Stories of Impact - Hawaii Community Foundation

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Community Snapshots

Learn more about the people and organizations dedicated to making Hawai‘i a better place.

Leveling Up Maui’s Housing Options

A new affordable development provides one solution for helping Hawai‘i’s housing crisis.

Plans for the Office of Wellness and Resilience

Here’s what’s first on the priority list for improving child mental healthcare.

Kūpuna Care, One Volunteer at a Time

Maui nonprofit Nā Hoaloha helps keep seniors healthy and independent.

Making Hawaiian Culture a Conversation

A Kealakehe community center is making Native Hawaiian cultural practices accessible to all.

Conservation through Education

A team of volunteers is protecting Kahalu‘u Bay’s precious resources, one visitor at a time.

Bringing Women Leaders into the Circle

Wāhine Pō‘ai aims to empower women executives through peer connection.

Compassionate Interventions for Maui County Keiki

The Friends of the Children’s Justice Center of Maui offers expedited, targeted assistance to children in challenging situations.

A Generous Gift Ensures a Healthier Hawai‘i

This fund helps keep doctors practicing on Hawaii Island, reducing medical care shortages.

Hawai‘i Nonprofits Join Forces to Tackle ALICE

A new initiative uses collective action to build financial stability for Hawaiʻi families.

Fresh Start for Families at Kealaula

A new Līhuʻe housing complex offers a springboard for families transitioning out of homelessness.

Funding Hawai‘i’s Future Freshwater Resources

Watershed partnerships are helping to protect fresh water resources on Maui and across the state.

Bridging the Gap

ClimbHI connects Hawaii’s keiki to local leaders and future careers

Maui Financial Opportunity Center

Improving credit scores, managing debt, and increasing savings helps families become “home-purchase ready.”

A person smiles, standing on the porch of a modular home.

HOPE Services

Partnering with businesses to increase inventory of transportable modular houses and ensure safe housing for kupuna on Hawai‘i Island

In a garden, a blue handpainted depicts sunflowers and ladybugs. Its text reads: In our garden I will be safe, be kind, have an open mind, use my time well.

The Maui Farm

Helping at-risk women and their children unearth confidence and success.

Hui O Mana Ka Puuwai

A canoe club provides a safe space for Kaua‘i’s youth and adults while strengthening their community through partnerships.

A group of graduates in maroon graduation gowns.

Adult Friends for Youth

Counselors at this nonprofit are building relationships with young people who are struggling—and getting them back on track.

Two individuals carry bundled fishing nets and rope near water.

Maui Nui Makai Network

Seven community groups across Maui Nui are sharing their knowledge and exerting their kuleana to restore our ocean.

A mural from Kelly Sinclair Vicars features sunflowers representing the sun's path from sunrise to sunset.

Garden Island Arts Council

Mentors are helping Kaua‘i’s youth honor their own ideas and nurture their artistic side through public murals.

Looking Ahead for Hawai‘i’s Oceans

A new, community driven initiative aims to secure a resilient ocean.

Support Parents, Support Kids

A new cross-sector plan makes mental and behavioral health resources more accessible to families.

COVID-19: Stories from the Field

Learn more about the incredible work happening on the ground across our state—from nurturing the children of health care workers, to ensuring that families have food on their tables.

Keeping Connections with Health Care Providers Strong

A community health center implements virtual visits to keep residents on the west side of Hawai‘i Island healthy and well.

Giving Farmers More Assurance

A nonprofit focused on solving food security issues steps up during the pandemic shutdown to aid farmers and families in need.

Restoring Hope in Students

The Stronger Together Hawai‘i Scholarship Fund helps students achieve their dream of going to college despite the pandemic’s adverse economic effects.

Creating Collaboration

Diverse organizations demonstrate the power of partnerships to regain choice and control within their communities.

Living to Serve, Local Style

Kahua Pa‘a Mua

As the plantations and their way of life disappeared, he passed on those values as an agriculture teacher with the Hawai‘i State Department of Education. He watched many of his students grow into leaders of the community. Says David, “When you look at those leaders you go, ‘Wow, we were happy we could contribute to them.”

Creating Touchpoints in a Distanced World

Boys and Girls Club of Hawai‘i

Prior to March, Tina Albao, Kaua‘i Director of Development and Operations for the Boys and Girls Club of Hawai‘i (BGCH), ran afterschool programs at sites around the island that provided enrichment and a safe place for youth, and supported strong connections between keiki, families, and the club’s staff.

Essential Help for Essential Workers

Island of Hawai‘i YMCA

When the pandemic hit, Alena Vincent was in a bind. She had started a new job with the DMV, while her husband, Wendell, worked with the Department of Transportation.

Building the Foundation for a Stable Community

Hawaiian Community Assets Financial Opportunity Center on Maui

Ivory Gilmore’s family has lived in Lahaina for generations. She works for Maui County, and has never been unemployed.

COVID, Legal Issues, and a Surge of Calls

Legal Aid Society Hawai‘i

Last March, as the pandemic was raging and Hawai‘i was all but shuttered, Cynthia Merrick found herself out of a job. Unemployment insurance was slow in coming, but she made rent with her savings and federal disaster relief money.

Nurturing Body and Spirit for Low-Income Kona Families

Kona Kids Outreach

Before COVID-19 hit, Kona Kids Outreach (KKO) was focused on enrichment for kids and their families in low-income subsidized housing in Kona, with afterschool programs and mentoring.

Food Trucks & Care Givers—An Unexpected Relationship

University of Hawai‘i Foundation

CTAHR partnered with the Maui Food Technology Center—a cooperative of fifteen food trucks—to offer family caregivers free meals. Former participants of CTAHR’s education programs received “kūpuna meal vouchers” to redeem at their choice of fifteen food trucks—twelve on Maui and three on Moloka‘i.

Helping Victims Walk a Dangerous Road Through COVID-19

Domestic Violence Action Center

When the coronavirus stay at home order was announced in Hawai'i, Nanci Kreidman, CEO of Hawai'i’s Domestic Violence Action Center (DVAC), knew that it would be an exceptionally risky period for DVAC clients.

New Models for Helping Homeless Families During COVID-19

Family Promise of Hawai'i

On any given day, an estimated 563 families with minor children in Hawai‘i have no place to call home.

Zero Interest Loans Provide Security—And Hope

Hawaiian Community Assets

Struggle is nothing new for single mom Lei Agcaoili, who moved from O‘ahu to Kaua‘i, where they had few friends and no family, in order for her daughter to be closer to her dad.

Support for our Keiki—and Our Economy

The Home-Based Child Care Emergency Fund

Before COVID-19 reached our islands, Chanelle Aina-Paaoao had been caring for the children of working families from her home in Hilo for seven years. “They were all like family,” she says. “When there was a party, they were all invited.”

Food Talk

The Food Basket, Hawaii Island’s Food Bank

More than 1 in 10 people in Hawaii are food insecure—which means they lack consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life. With COVID-19, families across Hawaii who were already struggling now need immediate help to basic needs. Grants from the Hawaii Resilience Fund were deployed to foodbanks across our islands just days after the fund was established.

Feeding Kupuna and Keiki—While Keeping Kauai’s Fishers Afloat

E Ola Mau and the Kekaha Agriculture Association

When the COVID-19 crisis struck, fishermen on Kauai’s rural West Side found themselves with plenty of fish but not so many buyers with restaurants only doing take-out. At the same time, the community’s furloughed tourism industry workers were finding it harder to feed their families.

Supporting the Working Families Who Support Hawaii

The YMCA

When schools closed their doors because of COVID-19, the YMCA knew that working families weren’t just losing lessons, but also reliable, trusted childcare, and often, important nutrition in the form of school meals.

Protecting Those Who Continue to Serve

PPE Resilience Hubs

Without a supply of masks, gloves, and other PPE, Heather Lusk and her staff, volunteers, and community partners can’t work safely in the field or in their clinic. Unless they find more, quickly, they may not be able to continue their lifesaving work at all.

Keeping Kupuna Healthy — at Home

Kokua Kalihi Valley

For many seniors at Kokua Kalihi Valley (KKV), the beloved elder program is a lifeline to friends, movement, fresh air, and community. When the COVID-19 stay-at-home order rolled out, the group activities for the senior program had to stop.

Strengthening Hawai‘i’s CommunitiesStories of Impact