Project Overview
Third Sector partnered with Spartanburg Academic Movement to design a Children’s Cabinet to improve outcomes for children and families in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The project aims to restructure early childhood leadership by designing a Children’s Cabinet, a cross-sector collaborative body to foster stronger alignment among diverse local community partners.
The earliest years of a child's life are critical for cognitive, social, and physical growth. High-quality early learning and care provides the foundation for lifelong success. Yet, too often, families face barriers to accessing these supports, from prohibitive costs to a limited availability of culturally relevant programs. To make matters worse, key experts familiar with children's unique community dynamics and environmental circumstances are often excluded from collaborative decisionmaking processes that influence the creation of effective, contextually relevant strategies for preparing children for a prosperous future, frequently resulting in generalized solutions that fail to address specific local needs and nuances.
In Spartanburg, South Carolina, Spartanburg Academic Movement (SAM), an early childhood nonprofit, has set ambitious 2030 goals to ensure that every child in Spartanburg has the opportunity to thrive. Achieving this vision requires expanding access to quality early care and education and expanding opportunities for the community to lead in shaping the systems that serve children and families. Leaders in Spartanburg believe the path forward begins with listening to and elevating community voices (parents, providers, advocates, and leaders) who know firsthand what children need to thrive.
To advance its 2030 goals, SAM partnered with Third Sector to design and launch a Children's Cabinet. This initiative aims to elevate the leadership and influence of community representatives (city officials, nonprofits, and CBOs /family service orgs, and community representatives) and cultivate trust to support cross-sector collaboration, all with the shared objective of improving outcomes for children and families in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The Children’s Cabinet will be a space for:
- Bringing Diverse voices together, including families, providers, community-based organizations, city officials, and other partners
- Strengthening alignment and trust across the early childhood and education ecosystem
- Elevating leadership from the community so that decisions reflect lived experiences and expertise
- Driving cross-sector collaboration to improve goals for all children and families in Spartanburg
Set to launch in 2026, the SAM Children's Cabinet will function as a participatory governance structure designed to ensure equitable decisionmaking on policy and systems change, with equal representation from city officials, CBO leaders, and community delegates in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The Children's Cabinet is grounded in national best practices, peer council models, and six months of extensive community engagement, including interviews with community partners and peer cabinet leaders. Third Sector is now engaging in Implementation Phase 2 of the work, helping SAM to enact and establish the launch of the Children's Cabinet.
In 2025, during Phase One, Third Sector provided technical assistance to support SAM in accomplishing the following:
- Conduct Research and Discovery: We researched existing children's cabinet models nationwide and interviewed their conveners to gather insights on launching and sustaining effective collaborative spaces that provide resources and support to children and families. Their experiences informed our recommendations for a children’s cabinet structure in Spartanburg.
- Create a Strategic Foundation: We identified key initiatives and priorities for the cabinet to focus on beyond the design phase, establishing a strategic foundation for future implementation.
Ultimately, the project established a foundation for the cabinet's long-term success, providing a roadmap for Phase 2 of the work: selecting and organizing diverse community stakeholders into a cohesive cabinet and officially launching in 2026.
Early Childhood Development
| Project Name | Scope | Location | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reshaping Leadership in Early Childhood: Designing The Small Magic Provider Council in Alabama | County | AL | Complete |
| Third Sector collaborated with Small Magic, an early childhood nonprofit, to establish a Provider Council. This involved creating a sustainable governance framework, establishing decisionmaking protocols, and implementing efficient communication channels. The project successfully built a strategic foundation, outlining a clear path for future implementation and ensuring the cabinet's sustained effectiveness. This council will function as a coordinated body, fostering cross-sector collaboration among local community partners and providers, with the goal of enhancing outcomes for children and families in Jefferson County, Alabama. | |||
| Engaging Local Communities to Strengthen Early Childhood Care and Education Across Minnesota | State | MN | Complete |
| Third Sector partnered with SRI Education to support the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families in its work to strengthen local early childhood care and education systems. Working in seven communities across the state, we launched a series of “Mixed-Delivery Action Labs” that enabled local child care, public health, business, and community leaders to collaboratively develop solutions to child care challenges. | |||
