We are SO thankful that Locations has partnered with Ka Paʻalana, as well as United Cerebral Palsy Association of Hawaii and the Institute for Human Services.

From June 17-21, drop off your lightly used articles of clothing for keiki AND adults, including: shoes or slippers, linens, towels, toiletries and job interview-appropriate items for adults at any of the following locations:

• Diamond Head: 614 Kapahulu Ave. #300 (Same building as Side Street Inn on Da Strip)
• Kailua: 151 Hekili St. #120 (Near Boots & Kimo’s)
• Kapolei: 91-590 Farrington Hwy. #125 (Next to Sushi Bay)
• Mililani: 95-720 Lanikuhana Ave. #120 (Next to Central Pacific Bank)
• Pearlridge: 98-161 Kaonohi St. (Near Bed, Bath & Beyond)
• Pearlridge Kiosk: Pearlridge Shopping Center, Uptown (Near Macy’s, mall level)
• Windward Kiosk: Windward Mall – Kaneohe (Near Center Stage)

Since 2011, the Locations Foundation Clothing Drive has donated nearly 50,000 pounds of clothing to people in need! Help us help our Ka Paʻalana families and others and donate your items!

For more information, contact the Locations Foundation at 808-735-4200.

There was much laughter and only a few tears as our teaching staff said ‘aloha’ to the graduating keiki, and those moving on to new schools. Keiki were treated to all kinds of fun surprises, from face painting and bubble machines to shave ice trucks.

Here at Partners in Development Foundation we say hoʻomaikaʻi to all the graduating keiki, and send heartfelt mahalos to all the families who help to make our Tūtū and Me Traveling Preschool programs so special.

See more photos from the Tūtū and Me graduations on our Facebook page here. Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more videos like this, and the latest from our programs!

Bible Offers Parallel Text in Hawaiian and English
This year, Good Friday and the start of Passover fell on the same day, April 19, also coinciding with a full moon that etched a metallic shimmer on the black Hawaiian sea. This rare conjunction of the Christian and Jewish holidays and the moon brings to mind the way the Old Testament and New Testament are brought together in a new, bilingual edition of “Ka Baibala Hemolele: The Holy Bible” (Mutual Publishing, $69.95).

The keepsake volume lovingly folds both books between night-black, gilt-lettered leather covers. Hawaiian and English language texts lie side by side, facing each other for easy cross-reference on every moon-white page.

It was stirring to open ka buke to “Kinohi” or “Genesis,” and begin reading “I kinohi hana ke Akua i ka lani a me ka honua”/“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Darkness was upon the waters until God said “I malamalama”/“Let there be light.” One can easily imagine how it must have felt to the Hawaiian scholars, including John Papa Ii, David Malo, Hoapili kane, Kuakini and Samuel M. Kamakau, who worked with the missionaries on the original, 1839 Hawaiian translation of the Bible that meant the key to literacy for their people.

A preface by Helen Kaowili, the Hawaiian Bible project director, gives a history of previous editions of both the English and Hawaiian language bibles that precede this one. “In 1868 the text went through a major revision,” Kaowili said in an email. “The current text is a transliteration and revision of the 1868 text.”

Previous versions have taken out the Hawaiian diacriticals ‘okina and kahako, here replaced, while “w”s have been removed in some cases, for instance, changing the spelling of “auwe” to “aue.” Lovely 19th-century maps of the Holy Land and other places illustrate the endpapers and several interior pages. The book opens flat, inviting easy perusal, and the way that the design enhances the simplicity and directness of the language makes this Baibala a surprisingly quick read.

The 10-year process of producing this bible with a team of scholars and volunteers was led by Partners in Development Foundation (PIDF), a nonprofit that provides a range of free programs in education, social services, environmental sustainability, and integrating Hawaiian language/culture for at-risk communities in Hawaii.

At the season of renewal, it’s timely to have this beautiful new edition of “Ka Baibala Hemolele,” available at local bookstores, Queen Emma Summer Palace shop, and Target as well as through mutualpublishing.com and pidf.org.

“We watched Hōkūleʻa come in from up here,” explains the home’s owner, Allene Uesugi. “All of us came up here to watch.” Allene Uesugi is an on-call Recruitment Specialist with our Hui Hoʻomalu program. A Kalihi native, she is also a veteran Resource Caregiver of over 30 years.

Resource Caregivers provide safe, healthy, and nurturing environments for children who have been removed from their family homes. The children can be any age, from infants to 18 year-olds. The ultimate goal of fostering children is to reunite them with their families.

“The saying, ‘It takes a village to raise a child,’ rings true for children in foster care,” says Stephanie Helbush. Stephanie is the Project Director for Hui Hoʻomalu, our program that recruits, screens, processes, trains, licenses, and supports Resource Families. The wide array of services means there are several staff like Allene, who works part-time and on-call.

Allene has been with Hui Hoʻomalu for several years and has fostered over 300 keiki from all walks of life here in Hawaiʻi nei. Her three biological children were already grown and out of the house when she decided to become a Resource Caregiver. Allene says she missed having children around her house and felt a divine pull to become a foster parent.

She and her husband, Arthur, served as an ’emergency shelter’ for foster children for many years. They would take in any child at any hour, day or night, understanding the urgency and need for such selfless families. Allene had to stop the ’emergency shelter’ designation after Arthur’s untimely death from a heart attack nearly a decade ago.

Allene says she thought she knew everything about parenting, but that by opening her home to foster children she has learned so much more. Allene states that it’s important for both the keiki and their Resource Caregivers to understand that where the children are is not their fault — it’s circumstances beyond their control and the Resource Caregivers are there to do whatever they can to help.

“All these kids need is a jump start. They need somebody to pull them along until they can get really fired up and continue on,” Allene says. “It will take a Resource Caregiver to help them know how important they are.”

Kanani Moananu is a 29 year-old who works in Kapolei. She went into the foster care system at the age of 12 before coming into Allene and Arthur’s home. Kanani describes how important it was for her, and is for every foster child, to feel loved when they come into a stranger’s home.

“If you’re taking the time or the step to actually expand your family, knowing that these are not your biological kids… these kids that are considered ‘foster’ are actually kids that’s looking for love, a safe home, a family that they can be part of and not feel like an outsider. And that’s what I found with Mom Allene and Dad Arthur.”

Kanani is one of the lucky ones. Too often keiki “age out” of foster care: when they turn 18, they are expected to move out and find housing, jobs, transportation — despite many of these young people still being in high school. Young adults who age out of the system are much more at risk for not finishing high school, experiencing homelessness, drug abuse, and incarceration.

Besides the physical effects, former foster children — and especially those who age out — often experience a number of emotional and psychological issues. 25% of keiki who age out are said to experience direct effects of PTSD.

For Kanani, she says she “broke the wheel” that both sides of her family have been spinning for generations. She was the first in three generations to graduate high school. Kanani explains that while she respects her family and honors the decisions they make for themselves, ‘their path’ wasn’t for her.

Nearly 50% of the keiki in foster care in Hawaiʻi are Native Hawaiian. The importance of finding Native Hawaiian families cannot be understated. These families help the keiki on a cultural level — adjusting to foster care is difficult enough.

But there is still an open need for any loving family. Some groups, like older children and teenagers or larger sibling groups are especially difficult to place. Many people might be apprehensive about bringing a teenager into their home, or suddenly finding four children running around, but the need is there. A common phrase at Hui Hoʻomalu goes,, “You don’t have to be perfect to be a perfect parent. There are thousands of teens in foster care who would love to put up with you.”

Becoming a Resource Caregiver may seem like a daunting task, but there are so many organizations that are here to support you at every step of the process. Our Hui Hoʻomalu program partners with local organizations like Family Programs Hawaiʻi and Catholic Charities to provide ongoing support and retention services.

“We need folks to give the gift of foster care, and call us to see if this is something you can do for our youth,” said Stephanie. These children are not able to be in their home environment and desperately need a place to call home during this difficult time.

Allene gets emotional when she talks about the foster children that have come through her doors. From infants to college-age, every one of them has had an impact on her life and how she sees the world. To her, becoming a Resource Caregiver is one of the most important decisions someone can make.

“Open your heart. We always have that saying: ‘one heart, one mind, one breath is the aloha way’. To keep our families together you have to embrace them. We have that same ʻohana. It’s not just our ʻohana. People outside of our ʻohana is ʻohana. People in need is ‘ohana.”

When asked if she had a message for people thinking about becoming a Resource Caregiver, Allene had one thing to say:

“You can make an impact on a life. You just have to want to do it.

Alana came to Partners in Development Foundation (PIDF) in June of 2017. She says while looking for a change in her career she stumbled upon the open position with Hui Hoʻomalu, and that every aspect of the position spoke to her.

As a Community Liaison, Alana works diligently to spread the word about the ever-increasing need for Resource Caregivers. She and the other liaisons attend community events, speak at conferences and meetings, lead HĀNAI trainings, and also serve as a kind of ‘personal assistant’ for families who have made the decision to become Resource Caregivers.

“I get to work with and for people and families who are choosing to love beyond limitations to help a child or children in the foster care system,” says Alana. “I love that while there is a tremendous heaviness in knowing what many of the children in our foster care system have had to face and are facing, this job gives an opportunity to be a part of the lives of the families that are stepping in to help support our children in foster care.”

Gregg Tanaka is Hui Hoʻomalu’s Program Coordinator. He met Alana when she was first hired and calls her self-motivating, willing to step outside the box to spread the word and educate the West Hawaiʻi community about the great need for more foster (Resource) families.

“Alana exudes the mission of PIDF in every way,” he says, “and therefore, she is truly inspirational to the work we all do in our community!”

Outside of her work with Hui Hoʻomalu, Alana started her own church five years ago in Kona. She created the Christian group, called Life Everlasting Ministries, in the hopes of creating a space for all people to come and ‘feel like they are enough’ and to ultimately serve their community from that space.

Through her ministries, Alana’s group participated in a weekly dinner for their local homeless shelter and organized a clothing drive, where they collected donated items for a Department of Human Services (DHS) “shelf” from which foster children can take clothes for themselves.

Alana has also utilized her church’s space to hold monthly foster licensing information sessions that led to the recruitment of at least five families. Boni Grimmel, Assistant Project Director with Hui Hoʻomalu, describes a time Alana’s ingenuity received praise outside of PIDF.

“The Department of Human Services Licensing Unit, during a conference call, thanked Alana and praised her for having turned over to the Department more quality resource caregivers in the last year than in the whole three years prior to her taking this position,” recounts Boni.

Community Relations Manager Carol Hayashida says Alana is truly making an impact in West Hawai’i, saying the families Alana recruits feel genuinely cared about from the very beginning of their process to become Resource Caregivers.

“Alana takes it upon herself to do a post-licensure follow up with the family, either visiting them at their home or in the community,” Carol explains. “By doing this, the families feel cared for and supported, even during difficult times, and are better able to continue on.”

Mahalo nui loa, Alana, for all your work, from your ʻohana at Partners in Development Foundation!

To fulfill our mission of inspiring and equipping families and communities for success and service, Ka Pa‘alana provides comprehensive family education programming for homeless and at-risk families with young children. The program operates across Oʻahu from the Leeward Coast to Kakaʻako and Kailua, as well as East Hawaiʻi Island.

Annually, Ka Paʻalana serves about 500 children ages birth to five and their caregivers by preparing children for school, equipping caregivers to be their child’s first and most important teacher, and empowering adults to not only move toward self-sufficiency, but to give back to their community.

“We are ecstatic to receive this grant from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs,” said Jan E. Hanohano Dill, our president and founder. “We are grateful for their generous support and for all they do to help fulfill the mission and vision of building healthy and resilient communities throughout Hawaiʻi.”

To learn more about Ka Paʻalana or the rest of our programs, explore our website and be sure to follow our social media accounts at @pidfoundation.

Partners in Development Foundation (PIDF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public foundation that inspires and equips families and communities for success and service, using timeless Native Hawaiian values and traditions. The goal is to help these communities overcome difficult challenges in ways that would make them, in turn, teachers and helpers of others in need. Since 1997, PIDF has served over 100,000 people in 75 communities across the Hawaiian Islands. To learn more about all of PIDF’s programs serving Hawaiian families, visit www.pidf.org.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) was established by the state Constitutional Convention in 1978. OHA is a semi-autonomous state agency mandated to better the conditions of Native Hawaiians. Guided by a board of nine publicly elected trustees, OHA fulfills its mandate through advocacy, research, community engagement, land management and the funding of community programs. Learn more at www.oha.org.

OHA’s Grants Program supports non-profit organizations whose projects and programs serve the Native Hawaiian community and align with OHA’s Strategic Results. For more information about the Grants Program, please visit www.oha.org/grants.

The community meal happens at St. James Episcopal Church in Waimea every Thursday evening. Anywhere from 300 to 500 meals are served to the people who come, as well as delivered to the elderly and home-bound in the area.

Meals are organized and sponsored by individuals and groups, as well as corporations and other organizations. The Tūtū and Me alumni sponsorship was an idea cooked up by former Tūtū and Me parent Kelly Barrick, who believed the meal would be a great way to both reunite the keiki and serve their community.

Sixteen year-old Malia McKendry was one of the Tūtū and Me alumni serving at the meal, and said that the event helped her rediscover the bonds she made with her peers while attending the Traveling Preschool.

“Tūtū and Me was a place where I could build the skills I needed to enter the world of school, skills like communications, being comfortable around other kids my age as well as adults, and a love of learning,” she said.

Her mother Fiona McKendry echoed the importance of the program and the wonderful experiences her two keiki had there — with their age overlap, she and her ʻohana attended the program for seven years!

“I have a big appreciation for Tūtū and Me and recommend the program to everyone with young children,” Fiona said. “We all loved our varied experiences and the kids were well-prepared for their entry into kindergarten.”

Both Fiona and her two keiki talked about how the Tūtū and Me curriculum was supportive of their early childhood development. The range of activities provided by the staff ensured that every child’s developmental needs were met, and allowed the parents to grow with one another, too.

Several of the parents from this cohort kept in touch following their children’s graduation from the program. The closeness of the community meant that despite attending different schools, the kids have been able to grow up together and enjoy each other’s company from keiki to teen.

When asked if they would again come together to do something for their community, keiki and adults alike responded with a resounding ‘yes!’

“Ultimately Tūtū and Me was a big part of all of our lives,” continued Fiona. “It has made a huge difference to the families in our community… we are so grateful to have gotten the benefit of a funded quality preschool for our children during a time in most of our lives when income was limited.”

Her 14 year-old son, Caleb, agrees.

“Overall Tūtū and Me was a great experience. It gave me lasting friendships and great memories.”

We at Partners in Development Foundation are thrilled that this group of keiki and their caregivers came together to impact their community, demonstrating the full cycle of the impact of our programs. We look forward to hearing more about their future successes!

Are you an alumni of one of our programs? Do you have any stories to share of how the program has helped you or you community? We want to hear about it! Contact our communications office by calling 808-595-5290 or email communications@pidfoundation.org.

The annual graduation event saw the keiki perform a few songs for their families, collect ‘diplomas’ and receive certificates inside brand-new backpacks. Project Director ‘Aunty’ Lora Perry and her staff even helped one keiki graduate via FaceTime when he and his family were unable to be present.

The event is their way of showing the families how much the Nā Pono team is blessed to have the families be part of the program. Some families have been part of it for 10 years, and Nā Pono No Nā ʻOhana would not be what it is without each and every one of the families, their keiki, and everyone else they bring with them.

“Here in Hawaiʻi, it is so hard to get into a preschool program,” says Keera Ho-Mook, the Project Coordinator with Nā Pono. “I think providing this opportunity for these families gives them an option that they might not otherwise have.”

Following the graduation, families gathered around their keiki to celebrate this first of many big steps in their education. In completing the Junior Kindergarten, the children have shown that they are prepared to come into a kindergarten classroom and thrive.

“It gives the graduates and their families a sense of accomplishment,” continues Keera. She explains the importance of education to these families, and how vital it is to show the keiki how important school can be for them.

Besides the excitement of graduating and celebrating with their families, Nā Pono treated the keiki to a showing from the Reptile Man, a shave ice truck, and a delicious brunch.

When asked about a message for the graduating keiki, Keera had insightful words.

“We wish them well and hope that we have provided a stepping stone for them for the rest of their future. We believe that success can start at any age, and if we teach our families and our children that all of this can be possible, then they know that every step that they go towards, they can accomplish it.”

Hoʻomaikaʻi to the Nā Pono No Nā ʻOhana Junior Kindergarten graduating class of 2019! We wish you all the best for your future!

To see more photos from the graduation, go to our Facebook album here.

This year, Partners in Development Foundation (PIDF) had two teams: one on Hawaiʻi Island and one on Oʻahu. The teams were not competing, but raised money for different specific programs of PIDF.

On Oʻahu, the team raised over $1,300 for our Ka Paʻalana Homeless Family Education Program. More than two dozen staff and families turned out to walk the 5 miles through Waikiki, and everyone enjoyed the snacks and refreshing beverages along the way.

Almost $1,000 was raised for the Kona Tūtū and Me Traveling Preschool sites. Their team included different sensory activities for keiki to participate in, such as rainbow rice, frozen dinosaur eggs, and more. One of their keiki graduates also placed second in the running competition.

“Tūtū and Me Kona had such a fabulous time participating in the [Hawaii Visitor Industry] Charity Walk,” said Dawn Taniyama, Site Manager I at Kailua-Kona. “Mahalo, mahalo, mahalo to all the helping hands and support received in making this such a valuable event!”

The grant will go to PIDF’s latest project, Piha me ka Pono, a new initiative at the Kohala Schools Complex on Hawaiʻi Island that cultivates partnerships to bring needed academic, health, and social support services for the students and their families.

“The Complex’s three schools are Title I eligible and it has been recognized that so many of the students are coming to school with excess baggage,” says Alison Masutani, PIDF Vice President of Operations and the Program Manager for Pili a Paʻa. “Unless we help to remove that baggage, no matter how strong the instruction is, the students will have difficulty learning.”

That ‘baggage’ Masutani is referring to includes poverty, food insecurity, and poor physical, mental or emotional health. One of the Project’s goals is to increase academic achievement of disadvantaged and under-served students through the development of after school enrichment programs that provide positive alternatives for students’ free time. Support from the Nā ʻŌiwi Kāne Fund will go towards two different mentorship programs: sports conditioning and music.

The Piha me ka Pono Project is an offshoot of the existing Pili a Paʻa program, which was created to build teachers’ skills in instructional delivery in order to raise student achievement, particularly for the Native Hawaiian students, and it is also at the Kohala Schools Complex.

The Hawaiʻi Community Foundation (HCF) is a 501(c)(3) public charity with over 100 years of community service and is the leading philanthropic institution in the state of Hawaiʻi. HCF is a steward of nearly 800 funds – including more than 200 scholarship funds – created by donors who desire to transform lives and improve communities. HCF distributes over $47 million charitable dollars to support improvements in our local communities annually. HCF also serves as a resource on community issues and trends in the nonprofit sector. For more information, visit their website.

“Ka Paʻalana started this program with the hopes that we could join families of different cultures together,” said Kasey Galariada, a Family Education Coordinator with Ka Paʻalana.

The families at HOPE Shelter work hard throughout the year to put together dances and other performances from their different cultures. The time allows them to connect to their cultural roots, and take a break from their struggles to just celebrate with one another.

Qahhara Griffin is a participant of our Ka Paʻalana program and says that the annual event fosters a lot of love between the families. “It helps everyone become closer, to appreciate each other’s music, dancing, traditions… I’m so grateful I was a part of it.”

To see more photos from Culture Night, visit our Facebook page here.

Our Hui Hoʻomalu foster care licensing program is putting on numerous events across the Islands all month long. From sign waving events, info sessions, to free family movie nights, Hui Hoʻomalu is working to inform the public about the importance of fostering children.

There are over 1,500 keiki in foster care in Hawaiʻi nei. Over 50% of these kids are Native Hawaiian, highlighting a real need for Resource Caregivers who understand Hawaiian culture and values, and can make the transitions in foster care that much easier on children in need.

Every foster child needs a loving home! Contact our Hui Hoʻomalu program today to find out how you can get involved, from volunteering to becoming a fully licensed Resource Caregiver. Their contact information is listed below.

Make sure to follow Hui Hoʻomalu’s Facebook page! There, they announce their latest community events.

We here at Partners in Development Foundation hope you will use the resources this month to consider helping a child in need — become a Resource Caregiver!

Hui Hoʻomalu offices:
Oʻahu: (808) 441-1117
Kauaʻi: (808) 346-8184
Maui/ Lanaʻi/ Molokaʻi: (808) 268-5122
West Hawaiʻi Island: (808) 896-3829
East Hawaiʻi Island: (808) 987-5988
Neighbor Island toll free: (888) 879-8970
Email: hui@pidfoundation.org