
Keep on the lookout for more information on how to engage with us around OSAH, and if you’re interested in learning more about NC Child, click here.
