Ke kōkua nei ʻo Pat Rice, he kumu no ka manawa lōʻihi, a me kekahi mau puʻu kālā no OHA mai i Ke Kula Waena Hoʻāmana Aupuni i ka hoʻomohala ʻana i nā papahana kākoʻo haumāna.

He nui nā kānaka e kākoʻo ana i nā haumāna o Ke Kula Waena ʻo Waimea, akā he keu ke kōkua o ia kumu mākaukau loa ʻo Pat Rice.

Aia ʻo Rice ma ia kula mai ka makahiki 1975. He kumu ʻo ia i kīnohi, a laila he kumu aʻo, a laila he hope poʻo kumu, a he poʻo kumu hoʻi ʻo ia i ʻehā mau manawa. Ua līkaia ʻo ia i ʻelua manawa, akā ʻo ia mau nō kāna kākoʻo iā lākou. I kēia manawa he laekahi holomua nona ke kuleana o ka noi kālā no ka pono o ke kula, a me ka hoʻokō ʻana i nā kuleana o ka noi kālā ʻana.

“Hohonu loa koʻu aloha i ke kaiāulu ʻo Waimea,” wahi āna. “ʻOiai ua hana pū me nā kūpuna, nā mākua, a me nā ʻohana hou aʻe o ko mākou mau haumāna, he mahalo koʻu i ka pilina i ulu aʻela i loko o nā makahiki i hala, a ʻo kēia mau pilina ke kumu o koʻu noke mau ʻana i ka hana.”

A ke kōkua mau nei nō ʻo Rice. I ka hoʻi ʻana o nā haumāna i ke kahua kula ma ke emi ʻana mai o ka maʻi COVID-19, ua hoʻomaopopo koke ʻo Rice i ke ʻano ʻokoʻa o nā haumāna, a me ke ʻano ʻē o kā lākou mau lawena. Pēlā i hoʻomaka ai ʻo Rice i kāna noiʻi e pili ana i ke kākau noi kālā ʻana a paʻa maila he puʻu kālā Mālama i Nā ʻŌpio o ka huina he $60,000.

“Me ka puʻu kālā ʻo Mālama I Nā ʻŌpio i hai ai mākou i kekahi kumu pāheona/kumu aʻoaʻo i mākaukau i ke aʻoaʻo pōʻino. Ua hoʻomaopopo ihola mākou i ka hoʻi ʻana mai o nā haumāna ma hope o ka wā maʻi ahulau, e pilikia ana lākou i ka launa kanaka,a he pono nā mākua e mākaukau i ke kōkua i ia mau keiki pōpilikia loʻohia ʻoiai lākou e hoʻi hou ana i ke kahua kula,” wahi a Rice.

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“ʻO ka hopena helu ʻekahi o nā papahana i loaʻa mai ma o kēia puʻu kālā, ʻo ia ka hiki i nā haumāna kānalua ke hōʻike aku i ko lākou naʻau ma o ka pāheona, ma kahi o ka kamaʻilio ʻana. Pēlā i alu like mai ai ke kumu aʻoaʻo a me nā limahana ʻē aʻe ma ke kula, a pēlā pū nā ʻohana haumāna i mea e hoʻolālā ai i ala e hoʻoponopono ai.”

“ʻO Ke Kula Waena o Waimea kekahi o ʻekolu mau kula hoʻāmana aupuni, ʻo Kamaile Academy o Oʻahu a me nā kula kamaliʻi a me kula haʻahaʻa o Kualapuʻu ma Molokaʻi kekahi nā kula o ka Hoʻokākoʻo Corporation. Hoʻokumu ʻia i ka makahiki 2002, he ʻoihana kū i ka ʻauhau ʻole ʻo Hoʻokākoʻo e mohala maila i mea e makaʻala a e hoʻololi aku i nā papahana hoʻonaʻauao ma nā kula ʻekolu. Mai loko mai o ia pūʻulu kula aia nō he 15% o nā haumāna kula hoʻāmana o ke aupuni. He mau Hawaiʻi ka hapalua a ʻoi o nā haumāna ma ke Kula Waena O Waimea.”

ʻOiai ʻo Hoʻokākoʻo ka mea kākoʻo kālā no ko Waimea puʻu kālā ʻo Mālama I Nā ʻŌpio, ua kākau ʻo David Gibson, ke Poʻo Kuhina o Hoʻokākoʻo, ʻo Lydia Trinidad, ke Poʻo Kumu o Kualapuʻu, a me Rice i ka puʻu kālā ʻelua mai OHA, a ua lilo nō.

Hana mai ana ʻo Hoʻokākoʻo i ka papahana ʻo Ke Awa Hoʻomalu ma Ke Kula Waena o Waimea a me Ke Kula ʻo Kualapuʻu ma ka Puʻu Kālā Kaiāulu maiā OHA o ka huina he $220,000. I waena o ʻelua makahiki o ia puʻu kālā e hoʻopiʻi ʻia ana ka hoʻonaʻauao ʻōiwi i kū ma ka ʻāina, a me nā papahana hou aku no ka pono noʻonoʻo o nā keiki Hawaiʻi a me ko lākou mau ʻohana ma nā kula a ʻelua.

“I loko nō o ko mākou manaʻolana nui, nele Ke Kula Waena ʻo Waimea i nā lako ʻole e kākoʻo ai ma ke ʻano kaiāulu a kula hoʻi i nā haumāna a me nā ʻohana, i hiki ai hoʻi ke hoʻoholomua i ka hoʻonaʻauao a me ka pono noʻonoʻo o ke aʻo ʻana. ʻO ke kanaka hoʻopili ʻohana i hoʻolako ʻia e ka puʻu kālā ʻo Ke Awa Hoʻomalu ka mea nāna e alu like ana me nā haumāna, a ma ko lākou mau ʻohana iho, i mea e hoʻolālā ai i nā papahana pilikino me ka manaʻo e hoʻopili aku iā lākou nei i nā papahana kula a me nā papahana kaiāulu a nā ʻohana i ʻike ʻole ai ma mua, no ka pono o nā keiki pākahi “ wahi a Rice.

“‘Oiai he kula hoʻāmana kālele Hawaiʻi mākou, hoʻohana mākou i nā pono e ʻhoʻoikaik i ko nā haumāna mākau, waiwai, a ʻike Hawaiʻi hoʻi i hiki ai ke hoʻokele aku i ke kula kiʻekiʻe a mau loa aku,’ a he mahele ia o ko lākou mākia ma Waimea. Mea nui ke kākoʻo o OHA i ka hoʻomohala ʻana i nā papahana no nā haumāna a me nā ʻohana.

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Long-time Waimea educator Pat Rice and a pair of OHA grants are helping Waimea Middle Public Conversion Charter School expand its student services.

There are many people involved in supporting the students of Waimea Middle School, but maybe none as truly dedicated as veteran educator Pat Rice.

Rice has been at the school since 1975, first as a teacher, then as a counselor, on to a vice principal, and she’s also served as principal on four different occasions. She’s even retired twice, but today you’ll still find her serving the institution, now as the organization’s school improvement specialist, tasked with writing grants for the school and following up on grant accountability.

“I deeply care for the Waimea community,” she said. “Having worked with our students’ grandparents and parents and with their expanded ‘ohana, I’m grateful for the connections we have made over the years, and it is these connections that keep me trying to help even more.”

Rice is certainly still helping. When students began returning to in-person learning as the COVID-19 pandemic eased, Rice observed that they weren’t fully engaging in the school setting and were having behavioral issues. Rice began her grant-writer research and secured an OHA COVID-19 Impact and Response grant worth $60,000.

“The Mālama i nā ʻŌpio grant enabled us to hire a trauma-informed art teacher/counselor. We knew that students returning from the pandemic would have many social-emotional issues and that they would need trained adults to help them manage their anxieties as they transitioned back to an in-person school setting,” Rice said.

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“Perhaps the most significant thing about this grant has been that students who were hesitant to express their feelings verbally felt safe when afforded opportunities to express them through the creative process. That opened the door for the counselor to collaborate with others at the school and with the students’ families to help the students develop effective coping strategies.”

Waimea Middle School is one of three public conversion charter schools, along with Kamaile Academy on Oʻahu and Kualapuʻu Preschool and Elementary School on Molokaʻi, that make up the community of the Hoʻokākoʻo Corporation. Established in 2002, Hoʻokākoʻo is a private, nonprofit organization that has grown to oversee and transform education programs at the three schools which comprise nearly 15% of Hawaiʻi’s public charter school student population.

More than half of the student population at Waimea Middle School is Hawaiian.

While Hoʻokākoʻo served as the fiscal sponsor for Waimea’s COVID-19 response grant, Hoʻokākoʻo Executive Director David Gibson, Kualapuʻu Principal Lydia Trinidad and Rice collaborated on writing a second grant which received another award from OHA.

Hoʻokākoʻo is implementing its Ke Awa Hoʻomalu (Safe Harbor) project at Waimea Middle School and Kualapuʻu School thanks to a $220,000 Community Grant from OHA. The two-year grant is being used to increase access to Hawaiian culture-based educational, behavioral and mental health services for Native Hawaiian children and their families at both schools.

“Despite our best intentions, we lack the resources at Waimea Middle School to help all students and their families to access the much-needed community and/or school services that can improve student educational and social-emotional learning outcomes. The ʻohana engagement facilitator provided through the Ke Awa Hoʻomalu grant is working with students and their families to create personalized plans intended to help our families link to school-level and community-based supports that they have previously been unaware of in an effort to provide wrap-around services individualized for each child,” Rice said.

“As a Hawaiian-focused charter school, we utilize all our resources to ‘empower all students with the skills, values, and cultural understanding to successfully navigate high school and beyond,’ which is our mission statement at Waimea. The support provided by OHA has been crucial in expanding our services to students and their families.”

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After nearly 100 years in Kailua, HYCF is undergoing a physical and spiritual transformation, rebranding itself to become the Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center and to realize a new vision for Hawaiʻi’s juvenile justice system.

The site was originally established in 1928 as the Kawailoa Training School for Girls, a reformatory school and a farm/ranch operation. In 1962, the boys’ and girls’ schools were combined to form what is now the HYCF, and the DOE opened Olomana School there to meet special educational needs for children in Windward Oʻahu.

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In 2014, major legislation and a mandate to focus on community-based interventions for at-risk youth and culturally based healing began the transformation of Hawaiʻi’s juvenile justice system. Patterson, the former warden of the Women’s Community Correctional Center (WCCC), was chosen to lead HYCF in this new direction; his vision is for physical and spiritual rehabilitation of both the keiki and the ʻāina.

With years of experience in corrections, Patterson was troubled by the fact that Hawaiʻi’s prisons were filled with Hawaiians, almost all of whom had a history of family trauma. To address this, Patterson developed an innovative rehabilitation model to use at WCCC, but knew he could better influence the future by working with youth.

“Nearly all of the kids who end up at HYCF have experienced trauma in their homes due to poverty, houselessness, abuse and victimization, as well as drug addiction and mental health issues,” Patterson explained.

“Many come from foster care with parents who are also incarcerated. By affording them support and a real opportunity to succeed, we can prevent them from ending up in the adult criminal justice system. And if we can reach into the community to help families heal and strengthen, if we can provide safe shelter, stability, and community for youth who really need it, then maybe we can keep them from ending up in the system altogether.”

When he started with HYCF in 2014, Patterson continued to build on work that had begun four years earlier by advocates from the juvenile justice system, family court, youth-serving state agencies and community youth service providers to aggressively divert juveniles to community-based alternatives instead of incarceration.

And it seemed to work.

In just a few years, the number of youth incarcerated at HYCF dropped from nearly 100 at its peak to about 25 on any given day. This 75% reduction in incarceration has allowed Patterson to repurpose the HYCF campus’ 20 structures and 300 acres of agricultural land, and reinvest dollars initially earmarked for corrections.

In 2018, the Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center was born. The legislature authorized Patterson to begin transforming the correctional center campus into a place of healing. Within months, buildings and grounds formerly used to jail juveniles were transformed into community- and family-oriented program spaces including a young adult homeless shelter, a residential vocational training program for youth and young adults, and an assessment center and shelter for young victims of sex trafficking.

Patterson laid the foundation for a puʻuhonua where Hawaiian healing modalities are integrated with therapeutic programming. Already, keiki and ʻohana can find both healing programs and supportive services from several community service providers and state agencies at Kawailoa Center.

And this is just the beginning. Patterson says there is more work to be done and plenty of space. He hopes to expand Kawailoa Center’s current programs and services for youth with unmet mental health needs. These youth, who comprise a substantial portion of HYCF’s population, are transferred to the continent for treatment not available in Hawaiʻi. Patterson also wants to focus on young adults who experience a gap in services as they age out of foster care or even HYCF. “These young adults are the fastest-growing homeless population and many face a near-certain future in the adult correctional system,” he said.

With the help of the state, the Kailua community, and the keiki and ʻohana of Kawailoa, Patterson plans to continue transforming the Kawailoa Center’s serene campus into a place of healing.

Plans include creating a residential mental health treatment facility, expanding vocational training opportunities and transitional housing by reviving Kawailoa’s ranch practices, establishing a Hawaiian heritage center, restoring Kukuipilau Heiau (located on the property), building a hale for faith-based activities, and renovating the existing athletic complex. Together he hopes these offerings will provide youth with multi-faceted opportunities for personal healing and prosocial community building.

But for now, in the quiet peace and rolling hills of Kawailoa, youth who have had a difficult start in life can find safety and healing and the freedom to dream big dreams.

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O ka makua ke koʻo o ka hale e paʻa ai
The parent is the support that holds the household together

Ka ʻOhana Osorio

The Osorios talked about fostering but the idea was quickly dismissed by worries about having enough money or room, or how their young children would be affected. But one day Mary Osorio got a call from a friend. A baby girl needed temporary foster care – just three weeks – and could Mary help find a home for that child. As it happens, Mary was leaving her current job with nothing new lined up. The whole family discussed the situation and decided they could care for the baby for three weeks – no problem.

With the goal of reunification, the Osorios were working with DHS and the family to get baby Lehua back to her parents. But drugs were involved and the birth mother soon relinquished her parental rights asking the Osorios to adopt her baby. This surprised them; they never intended to adopt – but after discussing it they agreed. “The longer she was with us, the more difficult it was to even consider separation,” said Jon.

But Lehua’s biological father wanted his mother to raise the baby. Working with the Osorios over the next two years, the father formed a trust bond with Jon and at the final custody hearing, the father relinquished his rights. “It’s important to work with the birth family in a healthy way,” said Mary. “Sometimes it’s hard. Our situation was full of drama, but it was the right thing to do.”

Those two years were full of uncertainty. The Osorios and their birth children had fallen in love with baby Lehua but knew she might not stay. But when Lehua was 2-1/2, the Osorios adopted her. “We had 40 people crammed into the courtroom. Jon had his guitar, we sang the doxology and our pastor did a blessing,” recalls Mary. “It was a community event.”

Community has been key to raising Lehua. Her birth mother used drugs during her pregnancy, and that had consequences. But support from the Osorios’ personal network along with social workers and public health nurses, and resources from public and private agencies, made all the difference. “The IEP is your best friend in the public schools,” noted Jon. Over the years, the Osorios carefully selected schools, obtained the health services she needed, and poured their love into Lehua, now 16, who is thriving.

“I cannot imagine life without her,” reflects Mary. “I don’t know what she’s going to do with her life, but she will do it with solid security and love from people who believe in her. She’s this wonderful, joyous success story. It was so worth it to take the chance.”

“When Mary first told me about Lehua I didn’t know if I was ready,” recalls Jon. We already had young children, my career was taking off, and I was about to take a sabbatical. And then Mary said, ʻshe’s Hawaiian.’”

“You know, it was like taking in family; a part of our family that maybe we’d forgotten that we’re related to. When I see all of my children together, completely one family…the teasing and the affection…you would never know they came from different parents. There’s nothing quite like that,” smiles Jon.

“It feels good to give a Hawaiian child Hawaiian cultural experiences and raise her with Hawaiian values,” Mary adds. “Hawaiian foster children don’t just need us – they need the Hawaiian community. It’s kuleana, absolutely.”

The Osorios say becoming a foster family was one of the most important things they did for their biological children because it taught them the importance of caring for others. Photos above include a wall sign made years ago by daughter, Haliʻa, which still adorns the girls’ room today, and a few examples of Lehua’s art. – Photos: Courtesy

Ka ʻOhana Keola

One day the Keolas saw an announcement in their church bulletin. Catholic Charities needed foster families to care for pregnant teens. They talked about it, but Kauʻi was teaching full time and president of a non-profit. With three keiki of their own, there just wasn’t time to help. Fast forward two years. Kauʻi was now teaching part-time when the same announcement appeared in the church bulletin. This time the Keolas decided to try. Kauʻi felt confident she could teach these girls how to take care of babies, help them make transition plans for after the baby was born, and then they would move on.

A few years into fostering, one of the pregnant teens they were working with already knew she wanted to give her baby up for adoption. When he was born, the baby boy was placed with the Keolas. It was only supposed to be for a week, but four months later the baby, who they had named Keolanui, was still with them, and so they decided to adopt. With this decision the Keolas began an unexpected journey.

Soon afterwards, the Keolas transferred their licensing from Catholic Charities to DHS, shifting their focus from pregnant teens to newborns. In their first five years of fostering, the Keolas cared for more than 80 babies. Then in 2008 they became foster parents to Kuʻumele. But when she was just six weeks old, her mother could not commit to parenting. So the Keolas decided to adopt Kuʻumele as well.

Shortly after that, another newborn and her brother were placed with the Keolas, but their mother also relinquished her parental rights. So the Keolas adopted them – and their three siblings who were in other foster homes. And when Kuʻumele’s mother had more babies, the Keolas adopted them too. By 2018, the Keolas had adopted 12 children. “It’s all about family for us,” explained Kauʻi. “Not just our own. We want to keep the biological families of our adopted children together.”

The Keolas never imagined they would have 15 children and it has transformed their lives. Their days are a whirl of activity beginning at 5:30 am to get 12 keiki to five different schools. While the children are in school Kauʻi starts the laundry and husband, Rocco (temporarily on leave from his job), handles other chores including cooking dinner. Afternoons are a blur of school pick-ups and extra-curricular activities. When the children get home, there’s sharing and snacks and then 20 minutes of reading before dinner. “People always think its chaos,” laughs Kauʻi. “To me it’s exciting and fun.” The Keolas eat together and share the day’s highs and low. Then it’s pule, showers and if all goes according to schedule, everyone is in bed by 8:30.

All 12 of their hānai keiki were drug-positive babies, but the Keolas have availed themselves of all the resources and professional help available to them. “Our goal is to raise independent, responsible, contributing members of society,” said Kauʻi. “We want them to have good lives. They are all blessings. They all have strengths.”

“Fostering has changed our lives in such a positive way,” continued Kauʻi. “We’re having fun. It was never the plan, but I don’t make plans anymore because God has a plan. We’ll stop fostering when God doesn’t send any more children to our door.”

The Keolas firmly believe that it is their kuleana, as Hawaiians, to care for these children. “Our native people need to take care of our own keiki…as a lāhui that is our kuleana,” Kauʻi insists. “we cannot put that kuleana on anyone else. We need to be the ones to do it.”

Living together in their modest three-bedroom home, the Keolas manage to make it work. “We don’t have a lot of things,” Kauʻi reflects. “We don’t have a lot of space. But we have a lot of love. Love is abundant. And that’s what we can share.”

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The wellbeing of our keiki has been Dill’s focus for most of his career. PID runs a number of programs that are keiki and ʻohana focused, including Hui Hoʻomalu, a program dedicated to recruiting, training and supporting Native Hawaiian “Resource Families” (previously called “foster parents”) to mālama our Hawaiian keiki in Hawaiʻi’s foster care system.

Hawaiians are over-represented in the foster care system. About 47% of Hawaiʻi’s foster children are Native Hawaiian. “We’re doubly present in a negative statistic,” declares Dill. “Our children are being taken from their families. We need to do something about it. We need to reaffirm the core of the Hawaiian culture which is family, which is a commitment to community, and a commitment to the success of our children.”

Not Enough Families

Although Hawaiian children comprise almost half of all keiki in foster care, there aren’t enough Hawaiian Resource Families to care for them. Without enough Hawaiian Resource Families, when Hawaiian keiki are removed from their homes by the Department of Human Services (DHS), they are often placed with Resource Families from other communities and cultures.

In fact, many of the available Resource Families are military, so Hawaiian keiki may be placed in homes where everything is unfamiliar: language, food, rules, customs and expectations. These traumatized keiki often experience culture shock on top of everything else.

As recently as ten years ago, the lack of Native Hawaiian (or even local) Resource Families, resulted in the eventual adoption of Hawaiian foster children who were in the care of military Resource Families. When these families left Hawaiʻi, their adopted Hawaiian children left with them, permanently separated from their birth families, culture and communities.

This rarely happens anymore, and certainly not intentionally. The mindset at DHS is that the system needs to provide things that keep dislocated keiki healthy (connection, culture and values) in preparation for their return to their families and communities.

A Complex Social Problem

The need for foster care is the result of complex social problems rooted in poverty and substance abuse and fueled by depression and hopelessness. Kauʻi Keola and husband, Rocco, have fostered more than 80 keiki in their 20 years as a Resource Family. She notes that the high percentage of Hawaiian children in the foster care system correlates to the high percentage of Hawaiian adults who are addicted to drugs or incarcerated.

“There are children attached to those adults,” points out Keola.

DHS has established proactive programs to help families before situations escalate to the point of removing the children from the home, and according to Dill, they have promoted engagement between the various agencies serving families and foster children.

Dill also points out the need for organizations like OHA, Liliʻuokalani Trust and Kamehameha Schools to work together to develop clear and measurable objectives for the health and well-being of our families, and to work alongside DHS and organizations like PID, Catholic Charities and EPIC ʻOhana to galvanize the Hawaiian community to be very intentional about its care for foster children and the health of the family.

“Foster children are the effects of the lack of attention that we’ve paid to family health and education,” says Dill. “We must strengthen our families, or we will always have foster children.”

Dill believes that if Hawaiian organizations come together, we can do better by our people; that we can do things that bring substantive and transformational change. “We need to address the real causes of the issues. We need to make that differentiation and decide to invest in things that make transformational change possible, in issues that are important such as early education, foster care, kūpuna care, employment and housing.”

Reunification is the Goal

Although fostering children sometimes results in adoption, the goal for DHS and for Resource Parents is reunification of the family.

In a perfect world, the children’s biological parents will be open to change and while they are getting healthy and strong, their children are being cared for by Resource Families in their home community so the children can be in a familiar environment, remain in their school, and stay in contact with their parents. Sadly, this is not the norm.

Delia Ulima is the Statewide Initiative Manager for the HI HOPES initiative under EPIC ʻOhana, an agency whose mission is to strengthen ʻohana and enhance the welfare of children and youth. Ulima echoes the goal of reunification saying, “ideally, the child can return home in 12 to 24 months. But often that does not happen. The statistics are scary.”

Despite the best efforts of DHS, support agencies and Resource Families, reunification is not the outcome for many foster children. “Drugs are involved in so many cases,” said Keola, “and it’s difficult for the parents to become clean and sober. In those cases, reunification is low.”

Complicated family relationships often prevent extended family members from becoming licensed to foster the children either, however child-specific fostering by ʻohana or a family friend is the best-case scenario for children removed from their homes.

Michael and Jessica Hikalea successfully overcame drug addiction and were reunited with their four children with the support of extended family who stepped forward to kökua. The Hikaleas both struggled with addiction over a period of years. Their keiki were removed from their home three separate times as they worked to get clean. All three times, members of their extended ʻohana took on the kuleana to foster their keiki.

“We are very blessed and grateful,” said Michael. “Knowing our children were with family was important. It made us feel more secure. When we went through treatment, we were more driven and focused on getting better.”

While they count themselves fortunate, they also emphasized the need for Hawaiian children to be with Hawaiian families. “It’s sad when Hawaiian foster children aren’t with Hawaiian families,” added Jessica. “It hits the children harder, emotionally, to be in another culture. It’s not as comfortable for them and can be a step back for everyone.”

The Importance of Making a Connection

Keola Limkin Pagud, an MSW candidate at U.H. Mānoa, is a former foster child. “When I was 15 my five siblings and I were removed from our mother’s care and placed into separate foster homes,” shares Pagud. Fortunately, Pagud was placed with a wonderful Resource Caregiver, a Hawaiian man who supported Pagud’s athletic activities and treated him as his own.

“He was compassionate and also taught us discipline through daily chores and sticking to curfews,” Pagud recalls. The man he affectionately refers to as “Uncle Brada” allowed him to stay with him after graduating from high school, even though he had “aged out” of the system in February of his senior year.

Billie Ann Bruce spent half of her childhood in the foster care system (see related story). Removed from her family at birth, she does not remember how many Resource Families she was placed with as an infant and toddler. When she was permanently removed from her father’s care at age 14, she was not as lucky as Pagud.

She was placed in four homes in two years. The fifth home, with a family friend, was finally a good match, and Bruce remained there with foster mom “Julie” until she “aged out” of the system. Now a junior at U.H. Hilo, Bruce is working on B.A. degrees in Administration of Justice and Psychology. She stays in touch with Julie who is a source of support and encouragement for her.

For many children in the foster care system, being shuffled from home to home is the norm, Ulima explains. “The biggest factor is fit. There aren’t enough foster parents, so DHS is trying to get the children in wherever they can.” Adds Ulima, “you’re talking supply and demand.”

The fact is that many foster children are traumatized, whether from the problems in their home, their forced removal from their family, their placement in an unfamiliar environment with strangers, or all three.

“The biggest successes are when foster children and parents make a real connection,” says Ulima, “when foster parents hang in there when the child punches the wall or cuts out of school. When the adults in their lives don’t give up on them, and the children have a semblance of normalcy in their lives and are able to do the things that their peers are doing and which help them to thrive, the system can work. But few placements are like that.”

Ulima believes the key is establishing real, authentic relationships between foster children and their caregivers, and providing care and attention to the children’s mental health needs. “Children are hurt when they are separated from their family, community and culture. It would be better for Hawaiian children to be placed with Native Hawaiian families they can relate to.”

A Call to Action for the Lāhui

The consistent message from Native Hawaiians involved in the foster care system in any capacity is that there is a dire need for more Hawaiians to be involved as Resource Caregivers and Resource Families. But becoming a Resource Caregiver is not a trivial decision and fostering children can be tough.

“Inventory your heart,” advises Dill, “and ask yourself if this is an area where you are able to expend a lot of emotion, a lot of aloha. And if the answer is yes, then stand up and go. We are always looking for Hawaiian families to step into the breach. The larger the pool, the stronger it’s going to be in terms of success. Hawaiians need to really think and pray about this because it’s a spiritual venture. It really is.”

“Our children need help,” says Keola passionately. “They may not be your biological relation, or even someone you know, but there are many Hawaiian children out there who need a place to call home temporarily or permanently. And it’s on us to raise them in our culture, with our food, with our customs, with our beliefs. We need to mālama our lāhui. It has to be our people teaching our children so we can become a stronger nation on our own. It’s our kuleana.”

Jon and Mary Osorio are former Resource Caregivers who eventually adopted the child they were fostering. Says Mary, “any child who has experienced trauma needs somebody to help them through to the other side and to replace those traumatic experiences with loving experiences. There are just too many children out there. Even if we’re afraid we need to do it because they need us, and it builds up the whole community to raise healthy children.”

“You know, we are natural advocators, we really are. Native Hawaiians are natural advocators, especially for things like children,” adds Jon. “So don’t be afraid of this. It will bring out the best in you.”

Pagud’s caregiver, Uncle Brada, had a powerful impact on his life. His strong family and Hawaiian cultural values helped Pagud become interested in learning about Hawaiian history and culture himself, and he is determined to pay it forward someday. “Uncle Brada passed away a few years ago,” shared Pagud. “I hope to foster in the future to honor his legacy.”

“Foster care can be mentally and emotionally draining,” says Bruce, but she quickly notes that it is also a very joyful thing. “Julie would cry with happiness for my successes and awards,” Bruce reminisces. “It can be an amazing, joyful, life-changing experience.”

Like Pagud, Bruce plans to foster children herself someday. “I want to give back. One person can change a life. You can be the person to change a child’s whole life if you’re willing to take on that kuleana.”

Ulima has also been a Resource Caregiver. Like the Osorios, her fostering experience resulted in adoption.

“It’s my kuleana as a Native Hawaiian,” reflects Ulima. “It’s my kuleana to give back and to serve.” To our lāhui she says, “If you have the heart, a home, and the willingness to be trained, you might be the difference between a Hawaiian child thriving, or becoming another statistic.”

Taking on the kuleana of foster care can seem overwhelming. But if our communities would view it as a “kākou thing” it could be less daunting.

Dill shared that on the mainland there is a movement in the Black community called “One Church, One Child.” One family in the church fosters, and the rest of the church community makes a commitment to support them by providing resources and respite. “I’d like to see that in the Hawaiian community,” says Dill. “You know, one child, one canoe club…whatever. Let’s do it.”

Continues Dill, “if we were to embrace the kuleana of caring for our children, foster care as we know it today would be gone. My vision is that Hawaiians will just stand up and say, okay, we are going to fulfill the kuleana that we’ve always had: the care of our children.”

No laila, he nīnau no kākou: Pehea nā keiki?

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She “aged out” of the system while still in high school, so Billie enrolled in Imua Kākou, a Salvation Army program which offers assistance for youth transitioning out of foster care. They helped Billie rent a room from a friend so she could finish at Pāhoa High School.

After graduating, Billie moved to Hilo, determined to go to college. “I always knew I wanted to go to college,” said Billie. She had a job and applied for scholarships to cover tuition. Academic success her first year at HCC opened the door to additional scholarships. Now a junior at UH Hilo, Billie is working on degrees in Administration of Justice and Psychology, while concurrently working on a pre-law certificate. She dreams of attending law school at UH Mānoa.

At 17 Billie joined EPIC ʻOhana’s HI HOPES, a Youth Leadership Board for youth ages 14-26 who are, or have been, in foster care. Through HI HOPES Billie is able to provide a voice of experience for the board and its mission to educate, advocate and collaborate with community partners to help improve outcomes for current and former foster youth. Today Billie is president of East Hawaiʻi’s HI HOPES Youth Leadership Board. “I see myself as a bridge. This helps community leaders see foster care from the perspective of young people receiving services to understand what isn’t working.”

Billie now works for EPIC ʻOhana as a Youth Partner and has become a peer-certified specialist providing mentoring and support to foster children. This includes working with the Department of Health because many young people in foster care are coping with traumatic experiences. Says Billie, “youth are more able to open up and connect with people closer to their age who understand what they are going through. They don’t feel judged which allows for honest conversations and the realization that what happened to us wasn’t our fault. It was just a bad situation.”

In terms of her own journey and exceptional resilience Billie says she just always believed that there was a better way to live. “I knew I just needed to take a step back, look at the situation, and proceed in a way that made sense.”

A huge positive influence in Billie’s life when she was in elementary school was her father’s “hānai” dad, who they affectionately called “Uncle Mable.” Uncle Mable was Noboru Kajiyama, an elderly man with no children who took in Billie’s family until he passed away.

Those were wonderful years for Billie. Uncle Mabel loved to spend time with her and even helped Billie learn to read. “Through Uncle Mabel I experienced giving and love,” smiles Billie. “He was the most amazing guy. He let a whole family move in with him so they wouldn’t be homeless. Because of him I am able, in turn, to give that love out.”

Another positive influence in Billie’s life has been foster mom “Julie” who Billie lived with during her last two years of high school until aging out of the foster care system.

Billie is Hawaiian on her mom’s side, but she never knew much about Hawaiian culture. None of her foster parents were Hawaiian. “If Hawaiian families are able to help foster kids keep connected to their culture it could mean everything,” Billie emphasized. “For me that was a missing link.”

Showing wisdom and grace beyond her years, Billie said, “As you get older you gain perspective. You understand that your parents are just humans who needed to survive. Things that seemed cut and dry actually have more substance. It’s forgiveness, but it’s also understanding that people just don’t know. It’s trying to learn from that person. There is always a reason for the actions we choose.”

Billie sees herself becoming a foster parent some day. “I want to give back. Part of my kuleana is to do that too. I’ve been blessed in spite of everything that wasn’t amazing in my life. I had people who helped me. I want to help young people coming up.”

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Pāheona Aiwohi began attending papa oli with her tutu Piʻi in Hālau Nā Hanona Kūlike O Piʻilani when she was barely three years old. It reflected her ʻohana’s deep commitment to living and perpetuating Hawaiian values and culture. Despite being a toddler, Pāhe was always attentive and participatory in her oli class. She loved to dance hula too and would practice with her mother, Keli Aiwohi, and sister, Kaʻiulani, at home. When she turned four she was officially enrolled in the hālau’s keiki hula class.

Pāheona Aiwohi on Maunakea – Photos: Keli Aiwohi

“I love dancing hula and singing. It makes me happy I get to do stuff that makes me Hawaiian like my family,” Pāhe told OHA. Now six years old, Pāhe attends first grade at Kula Kaiapuni ma Pāiʻa on Maui. ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi is also the primary language spoken at home among Pāhe and her five brothers and sisters.

Mama Keli Aiwohi shared, “She doesn’t know any other life. I don’t think she realizes how lucky she is to be surrounded by so much mea Hawaiʻi. For me growing up, my school didn’t even have ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi classes. I was lucky to be involved with hula at a young age. But now Pāhe has it ALL at her fingertips. The ʻōlelo, the oli, the hula, the history. This life is normal for her so hula and oli are second nature.”

Pāheona has also been at Maunakea multiple times this summer, and continues to go on weekends when she can. You may recognize her from the viral video offering a hoʻokupu of the mele ʻŌiwi Ē at the kūpuna tent. “My kumu taught us that mele to show us how we are all ʻohana. And I wanted to show aloha to the kūpuna,” Pāhe said. That heartfelt video has over 75,000 views. Her kumu, Mrs. Sissy Lake-Farm, shared, “When I saw the Facebook post of her leading the kāhea for ʻŌiwi Ē I was so excited. I know dad (Kumu Hula John Keola Lake) is proud and our hoʻoilina (legacy) exists through our haumāna, even as young as Pāheona. The kamaliʻi of today are taking on kuleana and have the resources to learn, grow, and continue to fight for our lāhui. She had the ʻiʻini and desire to hāpai that kuleana and so brilliantly, with no fear, but conviction and confidence to represent her, her mākua, her kumu, her kūpuna and all those who stand in front, beside, and behind her. Eō e Pāheona!” Pāheona, at six years old, is a living gem and confirms the righteousness of our keiki generation.

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ʻO Kaipo ka inoa o ka hāmeʻe o ka moʻolelo a mai kona kamaliʻi ʻana ā makua ua ʻiʻini ʻo ia e lilo i kekahi kāpena moku. No Waiʻanae, Oʻahu ʻo Kaipo a mai ke kahakai ʻo ia i nānā pinepine ai i nā moku kolo e holo ana. Koi ʻia ʻo Kaipo e kona makuakāne e hana nui a inā pēlā e loaʻa ana kona ʻiʻini iā ia. Hoʻomanaʻo mau ʻo Kaipo i nā ʻōlelo noʻeau o kona pāpā e like me, “ʻUʻuku ka hana, ʻuʻuku ka loaʻa.”

Maikaʻi kēia puke no ka paipai ʻana i nā ʻōpio e kīkoʻo aku a lou i ka ʻiʻini o mua. Inā hana nui, nui ka loaʻa e like me kā Kaipo i hana ai. Paipai ʻo KVA i na kānaka e nalu i nā loaʻa o ke ola, e kāʻana aku i nā ʻike, a e mahalo i nā mea loaʻa o ke ola.

ʻO “ʻO Ka Ipu ka Honua” kekahi puke ʻē aʻe ma ka ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi. ʻO “Canoe Plants” kekahi puke kuhikuhi o kekahi hana i kōkua ʻia e OHA, ʻo ia hoʻi, ka hana kanu ʻana i nā mea kanu i lawe ʻia mai e nā kūpuna i Hawaiʻi nei. Inā hoihoi i ia mau puke e kipa iā

www.kanehunamoku.org/books

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Lahela Williams was announced as Hawaiian Community Assets’ (HCA) new Executive Director at the 18th Annual Native Hawaiian Convention on Sept. 24. She will succeed existing Executive Director, Jeff Gilbreath, who transitions to Director of Lending and Development responsible for managing the organization’s loan fund and social enterprise, Hawaii Community Lending (HCL).

On October 1st, Williams will take the lead of the Native Hawaiian nonprofit after the completion of a 36-month executive transition plan that has been overseen by the organization’s board. Born and raised in the Kewalo Hawaiian Homestead in the Papakölea Region, she brings with her 20 years of community development experience and a background in local, state, and federal policy advocacy. Most recently, Williams served as HCA’s Deputy Director where she managed the state’s largest HUD housing counseling program, a network of Financial Opportunity Centers (FOCs), and the deployment of $1.3 million in match savings grants to Native Hawaiians statewide.

“I am humbled and excited about the opportunity to serve as the Executive Director of Hawaiian Community Assets. We have an amazing team of dedicated staff and volunteers across the state and are ready to expand our network of FOCs to Kauaʻi and Maui Counties over the next 18 months,” shared Williams as she addressed the convention attendees.

Under Williams’ leadership, HCA will expand its FOCs statewide and launch the state’s new Hawaiʻi Housing Affordability Coalition, while HCL grows to $15 million in consumer and affordable housing loans targeting local and Hawaiian households unable to qualify at credit unions or banks.

“After 19 years, HCA’s leadership remains committed to our original vision,” said HCA co-founder and affordable housing advocate, Kehaulani Filimoeatu. “Lahela is a young, strong Native Hawaiian leader who is rooted in her homelands and will carry us forward for the next 20 years, fighting for the economic self-sufficiency of our Hawaiian and local communities.”

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