Brighter Beginnings strengthens families by helping parents become self-sufficient so they can raise happy, healthy children.  We believe every family matters and every child deserves to have a happy, healthy future.

We focus our efforts in East Bay communities where parents and children have limited resources. Our Family Strengthening Centers are located in Oakland, Richmond and Antioch.

Brighter Beginnings embraces the Life Course philosophyof family health, in which we believe that  the health of an infant depends on the entire life development of the mother, rather than just the health of the pregnancy.  Because we know that encouraging healthy development over a child’s lifetime requires more than focusing on a mother during the sliver of her life that she’s pregnant, Brighter Beginnings takes on a long-term approach.

We also embrace the Strengthening Families model to encourage the five factors that diminish the likelihood of child abuse or neglect.  These five factors are: Parental Resilience, Social Connections, Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development, Concrete Supports in Times of Need, and Children’s Social and Emotional Competence.

Our Programs

Our clients’ everyday successes are often a direct consequence of our relationship-first, family-centric approach anchored by an intensive home visiting/case-management model. Case managers develop close and trusting relationships with families. They act as the family’s primary ally and cheerleader, working to uncover each family’s unique assets and address their distinct needs. Our core programs are:

Strengthening Families

Our comprehensive family strengthening programs ensure that all our clients receive the services that they need. 

• Black Infant Health
• Teen Family Support
• Early Head Start
• Hello Baby
• Brighter Beginnings Family Health Clinic
• RotaCare Richmond Clinic
• Mental Health Services
• Antioch First Five Center

Fatherhood

Brighter Beginnings is trailblazing a new form of family support with our Fatherhood Programs, helping teen dads prepare for the birth of their child, non-custodial dads reconnect with their children and custodial dads experience the joy of parenting.

Family Financial Fitness

Our Financial Education initiative incorporates financial literacy into every family strengthening program and provides workshops for our client-families.