Our Story. Our People. Our Purpose.

Great Kids empowers families and professionals with practical, research-based tools and trainings to foster strong connections, support resilience, and promote healthy development.

Our Story. Our People. Our Purpose.

Great Kids empowers families and professionals with practical, research-based tools and trainings to foster strong connections, support resilience, and promote healthy development.

Our Story

More than 25 years of strengthening families and helping children thrive.

Great Kids began with a simple but powerful idea: supporting caregivers and strengthening relationships can help create better outcomes for children.

In the 1970s and 1980s, our founders helped pioneer innovative home visiting approaches designed to support families and prevent child abuse and neglect. Their work laid the foundation for what would become Great Kids, which was officially established in 1999.

Since then, Great Kids has continued to grow and evolve alongside the needs of the field. From our early home visiting work and conversation-based curricula to digital learning, professional development, and resources that reach beyond traditional home visiting, we have continued to find new ways to put what we know into practice.

At the heart of that evolution is our ability to translate research on relationships, child development, resilience, and trauma into practical, strengths-based tools that professionals and caregivers can use in everyday life. This connection between research and real-world practice has remained a defining part of who we are, even as the audiences we serve and the ways we deliver our work have grown.

Our story continues. Today, we are bringing that same approach to new audiences, settings, and ways of learning, while staying grounded in what has always guided us: strengthening relationships and helping children and families thrive. By listening to our partners, embracing new ideas, and making evidence-based practices practical and accessible, we can continue helping more professionals, caregivers, and families create the relationships and environments children need to feel safe, secure, loved, valued, curious, and capable.

Read our Legacy

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1970s

The field of home visiting was taking shape in the U.S., and our founders were at the forefront. They created a demonstration program in Hawaii focused on supporting parents and preventing child abuse and neglect. The program was successful and demonstrated the power of supporting parents and strengthening relationships to help prevent child abuse and neglect.

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1989

On December 17, The New York Times featured the success of the Hawaii program, bringing national attention to its approach. Soon after, hundreds gathered for a conference in Hawaii to learn how to support families using this new model. Growing demand led the team to develop Training and Technical Assistance services, laying the foundation for what would become Great Kids, Inc.

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1997

The founders traveled to the Philippines to provide consultation services to the Consuelo Zobel Alger Foundation. Their work highlighted the need for practical conversational guidance to help home visitors apply what they learned in the field. This led to the creation of conversation guides and the first version of what would become the Great Kids curriculum.

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1990s

In the late 1990s, the Growing Great Kids (GGK) curriculum was developed while the founders worked at the Family Support Center at Hawaii’s Kapiʻolani Hospital. While other home visiting curricula existed, GGK brought a focus on attachment and emerging neurobiological research into the field. This approach became a defining part of the curriculum and its work with families.

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1999

As demand for Great Kids’ training and curriculum grew, the founders officially formed Great Kids, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to providing training and resources to home visiting programs. To secure the rights to the curriculum they had developed at Kapiʻolani Medical Center, they took out a loan using their homes as collateral. And just like that, Great Kids was born.

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2000

The first Growing Great Kids trainer was certified, expanding Great Kids’ ability to bring its training and curriculum to professionals in the field. These early trainings also led to some of Great Kids’ first lasting partnerships.

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2010

Great Kids officially opened its first office with a team of five employees, marking a new chapter in the organization’s growth.

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2020

Great Kids released the Next Generation version of the Growing Great Kids curriculum, incorporating the latest research and continuing the tradition of regularly updating its manuals. When the world went virtual, Great Kids quickly adapted, shifting from primarily in-person training to online learning and support.

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TODAY

Great Kids has grown beyond its early home visiting roots, expanding its team, offerings, and ways of supporting professionals and families. Today, we support program leaders, frontline professionals, healthcare and wellness teams, and those who serve families every day through research and evidence-based training, curricula, digital tools, and professional development.

Our Mission, Vision & Values

Our mission and values guide how we support children, families, and the professionals who serve them. They shape the work we do, the partnerships we build, and how we continue to grow.

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