About us
The early years are a great opportunity to build children’s health, development and learning.
Children thrive when their parents are supported, especially in a child’s early years – the fastest period of brain growth.
The Bright Tomorrows initiative was formed to give parents, carers and others who care about or for children some of the tools they need to give all children the best start to life.
Underpinned by the latest child development science, Bright Tomorrows aims to build community understanding about the amazing potential of a baby’s developing brain and to provide expert advice and evidence-based tools to support children’s health, development and learning.
The Bright Tomorrows Start Today public awareness campaign challenges community thinking about how babies’ brains develop while the Bright Tomorrows parenting app gives families tailor-made tips (called moments) which will enhance their children’s development of key life skills during everyday activities.
The campaign
The Bright Tomorrows Start Today campaign uses communication science to increase public understanding about how children’s brains develop through repeated, active engagement and interaction – called meaningful moments – with their family and other special people in their lives.
Central to the campaign is Bobbie, an engaging blue creature designed to show the remarkable amount of growth and activity occurring in a baby’s brain – lighting up in response to quality engagement with others.
How do you show the amazing activity that happens in a baby’s brain in those precious early years…? You create a remarkable little creature.
The app
By spending meaningful moments with children, parents and other caregivers including the wider community, can play a very important role in developing a child’s key skills for life — skills that will assist them to navigate emotions, frustrations and day to day challenges. The Bright Tomorrows app provides tailor-made information to help give children the best start in life and also to help app users further develop their own life skills.
Built in partnership with Vroom, the Bezos Family Foundation and the Raising Children’s Network, the app includes over 1000 fun activities (called moments) for parents to do with their child as well as tips for parents that turn everyday moments into brain building opportunities.
The science
Advances in neuroscience show that babies’ little brains are abuzz with activity with up to a million nerve connections triggered every second in response to voices, smiles and meaningful interactions or moments.
Repeated, these connections form pathways that shape their thinking and emotional patterns for life and influence their approach to learning, relationships and tackling challenges.
This astonishing brain development in the first three years of life is an important opportunity to build a strong foundation for life.
Positive relationships and experiences with the adults and others in their lives, drive positive development.
Our partners
Vroom
Vroom believes all parents want what’s best for their children. So they joined with scientists, researchers, and parents to take the science out of the lab and put it in the hands of caregivers. Vroom provides science-based tips and tools that show how easy and fun it is to turn shared, everyday moments into Brain Building Moments. Learn more at Vroom.org. Vroom is a program of the Bezos Family Foundation.
Raising Children’s Network
Raisingchildren.net.au is a free, reliable and regularly updated website that covers all bases for parents – from pregnancy and birth to raising teens. Designed for busy families, it houses articles, videos and resources on hundreds of topics. Its trusted information is reviewed by experts, based on evidence and tailored to different ages and stages. Raisingchildren.net.au helps families grow and thrive together, giving parents information they need at times and places that suit them. It is a non-commercial site funded by the Australian Government.
Better Beginnings
An initiative of the State Library of Western Australia, Better Beginnings is a state-wide family literacy program that supports and involves parents in their child’s early literacy learning from birth. The program encourages parents to share books, songs and rhymes every day with their child from birth, to support them in building the early literacy skills their child needs to become a good reader, and be ready to succeed to their fullest potential at school and throughout their lives.