Walking the Walk was a three-year project that worked to improve recruitment, preparation, and support of culturally and linguistically diverse workforce serving young children and their families in North Carolina. Walking the Walk worked with six NC counties (Wake, Durham, Orange, Chatham, Guilford, and Forsyth) and one state-level team including representatives from NC Public Schools and the NC Department of Health and Human Services.

Some 40-60 early childhood leaders from each community developed priorities for change and identified an Action Team of twelve committed individuals who attended Walking the Walk institutes. Institutes provided opportunities for teams to discuss in depth each community’s identified priorities for change and decide upon ways they can assist in making changes happen. Participants discovered new methods, models, and materials from national and state presenters. Areas addressed included bilingual and multicultural education, infusing diversity into the curriculum, recruiting and preparing culturally diverse students, and family/inter-professional collaboration. Teams also worked together on creating Action Plans to implement these new ideas in their home communities.