Family Forward NC® Certified Community Campaign
Learn More about Family Forward NC® Community Certification
Join us in leading the charge toward family-friendly workplaces and communities.
Introduction
The North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation (NCECF) seeks applications from organizations interested in co-creating a campaign in their community to increase the number of employers who provide family-friendly workplace benefits and to work towards a Family Forward NC® Certified Community. This project aims to enhance the capacity of employers to adopt and community coalitions to promote family-friendly workplace policies, ultimately improving the health and well-being of children and the economic stability of North Carolina’s families.
This project is funded by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health, to prevent violence and abuse by advancing health equity and improving economic supports such as paid leave, health and wellness benefits, and family-sustaining wages.
Background
The Family Forward NC (FFNC) initiative engages employers to incorporate research-based, family-friendly policies that improve recruitment, retention, and productivity, all while supporting children’s healthy development. This includes key workplace policies such as paid parental and family leave, paid sick leave, on-site childcare, support for breastfeeding parents, and flexible work scheduling. We inspire the public and private sectors to address employment barriers through a child well-being lens. We provide employers, nonprofits, and decision-makers the resources, tools, and expertise that contribute to creating competitive businesses and strong families.
Employers can apply for a Family Forward NC® Certification, which verifies and designates that they offer family-friendly policies and benefits. This campaign seeks to expand family-friendly workplaces across North Carolina through a community-wide certification strategy. A Family Forward NC® Certified Community is created through a partnership between NCECF and local leaders who will educate, engage, and motivate employers within their own community to offer family-friendly workplaces and become Family Forward NC® Certified Employers. In aggregate, a large number of certified employers represent a meaningful number of employees in a community with access to family-friendly workplaces.
The Future Ready Greensboro campaign successfully became the first Family Forward NC® Certified Community in April 2025. By the end of the campaign, 82 employers were certified, representing 46,500 employees. The campaign is in partnership with NCECF and locally led by the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, Action Greensboro, and a Steering Committee that represents private employers, nonprofit organizations, and funders.
Purpose and Approach
We seek interested community partners with the capacity to co-create a Family Forward NC® Certified Community campaign. Community partners and NCECF will collaborate in defining the campaign goals.
The application, due on June 26, is the first step in the process. After a review of applications, NCECF will hold a series of meetings to further discuss applications and answer questions from applicants.
Applicants will be evaluated on:
- Diversity of community partners (cross-sector, nonprofits, for-profits, etc.)
- Relevant experience
- Capacity to lead a campaign (e.g. capabilities for local outreach, fundraising, marketing, etc.)
- Knowledge of:
- the local business community
- the local early childhood and education advocates
- Familiarity with organizations working to prevent sexual and domestic violence, and child abuse and neglect
- Approach to connecting and working with community partners
A community or communities will be selected in August. A response to the offer will be due in September. Work will begin in October through shared learning and finish in June 2027.
Join us for an information session and get details on how to apply. Register for one of these sessions below.
Ready to get started? Apply today!
Applications are due by June 26, 2026. Please click here to view a pdf of the application before submitting your information below.
The application period has closed.