Conference and Proposal System Details: 


Conference Description:


This virtual conference will include two days focused on home visiting and infant and early childhood mental health. It is the second annual combined conference presented by the the Smart Start network and the North Carolina Infant/Young Child Mental Health Association (NCIMHA), and NCIMHA’s 9th annual conference. The conference is hosted by Smart Start, NCIMHA, the UNC School of Social Work, and the North Carolina Division of Public Health.


The Conference will be held Monday, November 16, and Tuesday, November 17 virtually via Zoom through our registration platform.


This conference will strengthen the early childhood systems of care, elevate the importance of early childhood mental health, home visiting, and parenting education and expand knowledge, skills, and connections among early childhood professionals across the system.


Workshops should

  • focus on key early childhood topics and build the capacity of professionals to provide safe, nurturing environments and relationships for children 5 and under and their families,
  • demonstrate a commitment to the Diversity-Informed Tenets for Work with Infants and Families,
  • promote coordinated early childhood systems that meet the complex needs of North Carolina families and children,
  • address the economic, programmatic, and structural changes to the early childhood field, brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic 


Conference Workshop Proposal Details: 


Workshop presenters will be asked to submit a workshop session proposal in one of five focus areas. Focus areas include: 

  1. Trauma and Resilience Informed Care
  2. Practitioner Well-being
  3. Policy, Advocacy, and Efforts to Shift Public Perspective About Early Childhood, Home Visiting, Parenting Education, and Mental Health
  4. Promoting Coordination Collaboration and Best Practices Across Early Childhood Systems and Services 
  5. Telehealth and Virtual Connections with Families and Children during the Pandemic 



Potential speakers will also be asked to submit information on the following: workshop title, workshop summary, presenter bio and headshot, workshop audio-visual needs, workshop session age range, and workshop session target audience. 

Note: Workshops must be engaging and interactive. Workshops should include an understanding of systems of power, systemic and institutional racism, and root causes, and how these structures affect early childhood. Workshops should also be mindful of the changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and young children, their families, and the early childhood field have been impacted.


Submission Instructions:


Upon entering the online proposal submission system, please click on “New User: Click Here”. This is a new registration system so past log-in details for Smart Start Conferences will not work when registering. Create an account using the primary author’s name and e-mail.


Once you enter your profile information in the “My Profile” page, you can than move to the “Submissions” page. Click on the “Submissions” tab to pull up the abstract submission fields.  Click on “Add New Submission” to begin a new submission. If you plan to present more than one workshop, you have the option to submit more through your account. All submissions will be located on this page.


Note: Once you enter your profile information and the submission information, you will be taken to a final page. If you have a co-presenter, please select “additional applicants” at the top of the page (see picture within RFP for clarification). This will allow you to fill out profile information for your coauthor. Please be prepared to submit their name, their organization, their title, and a short biography.


To learn more about the workshop proposal process, please view the Conference Proposal Request process here. The RFP describes how to submit a proposal, the content the review team will be on the lookout for, and other conference submission details.


Proposal System Deadlines:


The deadline for workshop submission is September 21st at 5pm EST.
Applicants will know about their status by October 9.


If you have any questions about the workshop proposal process or the Infant and Young Child Mental Health and Home Visiting Conference, please contact Jessica Carter (jcarter@smartstart.org).