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Executive Summary 19Growing Up Well: Supporting Young Children’s Social-Emotional Development and Mental Health in North Carolina Ensuring a Well-Prepared Workforce Young children and their families interact with people with multiple professional backgrounds and training. However, the Task Force recognized that two groups of trained professionals, health care professionals and those involved in early care and education, are uniquely involved in the social-emotional development of young children. Individuals in these workforces come from diverse backgrounds with varying education and training requirements. There is a need to ensure that these professionals understand the importance of social-emotional development and how to foster such development. In varying capacities, these professionals must be prepared to identify and meet the social-emotional and mental health needs of young children and their families. Much more could be done to ensure these professionals have the understanding, knowledge, and skills required to promote young children’s social-emotional development and to intervene when development lags or veers off course. Recommendation 2.4: Increase Understanding of the Role of Social-Emotional Development Among Early Care and Education Professionals The ECAC should ensure that funding for early educator development and quality improvement through the Early Learning Challenge Grant is maintained. Additional efforts should be made to align early educator professional development standards at the pre-service, in-service, and continuing education levels with the Early Learning Development Standards. Specifically, there should be an increased focus on the social-emotional domain of development. Recommendation 2.5: Address Clinical Workforce Development Needs The North Carolina Infant/Child Mental Health Association should work with DMA, in collaboration with DMH/DD/SAS, DPH, DSS, the University of North Carolina System, the Area Health Education Centers, and others to identify training needs and to address barriers to developing an effective mental health workforce which meets the clinical needs of young children ages 0-5 and their families. Conclusion Young children’s social-emotional development and mental health influence every critical developmental task of the first five years whether physical, cognitive, linguistic, or social-emotional. Positive social-emotional development and mental health provides the foundation for future development and learning. Furthermore, the absence of positive social-emotional development and mental health has been shown to have a significant negative impact on