Striving for excellence with the support of community-driven partnerships

No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

As I’m sure is the case for many of you, in January my thoughts often turn to the fresh, new year before me and what I’m hoping to accomplish personally and professionally in the coming months. Often, this reflection includes considering a word or phrase that I hope will be emblematic of my organizational leadership in the year ahead.

In 2025, I’ve selected the word excellence. The term excellence, by its very nature, implies a standard. It suggests that any effort you undertake isn’t a simple “yes/no” binary where not doing the work is failure and doing the work is success. Success on this standard is dependent not on simply doing a thing, but on doing it well. Excellence in leadership means demonstrating courage in the face of uncertainty, resilience in the face of setbacks, and integrity in the face of difficult decisions.

For over 35 years, NCFL has set a standard of excellence in the field of family literacy and family learning. As expressed in our heart principles, excellence is a key component of fostering transformational family-friendly spaces. Pursuing that standard of excellence has been an ongoing choice that requires commitment not just to the work itself, but to how that work is carried out in communities across this nation. At NCFL, we strive to do this significant work with the painstaking excellence it deserves.

A key part of the formula for excellence at NCFL is the importance we place on partnerships and how vital these partners are in accomplishing real transformation within a community. We are keenly aware that the kind of systemic change we’re seeking is not something that we can achieve on our own. On-the-ground partners know families and communities best, are uniquely attuned to the needs of those they serve, and have built the relational trust that enables new policy and programming to flourish. I’m reminded of NCFL’s founder, Sharon Darling, and her words in the 2019 book Grit, Grace, and Gratitude: “Families have always been the spark and ignition for NCFL. It is my hope that the organization exists and persists because of an unwavering commitment to families and a deep belief that education is the way out of generational poverty.”

I want to take a moment to highlight a few of these partners and work that they’re doing alongside children and families across the country.

In North Carolina, we’re partnering with Book Harvest as part of our Statewide Family Engagement Center (SFEC) efforts. As a key partner in implementing the activities of the SFEC, Book Harvest is collecting and distributing books to help build the early literacy skills of North Carolina families. NCFL staff got to see their efforts first hand recently during the organization’s annual Dream Big Book Drive, which brought together over 1,000 people to celebrate literacy and collect new and gently used books that will be distributed to children across the state. Since 2011, Book Harvest has provided more than 2 million books to North Carolina families, ensuring that parents have the tools and power to ignite and strengthen their children’s literacy.

North Carolina families attend Book Harvest’s Dream Big Book Drive in Durham.
North Carolina families attend Book Harvest’s Dream Big Book Drive in Durham.

NCFL is working alongside Black Parent Network in Colorado, a parent-led, grassroots organization committed to fostering relationships in the state’s schools and communities. As a partner with NCFL through the Colorado Family Engagement Collaborative (CO SFEC), Black Parent Network is focusing specifically on the education needs and other Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) of Black parents and students. The organization recently celebrated the election of one of their parent participants as an Assemblyman for the Aurora District, and is launching work in Denver Public Schools to focus on engaging the voices and leadership of Black parents.

In Nebraska, NCFL partners with the Learning Community of Douglas and Sarpy Counties. Together with school districts and community organizations, the Learning Community demonstrates, shares, and implements more effective practices to measurably improve educational outcomes for children and families in poverty. From Parent University to instructional coaching to Jump Start to Kindergarten, the Learning Community’s results show the value of engaging families and building opportunities around shared strengths through their work in more than 90 schools across the state.

Photo courtesy of Learning Community of Douglas and Sarpy Counties.
Photo courtesy of Learning Community of Douglas and Sarpy Counties.

Here in our hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, NCFL has a long history of collaborating with Backside Learning Center, offering family literacy programming and parenting groups to the diverse community of racetrack workers and their families. In addition to these and other educational programs, the organization provides health, wellness, and human services, and more, serving as a community center and “home away from home” for the backside community. Family learning is a pivotal part of their work and has successfully created a sense of belonging and community through their programming. In fact, they’ve been so successful at building a sense of social connection for participants that a parent group that started a 10-week program together in 2023 is still meeting today to discuss their parenting goals.

These four organizations represent a small fraction of NCFL’s dedicated family learning partners across the country, but each is an integral part of NCFL’s pursuit of excellence in family learning. Models and programming can be powerful tools for change, but they fall short when they’re used as cookie-cutter solutions. When local voices and local partners are part of the equation, these tools can be tailored to community need in ways that transcend simple program implementation and instead achieve systems transformation through community-driven effort that honors the lived-experience of children and families.

Are you a part of a community organization seeking to deepen the impact of your education work through partnerships? We’d love to hear from you. Visit familieslearning.org/contact to get started.

About the Author

As President and CEO of the National Center for Families Learning, Dr. Felicia C. Smith brings decades of valuable experience to advance NCFL’s mission of eradicating poverty through education solutions for families. She is a firm believer in the power of family literacy and family learning for multi-generational impact, transforming the lives of families and communities.

Smith has served in a variety of leadership roles in P-12, higher education, nonprofits, and philanthropy. Her unique vantage point of a learner’s educational trajectory, from preschool to adulthood, is a result of her experience leading across multiple education systems. Recognized as an Aspen-Pahara education fellow, she serves on several local and national boards. She also holds the position of Vice Chair for the Southern Regional Education Board and was appointed by Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear to chair the state’s Early Childhood Advisory Council. In 2021, Smith participated in The Equity Lab’s prestigious year-long Nexus Fellowship.

Smith holds an Ed.D. in education leadership and administration from the University of Kentucky, an M.A. in elementary education with an emphasis on K-12 literacy development, and a B.S. in elementary education from the University of Louisville.

Follow Dr. Felicia C. Smith on X or LinkedIn.