Good Beginnings Big Island Council

The Big Island Good Beginnings Alliance Community Council (BIGBACC) is part of the statewide Good Beginnings Initiative. BIGBACC is a voluntary council of parents, early childhood providers, schools, and community groups established to work together for quality early childhood education and care for Hawaii’s families with children, from birth to eight years. BIGBACC has prioritized increasing the quality of early childhood programs and bringing more families into the system as this year's focus. Raising the educational levels of early childhood practitioners and providing more information to parents about child development are two ways to help move our Big Island children closer to being "safe, healthy and ready to succeed".

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Big Island Good Beginnings Alliance Community Council’s Vision:

Through using the four “C’s”, the Big Island Good Beginnings Alliance Community Council envisions:

• A place where families can afford quality care in convenient locations


• An increase in licensed infant care


• An improvement in professional training options for its early childhood workforce


• Greater access to early childhood information for parents, families and other consumers


• Better coordination of early childhood resources and services throughout the island

The Community Council meets every other month throughout the year.

East Hawaii Early Childhood Providers Hui (TITAS)
A subcommittee of BIGBACC, the TITAS meet monthly in Hilo. Initially, the group met to network and stay in touch with BIGBACC and broader early childhood happenings. However, the group has since identified a project – primarily a transition project in collaboration with 4 DOE elementary schools – and has submitted and been funded a Hawaii P-3 Initiative grant. Their project, Transitional Instruction to Access Success, kicked off in February of 2008 with an early registration for kindergarten marketing campaign.

Community Council Projects Include:

Our P-3 Initiative, Transitional Instruction to Access Success (TITAS), is a project to support transition to kindergarten, realize our various roles in a child’s developmental continuum towards literacy, and communication and collaboration between preschool and kindergarten teachers, all in a realm of cultural competence.

The Baby Steps to Stronger Big Island Families project includes the delivery of a newborn basket to all babies and their families through island hospitals. Originally started as a drug-prevention strategy, the inclusion of an infant front-pack carrier supports bonding which can lead to higher self-esteem in the child and lowers the risk of anti-social behaviors later in life. The basket also includes a resource directory (created by a BIGBACC team) specific to Hawaii Island that assists in connecting families to services and programs. This project has been funded by a number of partners including KTA SuperStores, Ace Hardware/Ben Franklin, the North Hawaii Drug-Free Coalition, Kamehameha Schools and a State of Hawaii Grant-in-Aid.

The Baby Steps program also led to a connection with the Children’s Research Triangle in Chicago where Dr. Ira Chasnoff has developed a model for improving birth outcomes for children specific to the prevention of prenatal use of drugs and alcohol. A Leadership Institute was convened here to develop a local version of his model and implementation of the Upstream Solutions program began in December of 2007.

Another project was the first collaborative early childhood providers’ conference which was held in April of 2008. A joint effort by a number of partner organizations, the conference titled “On the Wings of Change” focused on transitions and drew participants from a wider sector of early childhood practitioners. Participation increased by about 40% over previous years. Workshops were planned to meet the needs and interests of home visitors, playgroup facilitators, family child care providers and teachers – both preschool and elementary. Next year’s conference is scheduled for May 8 and 9, 2009.

Our public awareness efforts have been in effect for about 7 years now. Beginning with the West Hawaii Today, we have been running a monthly article on parenting or child development. Supported by ads from partners, this page reaches about 16,000 homes each month. Expansion to the larger East Hawaii newspaper began in 2006 with the help of Kamehameha Schools who sponsors the monthly page in the Hawaii Tribune Herald. In North Hawaii, a weekly column, Baby Steps, has been written by the coordinator for almost three years now, and runs in the North Hawaii News. The relationships we have built with the media help get the word out about our efforts, and helps build public will about the importance of the early years.

In 2004, Concordia University’s distance learning program was brought to the Big Island. A local residency started students in a BA and an MA program in Early Childhood Education. Normally a student needs to go to the campus in Minnesota to attend a residency, but through a grant from the Cooke Family Foundation we were able to bring the faculty here. Since then, 18 people have completed their program and received their degrees. In May of 2008, we again offered this opportunity to students from across the state to attend their residency on Hawaii Island and to begin their programs. Fifteen new students are now enrolled in an MA program. Kamehameha School partnered with BIGBACC on this effort.

How Does Big Island Good Beginnings Help Parents, Practitioners and Communities? By Providing:

Child development technical assistance and information

Networking opportunities for programs and projects

Mentoring to students studying early childhood

Support on collaborative grant proposals

Leadership in the development of ideas, projects, events

Providing advertising opportunities on a page specific to the target group

By participating in Big Island Good Beginnings you can:

Learn more about child development

Share and encourage others to understand the importance of the first five years of a
child’s life

Provide support and direction for your community

Be informed about the latest trends and issues relating to early childhood, health
and family

Provide support for legislative issues and become an advocate for our keiki

For more information, please contact:

Angela Thomas, M. A. Ed.
Big Island County Coordinator
P.O. Box 6376
Kamuela, HI 96743
Tel: (808) 887-1228