Durham, NC - The Smart Start Partnership for Children in Durham County has received $3.3 million in federal stimulus funding to help expand Early Head Start.

Some of the funds will be used to provide home-visiting services, which will be delivered by Healthy Families Durham, a program of Center for Child and Family Health. The center is a collaboration between Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. Central University.

Home-visiting programs offer comprehensive medical, nutritional and social services.

"We will be hiring five home visitors and one supervisor to augment our present staff, in order to serve 60 additional children in the home-based portion of Early Head Start," says Jan Williams, LCSW, program director of Child and Parent Support Services-Healthy Families Durham.

Durham has 15,600 children 3 or younger, of whom almost a quarter live in poverty. The Partnership for Children will serve 120 children with a focus on supporting homeless and special-needs children.