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Good Beginnings Partnership for Hawaii’s Keiki
Ko’olau Loa

Ko`olau Loa's vision is to create a community where ohana are engaged in opportunities for wellness, happiness and success for their keiki ages prenatal to 5 years.  Long-term goals include creating an effective continuum on existing early childhood services, families being motivated to make positive changes for their children and the community rallying around early childhood issues. Ko'olau Loa's early efforts will focus on:

• ensuring family members are aware and can access available resources,
• new early childhood leaders are identified and nurtured,
• early childhood efforts are coordinated and sustained at the community level through Na Lei Malama, a collaborative of community members interested in early childhood education and care, and
• Na Lei Malama encourages and supports parent involvement.
  

Our PHK Ko’olau Loa effort has three main thrusts for its community to ensure that our keiki are safe, healthy and ready to succeed.  They are:

• System changes – In Ko’olau Loa we recognize that our early childhood services and programs need to be integrated and collaborative to help us better identify gaps in our delivery of these services.  We also want to create a seamless continuum of care to ensure that all of our keiki prenatal to five years of age, have the best opportunities for a great beginning.  Through the committed efforts of local leaders and major stakeholders in the community coupled with an effective strategic plan, we look forward to seeing great things happen in the near future.
  
  
• Leadership Development and Advocacy – Our goal is to build a grassroots leadership network for our keiki and their families.  Na Lei Malama (The Lei of Care) a group of early childhood education and care leaders, health and community service provider was formed for that very purpose.  We more individuals speaking out, more people being leaders where they stand, more leaders caring about what is happening in Ko’olau Loa so that we can ensure a better, healthier and safe tomorrow for our youngest keiki.  We also need to focus on the ohana (family), who are the primary care givers of our precious keiki.  PHK Ko’olau Loa believes that if our ohana acquire the right tools, and are knowledgeable about the importance of the first five years, they will nurture, love and encourage the healthy development of their keiki.  The possibilities are beyond exciting. The Ohana is the key to sustaining our community efforts.
  
  
• Public Awareness – PHK Ko’olau Loa continues to find every opportunity to demonstrate the need for better programs and services that support the healthy development of our keiki and their families.  We have developed a community-wide strategic plan to initiate the beginning of a new tomorrow.  We want the entire community to know all about our initiative.  We will encourage our leaders to take a strong stand on improving every keiki’s well being.  We will provide numerous opportunities for individuals to become leaders. 

Community Calendar

Na Lei Malama (The Lei of Care) meets the first Tuesday of the month, at 12:00 noon in the

Punaluu QLCC Conference Room.  (Na Lei Malama is the early education and care provider and parent organization in Ko’olau Loa.)

Ke Ala Hou (The New Path) meets quarterly.  Meeting sites and times change, please call the PKH Ko’olau facilitator for more information.  (Ke Ala Hou is the strategic planning committee of Na Lei Malama that initiated the Theory of Change process in Ko’olau Loa.)

For more information, please contact Amy Cardamone at acc@goodbeginnings.org.