Bristol Bay Early Learning Opportunities Village Planning Project

Project Date: 2003-2004
Project Manager: Thea Agnew Bemben
Client: Bristol Bay Native Association
Location: Togiak, New Stuyahok, Manokotak, Dillingham, Koliganek, Chignik Lake, Clark's Point and Pilot Point

Due to the small size of most rural Alaska communities, providing center-based early childhood programs is a significant challenge. In 2003, the Bristol Bay Native Association hired Agnew::Beck to create and facilitate a planning process to help villages improve early learning opportunities for pre-school age children.

Agnew::Beck's work on the project started with research on existing programs and facilities to determine how best to integrate new services. The planned construction of Family Resource Centers in six of the eight villages significantly affected the plans for this project. The first result of this process was a workbook used for village level planning. The workbook and a series of community workshops resulted in specific plans for each community, published on the Bristol Bay Kids website allowing these and other rural villages to take advantage of the project's results.

This project has had several key outcomes:

• Early Learning Plans for eight villages published in print and web-based formats
• Regional Community Assessment of key demographic and socioeconomic data for the eight Early Learning villages
• 'Bristol Bay Kids' website that includes resources for parents and caregivers, all the planning tools for this project, and 'village snapshots' that tell the story of each village to the outside world.
• Regional collaboration to assist villages in achieving goals