Updates from our four counties regarding projects, activities, and funding commitments.
Updates as of March/April 2024
2024 Priorities
Hawai‘i County
- Building capacity for early childhood
- Increasing quantity and quality of workforce
- Piloting community-driven initiatives
Honolulu County
- Infants and Toddlers
- Talk-story sessions with child care providers to shape support for them
- Enhanced community-based initiatives to connect families with early childhood resources
- Implementation of family engagement programs for families experiencing residential instability
- Fund development
Kaua‘i County
- Renovations to the Pi‘ikoi Building (Old Big Save space) for use of the space for early childhood education
- Support of LG Luke’s Ready Keiki initiative and hope for use of one of their upcoming affordable housing projects in Līhu‘e as a potential location for an ECE facility
- Participation in the Keiki to Career Leadership Council
Maui County
- Early Childhood Workforce Development
- Early Childhood Family Literacy
- Family Support Services, including the Early Childhood Resource Center
- Subsidy Assistance for Childcare
- Parent Education
Updates
Hawai‘i County
Updated March 2024
- Early Childhood Resource Team has received employment commitment for the next three years
- Preparing RFPs for ARPA funding distribution
- Continue to meet with various groups to share Community Profile data on the status of young children and their families on Hawai‘i Island
- Beginning to plan a third conference for September of 2024
- Reach Out and Read continues to expand to more clinics across Hawai‘i County
- Hawai‘i County is providing scholarships with Chaminade University and Hawai‘i Community College for ECE classes for Hawai‘i Island practitioners
Honolulu County
Updated July 2024
- The City owns two sites with affordable housing projects with co-located childcare facilities.
- Parkway Village in Kapolei includes space for six early learning classrooms including one trauma-informed preschool classroom and one family child interaction learning program.
- In Kunia, five childcare classrooms are included in the early design plans.
- The City provides over $193,000 annually for housing vouchers for survivors of domestic violence.
- The City was recently awarded $3 million dollars for the acquisition of property for the purpose of housing domestic violence survivors.
- The Grants in Aid Advisory Commission recommended a total of $9.9 million in grants, of which $2.2 million is to be awarded to programs focusing on children.
- With the addition of a new Early Childhood Resource Coordinator, the administration has worked to build its capacity and will be adding a new Office Assistant immediately to the Coordinator’s team. The City’s total personnel funds solely dedicated to early childhood now total $160k.
- In her first 3 months, the Coordinator has spearheaded the application for two substantial grants that would potentially secure an additional $1.2 million to bolster family engagement and access to early learning opportunities and expand the first-ever ECE apprenticeship program in the State.
- The City’s Coordinator is also leading the charge in engaging childcare professionals through a series of stakeholder sessions. These stakeholder sessions will be instrumental in shaping the City’s 3-year Early Childhood Action Plan. This plan is being crafted with the Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Framework as the foundation.
For more details on the City and County of Honolulu’s efforts, click here.
Kaua‘i County
Updated March 2024
- County of Kaua‘i Chief of Staff continues to work closely with Alanna Bauman, ECE System Coordinator from Kaua’i Planning & Action Alliance on Early Childhood priorities
- The Kaua‘i ECE Conference was held on February 17, 2024
- The Kaua‘i Parent & Child Fair will be on Saturday, April 13, 2024. There will be over 30 agencies providing important information about their programs, services, and safety precautions for infants, toddlers, preschool students, children with special needs, and kindergarten students living in Kaua‘i
- The Kaua’i County Community Profile is under development and projected for completion in May
Maui County
Updated April 2024
- The Maui County Early Childhood Resource Coordinator (ECRC) is a General Funded Position under the Department of Housing and Human Concerns
- The FY24 budget was increased to just over 2 million dollars for EC programs. For FY25 a flat budget was submitted. Focus areas of funding are:
- Early Childhood Workforce Development;
- Early Childhood Family Literacy;
- Family Support Services including the Early Childhood Resource Center;
- Subsidy Assistance for Childcare; and
- Parent Education
- Implemented the Reach Out and Read program at six sites and will soon expand to three more sites
- Wildfires on Maui significantly impacted Maui residents. 275 licensed child care seats were lost. Recent numbers show that just under 200 keiki under age five remain in non-congregate (converted hotel) shelters
- By Maui County ECRC request, ECAS provided backbone support to request funding as the umbrella organization for the SERG grant because the turnaround time was too short; ECAS also requested a position from HCF to support the County Coordinator
- Currently one Headstart classroom (20 preschool seats) has reopened in Lahaina, with a few more targeted to open in August. Two infant-toddler classrooms are targeted to open in April
2024 Hawai‘i State Association of Counties Conference
On September 19, 2024, Commit to Keiki presented a panel discussion at the 2024 Hawai‘i State Association of Counties Conference. All four county representatives for early childhood came together to share valuable insights into what each county is doing to increase investments in keiki development, increase access to quality early learning programs, and strengthen connections to community resources.
