The Hawaii Family Support Institute is a not-for-profit organization. For a list of our Directors and Advisors, please click here.

The Mission

We advocate for integrated best practices to prevent and treat child abuse and neglect

The Goal

The goal of the Institute is to significantly reduce child abuse among young children in Hawaii over the next decade through effective prevention and early intervention services.

The Program

The Institute will strive to promote greater effectiveness of child abuse prevention and intervention programs through support for research-based programs, evaluation of promising interventions, showcasing best practice within Hawaii and Healthy Families America programs and advocacy for widespread implementation of successful interventions. By supporting programs to be highly effective, child abuse and neglect can be averted or the severity of abuse reduced.

The History

The Hawaii Family Support Institute is a successor organization to the Hawaii Family Support Center. The Hawaii Family Support Center provided leadership and advocacy for nearly three decades in development of prevention programs in Hawaii, on the mainland U.S and internationally. Highlights of achievements include:

· Established the first risk screening and preventive home visiting programs for families at risk on Oahu; provided consultation and training in replicating these services to establish family support programs in Hilo, Kona and on Maui, Molokai, Kauai.

· Piloted the highly successful Healthy Start program in Ewa.

· Developed the also innovative Mother Infant Support Team to serve families of newborns at threatened harm levels of risk

· Led a consortium of agencies to plan and successfully advocate for a state-wide Healthy Start program; provided consultation and training in expansion of Healthy Start to most communities state-wide.

· Collaborated with Prevent Child Abuse America to launch and develop Healthy Families America.

For further information, contact Gail Breakey at (808) 585-5990.