The following programs are making a difference in Alaska. Please note, this is as an informational resource only. Best Beginnings may not be associated with these programs, and inclusion on this list does not constitute an endorsement.

Alaska National Guard Child and Youth Program
The deployment of military service members has a significant impact on families, especially with young children. In this month's spotlight, the Alaska National Guard Child and Youth Program helps families cope with the absence of a loved one through unique national and local programs or services designed to help make the transition easier.

CCS Early Learning
CCS Early Learning is a community-based, nonprofit organization that has been delivering high quality early child development programs in Southcentral Alaska since 1971. Using the Head Start model of early childhood education, CCS serves 240 children ages 3 to 5 in Chugiak, Meadow Lakes, Wasilla and Palmer. The program is free to foster children, children from low-income families and children with a diagnosed special need.

Ciuliqagtekaput
In Yup'ik, Ciuliqagtekaput is "Our Future Leaders." It is also the namesake of an organization aimed at improving school readiness in several remote villages near Bethel. Federally funded,Ciuliqagtekaput cultivates intergenerational and early learning and developing literacy skills through traditional dance, storytelling, and song. Throughout this process, there is also a sense of reclaiming traditions and instilling traditional Yup'ik values.

First Book Rural Alaska
First Book Rural Alaska is designed to support existing literacy programs in Southwestern, Interior, and Far North rural communities addressing one of the most important factors affecting literacy – access to books. In March 2009, they launched a month-long fundraiser through a unique collaboration with makers of an Alaska staple to buy books for children in rural Alaska.  

Grandfamilies Network Project
In Alaska, more than 5,000 grandparents are raising their grandchildren, often in situations where parents are unable to provide them with proper care. The Volunteers of America Grandfamilies Network Project assists grandparents who take on this role, helping children find stability, feel safe and nurtured despite their situations. To foster early learning, families receive age-appropriate books and have access to libraries of books that will help children identify with their situations and learn how to verbalize their emotions.

Juneau Montessori School
At any given time at Juneau Montessori School you may find a child busy at an easel painting, tracing letters in a sandbox, or even baking fresh bread. The Montessori Method, an educational approach that focuses on independent, less structured learning, encourages children at an individual pace while providing a support system that works for the parent too.

Kachemak Kids Early Learning Center
When a coalition of Homer citizens surveyed their community, they found a big need for child care. So a diverse group - including educators, business owners, child care providers, parents, and non-parents - started a grassroots effort to open a cooperative child care and preschool program that strives to balance affordable tuition and wages for child care providers.

RurAL CAP Parents as Teachers
In 2007, Rural Alaska Community Action Program (RurAL CAP) Parents as Teachers (PAT) program served 343 families in 17 communities across Alaska. Through certified parent educators, parents obtain resources to help them through each stage of their child's development and learn how to capture teachable moments in everyday life that will enhance their children's language development, intellectual growth, social development, and motor skills.

Strengthening Families
A national initiative called Strengthening Families is helping families develop attributes that help them weather the stresses of contemporary life. Bristol Bay Native Association’s Head Start Fatherhood Program and Fairbanks Open Arms Child Development Center are two great examples of how the initiative works through existing early childhood programs.

Yuut Elitnaurviat (Yuut)
With a median age around 20 and one of the highest birth rates in the nation, jobs associated with the care and development of young children in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Region are plentiful. Expanding educational facilities for early childhood teaching and offering child care for students is a vision for Yuut Elitnaurviat (Yuut).

The articles above appeared in one of Best Beginnings E-newsletters. Please refer to our Content Reproduction Policy if you are interested in reproducing content provided on this Web site.