In addition to growing produce using agroforestry and Indigenous methods, Kupa ʻAina also offers two programs to youth, Hoʻokahua Workforce Development Program and Hoʻokanaka Cultural Diversion Program. Through these programs, youth are given the opportunity to improve their vocational skills and strengthen their identity and values using ʻāina-based practices. The Indigenous Tomorrows Fund will support Kupa ʻAina as it continues to foster island resiliency, sustainability, and positive development in our youth. 

“During my time at Kupa ‘Aina, I learned to look at things from a different perspective, learned how to wait for the right place, the right time,” shares Colt, who experienced the transformative programs at Kupa ‘Aina. “Being at Kupa ‘Aina helped me change the way I think, the way I do things.” 

The Indigenous Tomorrows Fund is supporting organizations across the nation that are implementing community-led strategies to advance health and wellbeing, secure food justice for children, and strengthen intergenerational connections between culture and healing. The Indigenous Tomorrows Fund distributed $720,000 to communities across the United States. PIDF is honored to be 1 of 24 recipients, and 1 of only 3 in Hawaiʻi. 

This grant will help Kupa ʻAina continue connecting program participants, volunteers, and community members with ʻāina and sustainable natural farming methods. Through ʻāina, food security is one step closer, values are defined, and personal growth is achieved. 

Nourishment

Leanne walked the PIDF staff members into the kalo mala, or dryland farm for a nourishing activity. They selectively separated keiki kalo plants sprouting off the makua (parent) plant so that they could be replanted and soak in more nutrients. Likewise, outplanting the keiki kalo on their own allows them to retain nutrients without having to share with a larger plant. The team also prepared huli, or kalo stems, from previously harvested kalo so that they could be replanted. This age-old way of planting connects today’s people with ancient Hawaiʻi, so that the kalo plant may continue feeding the people of Hawaiʻi. This activity not only nourished the kalo, but also emotionally nourished themselves knowing they are investing in the well-being of future generations, too. 

Mālama

Celeste guided members of the administration in connecting to the ʻāina by pulling weeds. They grounded themselves with hanu (breath), and allowed their minds to clear through the practice of one of PIDF’s core values of Mālama, to take care. The staff plucked weeds from kalo patches, that can quickly become overgrown if not attended to. Weeds can strangle plants as well as take nutrients from the crops. Removing weeds is just as important as all the other steps that cultivate healthy growth for the food crops and stands as a reminder to take care of what takes care of us. 

Pilikia

Machijah paved a way for his group to address pilikia (frustration or tensions), that individuals may have felt built up that they wanted to relieve. The members of this group were given machetes used to slim and replenish the overgrown banana trees that populate the acreage. They were encouraged to cut through tough feelings as they sliced through the wilted limbs of the tree. This activity reflects how to let go of what no longer serves you, allowing energy to flow to what you want to grow. 

Healing

Mana led the activities that prompted healing. The team members took oʻo (large digging sticks) to puncture holes into the ground and tuck ʻōlena roots in. ʻŌlena, or turmeric, is a root in the ginger family used frequently as a spice in cooking, for dying clothes, and especially in lāʻau lapaʻau, or spiritual and medicinal healing practices. The team took turns digging and planting, and fell into a rhythm of rooting the ʻōlena roots so they may bloom in the months to come. The staff learned that though the growth will be slow, in the months to come, roots full of nutrients and vibrant colors are growing underneath the surface and will eventually sprout.

Today, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation announced Partners in Development Foundation (PIDF) and its collaborative partners known as the Opportunity Youth Action Hawaiʻi (OYAH) as one of the Racial Equity 2030 Challenge’s five awardees. The Challenge is awarding $80 million to help build and scale actionable ideas for transformative change in the systems and institutions that uphold racial inequities. Our project, “Kawailoa: A Transformative Indigenous Model to End Youth Incarceration”, was awarded $20 million dollars over an eight-year commitment.

The Kawailoa project is committed to replacing youth incarceration with a Native Hawaiian restorative system that empowers communities, trains youth healers, and shifts resources to community-driven and culturally-grounded sanctuaries of support.

In Hawaiʻi, young Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders are disproportionately represented in the juvenile justice system. Before, during, and after, they continue to encounter setbacks that are indicative of systemic failures and generational challenges, and number far too many experiencing foster care, substance abuse, human trafficking, child welfare, and poor educational outcomes. The OYAH group represents community-based and state entities working to create positive pathways for Hawaiʻi’s most vulnerable population, including PIDF and its Kupa ʻAina Farm, Kinai ʻEha, Hale Kipa’s Hale Lanipōlua Assessment Center, Residential Youth Services & Empowerment, Hawaiʻi Youth and Correctional Facility, and Olomana alternative-education school located at the Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center on Oʻahu. 

Launched in 2020, the Racial Equity 2030 Challenge was designed to help build and scale actionable ideas for transformative change in the systems and institutions that uphold racial inequities. The Challenge aims to unleash transformative solutions to improve the lives of children, families and communities across the world.

“This incredible opportunity from the Kellogg Foundation allows us to expand our innovative approaches that directly address racial inequities by replacing a punitive system with a sustainable, therapeutic model rooted in our cultural values and ancestral wisdom,” said Shawn Kanaʻiaupuni, President and CEO of PIDF. “We are a group of committed leaders and organizations who see ourselves as part of the solution to forward the foundational work accomplished in the last ten years to create a more equitable youth justice system.”

The challenge was announced in 2020, 90 years after the founding of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and received 1,453 submissions from 72 countries around the world. In September 2021, the Kellogg Foundation announced the top 10 finalists for the challenge who each received a $1 million grant and nine months of capacity building support. All finalists moved through a process of multiple levels of review, feedback and diligence involving peer applicants and multi-disciplined experts from across the world.  

“Partners in Development Foundation and the Opportunity Youth Action Hawaiʻi collaborative, already have a strong track record, and are continuing the work that has reduced the youth incarceration rate in Hawaiʻi by 82 percent over the last decade,” said Ciciley “CC” Moore, senior program officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. “They’re replacing youth incarceration with culturally rooted programs aimed at healing, which is drastically cutting recidivism, especially among Native Hawaiian and BIPOC youth. We are proud to be partners for the next eight years.” 

The Racial Equity 2030 Challenge was managed in partnership with Lever for Change, a nonprofit affiliate of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation that connects donors with bold solutions to the world’s biggest problems—including issues like racial inequity, gender inequality, lack of access to economic opportunity and climate change.

The Department of Human Services and Office of Youth Services is proud to be a partner on this journey to transform youth incarceration with a Native Hawaiian restorative system that empowers youth and communities.   

This incredible opportunity builds upon decades of juvenile justice reform in Hawai’i and propels us towards truly meaningful racial equity change and healing.  As stewards of the youth and land at the Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center and Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility, we look forward to the continued partnership and collaboration ahead to accomplish this joint vision.  We would like to thank the Partners in Development Foundation and the Opportunity Youth Action Network for their partnership, collaboration, and passion in making this happen. 

We’d especially like to thank the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for their vision of all children having an equitable and promising future and for their investment in us and the youth of Hawai’i.

Leanne Gillespie, Office of Youth Services

Learn more about the Hawaiʻi project to end youth incarceration at www.wearekawailoa.org. For more information about the Racial Equity 2030 Challenge, the awardees, and the finalists can be found at wkkf.org/re2030.

The retreat steps off the heels of the Ulu Hana 25th anniversary Pāʻina, where the PIDF board of directors and officers gathered to celebrate and support the foundation laid before them by founders Jan Dill, Morris Takushi, and the late Gary Glenn. 

With the addition of four new board members in the last year, the team had an opportunity to connect and learn from each other, as well as share more about their own networks and the capacities for which their reach can benefit PIDF and the Hawaiʻi community at-large. The retreat discussion reflected on organizational directions to strengthen foundations, maintain core values, and consider ways to build financial strength, visibility, and partnerships. 

“PIDF has been a critical provider of services from keiki to kūpuna,” said Kyle Chock, PIDF board chair. “As a board, we were able to spend time and see first-hand the direct impact these programs have in improving beneficiaries’ lives. Our goal is to continue to provide services and collaborate to address the critical issues in our community.”  

The board headed over to the Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center, host to the Opportunity Youth Action Hawaiʻi campus partners: PIDF’s Kupa ʻAina Natural Farm, Kinai ʻEha, Hale Kipa, RYSE Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi Youth Correctional Facility, and Olomana School. 

Farm hands Machijah and Mana led the PIDF board of directors through the traditional Hawaiian and contemporary farming methods, such as the Korean style fertilizer that they use to cultivate crops like kalo and ʻuala in the mala. Not only did the young staff share about how working on the farm has changed their views and life choices, they briefed the board on the various projects and visitors from Kawailoa campus partners, including youth from HYCF or RYSE, who support and learn about food security and ʻāina-based healing. 

The board of directors toured the rest of the campus and ended their day at the Kawailoa campus partner, Kinai ʻEha, where they met with ʻōpio (youth) beginning their fitness session after a day’s work. They shared their gratitude for being able to participate in diversion programs that offer opportunities outside of a jail cell or on the streets. The team toured the pilot residential work training facility and learned about fitness as part of the mind, body, and spiritual healing that is supported on campus.

“Learning about the vital work of PIDF in collaboration with the network of providers involved in the Opportunity Youth Action Hawaiʻi collective was both inspiring and heartening,” said Kawena Beaupre, PIDF board director. “This effort is a true testament to how a Native Hawaiian system of support that offers healing, empowerment, and opportunities can change one’s trajectory in life. It also exemplifies the importance and value of PIDF’s work in our communities.” 

The PIDF board retreat concluded with an exercise that parallels the way kūpuna categorized and organized our natural world and all systems within our universe. The team focused on deconstructing a chant called “Kūlia e Uli” using the Papakū Makawalu method taught by the Edith Kanakaʻole Foundation. This method categorizes systems into three houses: Papahulilani (space above the head into the stars), Papahulihonua (area inclusive of the earth, ocean and itʻs development and evolution by natural causes), and Papāhanaumoku (stage of life from embryonic state of all life to death). 

When applied to PIDF, the Papakū Makawalu method can serve as a guide in understanding how our programs are categorized, how they function within the system they are placed in, and opportunities for improvement. Through careful observation and analysis, the Hawaiian people navigated systems and responded to them in a connected, aligned way, much like how PIDF hopes to flow within our communities.

When Mark Patterson took over as administrator of the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility in 2014, he inherited 500 acres of farm ranch — and the care of 26 boys and seven girls between 13 and 19 years old.

By 2016, his facility, in Kailua, Oahu, was only holding between five and six girls at a time. And in June, the last girl left the facility.

For the first time, there are no girls incarcerated in the state of Hawaii.

Patterson said this moment is “20 years in the making,” and the result of a systemwide effort to divert girls from the judicial system and into trauma-based care programs. The number of incarcerated boys has also lowered significantly in the past decade, he added.

Patterson said HYCF is a last resort — the kids there “have run away from programs 10 to 11 times” and are the most vulnerable of the high-risk youth. But various state officials have agreed that “we no longer want to keep sending our kids to prison,” Patterson said.

“What I’m trying to do is end the punitive model that we have so long used for our kids, and we replace it with a therapeutic model,” he added. “Do we really have to put a child in prison because she ran away? What kind of other environment is more conducive for her to heal and be successful in the community?”

Hawaii isn’t the only state to reach zero girls in long-term placement facilities.

According to Lindsay Rosenthal, director of the Vera Institute’s Initiative to End Girls’ Incarceration, Vermont has zero long-term placement facilities for girls, and for nine months in 2020, Maine had zero incarcerated girls statewide. Since February 2021, New York City hasn’t had more than two girls in the state’s juvenile placement facility at any given time.

After 35 years, a lawsuit over ‘inhumane’ juvenile detention in D.C. has led to major reforms

This is part of a larger trend in juvenile justice reform: Since 2000, more than 1,000 juvenile facilities have closed, including two-thirds of the largest facilities. And between 2000 and 2018, youth incarceration rates dropped by more than half, according to the Square One Project, a justice reform initiative.

But just as women are the fastest-growing prison population, the proportion of girls in juvenile detention has increased even as overall numbers have gone down. Researchers also estimate a disproportionate number of incarcerated youth are nonbinary or transgender, although there is limited data on this. As advocates point out, the majority of incarcerated girls are in prison for low-level offenses, often influenced by a history of abuse — as noted in various research — or systemic challenges, such as poverty.

Rosenthal said juvenile justice reform has progressed dramatically in the past 10 to 15 years. But she emphasized that a state reaching zero doesn’t necessarily reflect progress — Vermont has sent some girls to facilities in New Hampshire, and placed at least one girl into an adult prison, for example — without the presence of community-based alternative programming. HYCF is an example of a facility that has seen such an investment pay off, she said.

Gender-focused programming is essential, Rosethal added, because of “the criminalization of sexual abuse.” This legacy, she said, reaches back to colonization and slavery in the United States and has resulted in the disproportionately high incarceration rates of Black and Indigenous women and girls.

“No matter what girls are charged with in the juvenile legal system today, the most common reason why they’re incarcerated, which most leaders openly talk about, is that they are not safe in the community,” she said. “That’s wrong, and it has incredibly deep historical roots.”

The history of HYCF has also been thrown into the spotlight this year: In May, the Interior Department released an investigative report that found thousands or tens of thousands of children died in the custody of federal boarding schools, which operated between 1819 and 1969 and separated Native American and Native Hawaiian children from their families. Among their list of schools implicated in Hawaii are the Kawailoa and Waialee Industrial and Reformatory Schools, HYCF’s direct predecessors that merged into the facility in 1961.

The facility also received attention in the early aughts, when a 2004 Justice Department investigation found that the facility was in a “state of chaos” with rampant abuse. The American Civil Liberties Union won a lawsuit against HYCF in 2006, in which three young people charged the facility and its staff with homophobic and transphobic abuse.

Investigation finds burial sites at 53 federal Indian boarding schools

Patterson said the movement to replace punitive systems with trauma-informed care in Hawaii’s juvenile justice system reaches back to 2004, when Judge Karen Radius, a now-retired First Circuit Family Court judge, founded Girls Court. One of the first in the nation, the program aimed to address the specific crimes and trauma history of girls.

“News that there are currently no girls in the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility at this point in time is great news. But we know it doesn’t mean we have solved all the issues facing girls and young women,” Radius said, noting her concern that pandemic shutdowns and policy changes may have barred at-risk youth from receiving necessary support.

Many influential programs in the state followed the formation of Girls Court. In 2009, Project Kealahou launched as a six-year, federally funded program aimed at improving services for Hawaii’s at-risk female youth. And in 2013, Hawaii created the Juvenile Justice Reform Task Force to analyze the juvenile justice system in Hawaii and provide policy recommendations aimed at reducing the HYCF population.

Then, in 2018, Patterson partnered with the Initiative to End Girls’ Incarceration and drafted a “10-year strategy to get to zero.” The overarching goal was to focus on the underlying trauma the youth were suffering from, instead of the crimes they were charged with, Patterson said.

Before working with youths, Patterson was the warden of Hawaii’s only women’s prison, the Women’s Community Correctional Center (WCCC), across the street. He said his time there showed him how many of the women there could trace their trauma back to their home life as a child.

That same year, he set out transitioning HYCF into the Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center, remodeling the program around trauma-informed care — a framework for care providers to understand and consider the impact an individual’s trauma history has on their life and health. Today’s campus has a homeless shelter, an assessment center, a vocational program serving youths ages 15 to 24, a farm managed by a nonprofit and a high school for high-risk youths.

Guiding this transformation was Patterson’s goal of creating a pu’uhonua — a place created within a traditional Hawaiian village for conflict resolution and forgiveness — for Hawaii’s most vulnerable youths.

As Patterson described it, a pu’uhonua acknowledges and identifies a wrong that has been committed in the village. But unlike a punitive system, “we’re going to teach you how to live with the village and manage the wrong,” he said. “So that you’re no longer an outcast, but you’re still welcome back.”

Throughout decades of criminal justice reform in Hawaii, advocates have drawn attention to the disproportionate incarceration of Native Hawaiians. A study by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs in 2009 reported that Native Hawaiians were more likely to get a prison sentence than any other ethnic group in Hawaii, and that their prison sentences were likely to be longer.

Patterson said that in his experience, a disproportionate amount of teenagers coming to him are Native Hawaiians — both the girls and boys at his facility.

The OHA attributes the overrepresentation of Native Hawaiians in the criminal justice system to disparate treatment. Its 2009 report described discrimination within the courts, parole practices and during interactions with correctional staff. It also detailed culturally inappropriate reentry services for Native Hawaiians.

For Toni Bissen, executive director of the Pu’a Foundation, an organization focused on healing and reconciliation efforts related to the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, it all comes back to trauma: personal, historical and intergenerational.

“The generational aspect of loss and power, poverty, violence that just kind of compounds,” she said. “That is what is happening in these households. And that’s why drugs, truancy and different kinds of things are outlets.”

The Pu’a Foundation ran a pre-transition class for the last four girls incarcerated at HYCF. But another important task in the transition was identifying programs that could provide them with specialty care. For some previously incarcerated girls, Pearl Haven was that place.

Created two years ago by the nonprofit Ho’ola Na Pua (HNP), Pearl Haven is the first live-in care center on Hawaii for survivors of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. Jessica Munoz, president of HNP, said she saw a need for Pearl Haven when she was working as a clinical nurse practitioner in Hawaii.

“When I first started, we were arresting kids,” she said. “We weren’t screening for sexual exploitation or trafficking among the court system, among the child welfare system.”

Tammy Bitanga, a lived experience expert and outreach coordinator at HNP, sees the release of the girls at HYCF as a positive step forward. As a survivor of sex trafficking, she said she has also seen firsthand how the Hawaii juvenile justice system is changing.

She was trafficked in the 1970s, she said, when “there was no word called trafficking.” Instead, she was seen as an underage prostitute. “I hid behind that,” she said. “So I never told anybody what I was doing while I was on the run for nine months from the system.”

Now, the system is providing young women with the chance to look at “what was done to them, instead of what they’ve done,” Bitanga said.

Cathy Betts, director of the Department of Human Services in Hawaii, said reaching zero gave her “hope for the future” — and that trauma-informed care is necessary for “any work involving humans.”

For her, this is also a bittersweet moment: a reflection of many Hawaiians working to improve the lives of at-risk girls, which she saw firsthand while leading the Hawaii Commission on the Status of Women.

“You’ve got to understand that people’s blood, sweat and tears went into this moment,” she said, tearing up. “We’ve got judges that retired that weren’t able to see this moment, that passed, that spent their whole lives as attorneys and litigators and people who serve children and families who weren’t able to see that moment. It doesn’t happen overnight.”

Patterson is now turning his attention to helping expand legislation on trauma-informed care. In 2021, state lawmakers passed a bill establishing a trauma-informed care task force within the Department of Health, which Betts is a part of. And on July 12, lawmakers passed a bill establishing a temporary office of wellness and resilience in the office of the governor, which is authorized to address issues and implement solutions identified by the task force.

Despite this progress, Patterson said, the job is far from over.

“This is not a zero … everybody’s finished, we can go home,” he said. “Now the question is sustaining zero.”

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – An Oahu program that helps at-risk youth and young adults could soon be getting millions of dollars in funding and worldwide recognition.

Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center was one of 1,453 non-profit applicants from 72 countries vying for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Racial Equity 2030 challenge.

The center made the final cut, ending up in the top 10.

The winners will be decided soon with the top three each receiving $20 million.

The next group are awarded $10 million each.

Mark Patterson is the administrator of the Kawailoa center, which is located on the property of the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility. He said the center replaces punitive techniques with alternative teaching methods, in particular Native Hawaiian practices that the kids use to tend to the 500-acre farm.

Farming program that aims to help at-risk youth find their way is a finalist for $20M grant

There are about 100 head of cattle.

The kids also take care of ulu, bananas, taro, mangos are among the produce.

The beef feeds the people at the facility. Workers also care for chickens.

During COVID-19, the goods were donated to the community food drives. In addition to the farm, other programs on site help the kids further the education and offer vocational training.

Kawailoa is not just for those sentenced.

The property has a shelter for the homeless and provides a safe place for trafficking victims.

“Creating our concept of what a puuhonua, a sanctuary, would look like for our most vulnerable children and their families,” Patterson said.

While the winners will be chosen by the end of the month for the grant awards, the announcement isn’t expected to be public until fall.

The funds will be distributed over the course of several years. Patterson said the money would allow Kawailoa to expand programs and add mental health services.

For the first time in its history, the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility holds no incarcerated girls. Some believe that the same fate for boys may not be far behind.

The departure of all girls from the facility in May follows decades of reform efforts from state departments and community organizations aiming to divert youth from Hawaii’s juvenile justice system.

Meda Chesney-Lind, professor emerita of women’s studies at the University of Hawaii, said experts have grappled with the challenge of reducing the population of the correctional facility since the 1980s.

Those efforts were accelerated after a 2004 Department of Justice investigation revealed abuses at the facility, including the sexual assault of girls and inadequate medical care for incarcerated youth.

In response, state leaders focused on developing reforms to reduce Hawaii’s reliance on the juvenile justice system.

While some efforts have focused specifically on reducing the facility’s female population, others have provided community-based alternatives and robust support systems that have helped boys as well.

The proof of success lies in the numbers: while HYCF had 200 boys 50 years ago, the number has now fallen to 16. The number of girls has hovered around three to four a day over the past two years, also marking a drop from the 25 female incarcerees HYCF held 10 years ago.

The Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women tweeted Thursday that HYCF’s female population had finally hit zero. However, girls may still enter HYCF in the future.

The announcement drew praise from Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who retweeted the commission’s announcement with the comment “Wow. Another world is possible.”

The correctional center also has reduced its footprint. Mark Patterson is the administrator of HYCF and the Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center, a farming program for vulnerable youth located on HYCF’s property. He said he managed three correctional cottages with up to 100 beds eight years ago. Today, there is only one cottage with 30 beds.

Martha Torney, the former executive director of the Office of Youth Services who helped resolve the justice department’s litigation against the state, said she credits the Judiciary’s Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative with reducing the number of young people incarcerated at HYCF.

The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative offers community-based substitutes to detention and incarceration across the country. The initiative has collected data on the conditions of incarceration facilities, promoted home confinement alternatives and implemented reforms expediting the processing of juvenile cases.

“Once you turn off that faucet and you start diverting kids away from detention, fewer and fewer are going to be committed to the youth facility,” Torney said.

At the same time, community organizations have sought to identify at-risk youth and divert them from the juvenile justice system.

Some of those alternatives are provided by Hale Kipa, a nonprofit organization that focuses on addressing the underlying issues of trauma and abuse that often lead youth to commit crimes.

For example, the Kalihi Juvenile Assessment Center tries to keep individuals out of family court and the juvenile justice system by providing youth with civil citations and services to improve family relationships, remain in school and navigate their teenage years.

Hale Kipa also operates the Hale Lanipolua Assessment Center, which allows both girls and boys who were victims of sex trafficking to receive emergency housing and trauma-informed support instead of becoming incarcerated.

“Many of our programs are for both boys and girls, because we believe strongly that catching anyone earlier in there will prevent more penetration into the juvenile justice system,” Hale Kipa’s deputy CEO Jaque Kelley-Uyeoka said.

Meanwhile in 2014, Hawaii’s Legislature passed a law increasing investments in youth mental health and substance abuse programs with the goal of cutting HYCF’s population by 60% by 2019. In the same year, the Legislature decriminalized prostitution for minors.

Many of the reforms targeted both boys and girls, Torney said. However, specific changes including the decision to decriminalize prostitution, targeted unique problems faced by girls in the juvenile justice system.

In 2004, the Hawaii State Judiciary created the Girls Court to teach probation officers how to work with and understand girls’ needs since workers’ caseloads overwhelmingly consisted of boys.

“Once you turn off that faucet and you start diverting kids away from detention, fewer and fewer are going to be committed to the youth facility.” — Martha Torney

At the same time, judges received training in order to understand the underlying trauma driving girls’ decisions to run away from home. As a result, judges began to work with girls to help them receive counseling and other services in lieu of placement at HYCF.

Gender-specific approaches to diverting youth from HYCF also reflect differences in the reasons for incarceration for boys and girls across the state. While girls are more likely to commit status offenses, such as violating the state’s 10 p.m. curfew or failing to attend school, boys tend to be more involved in criminal activities such as robbery, sexual assault or murder, Torney said.

For these reasons, Torney added, it may be more difficult for HYCF’s male population to drop to zero.

“We have boys who engage in very serious behaviors, and so we may never get it to zero,” Torney said. “I’m very proud of where it is.”

However, Patterson remains hopeful about the potential for continued progress in the state. He believes it is possible to reduce the overall population in HYCF, especially because many of the youth who are convicted of serious felonies are tried and held in the adult criminal system.

Chesney-Lind also sees the milestone of having no girls as a positive sign for the future.

“I’ve always argued that female incarceration is really just a roadmap for how we get fewer and fewer kids into those kinds of settings,” Chesney-Lind said. “Because you don’t want to have your kids growing up in a prison.”

This fund will offer support over three years and engage with ALICE households to inspire them to get involved in civic action and advocate for their long-term success and wellbeing. On behalf of ALICE households, #PIDFoundation plans to broaden its reach in island resiliency.

As part of the 2022 – 2024 ALICE initiative cohort, Kupa ʻAina seeks to address three challenges facing Hawaii:

1. Reducing poverty and negative outcomes among youth who face significant hurdles meeting basic needs like access to food, housing, finding steady wages and employment;
2. Tackling food insecurity and its impact on community health;
3. Increasing sustainability and locally grown crops using cultural tools and methodologies.

Kupa ʻAina will collaborate with key partners in addressing ALICE impact areas of:

• Job Training and Career Advancement
• Financial education
• Decreasing household costs (food)

Kupa ʻAina will expand its community partnerships to provide Hawaii’s most at-risk and vulnerable youth with mentorship and vocational training opportunities, financial literacy education, and supplemental services to increase their independence and financial stability. Kupa ʻAina will also donate food to ALICE households through community partnerships with other ALICE grantees, like Residential Youth Services & Empowerment.

The Hawai‘i Community Foundation and Aloha United Way Announce the 2022 – 2024 ALICE Initiative Cohort

17 nonprofit organizations will receive a total of $4.5 million over a three-year period to support their work to improve the economic conditions of ALICE households in Hawaiʻi. The funding partnership is the only largest in the state focused on the ALICE population.

Original press release published on Aloha United Way on April 20, 2022 click here to read.

HONOLULU – The Hawaiʻi Community Foundation (HCF) and Aloha United Way (AUW) today announced the cohort of nonprofit organizations selected to be a part of their 2022 – 2024 ALICE Initiative cohort. The selected organizations will receive a combined total of $1.5 million per year over the next three years to support their work on key issues facing ALICE households, specifically relating to financial stability, building savings, and safe and affordable housing. This cohort will build on the momentum of the previous 3-year cohort to create measurable impact to improve the economic conditions for ALICE residents in Hawaiʻi.

ALICE is an acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, and is a way to describe people in Hawaiʻi who are working but struggling to make ends meet, with no safety net for emergencies. According to recent estimates, by the end of 2020, the percentage of ALICE households in Hawai‘i had grown from 42 percent to 59 percent.

The ALICE Initiative uses a collective impact model to achieve large-scale social change. Unlike the traditional funding model that provides financial resources to individual organizations, the collective impact model aims to create positive social change through intentional cooperation, shared measurement, and tools that help build capacity.  

AUW, HCF, and a volunteer community review committee selected nonprofits based on Oʻahu with existing or pilot programs that help ALICE households obtain the financial tools and resources to build savings, reduce debt, and secure stable housing. The cohort will work collectively on programs that increase access to untapped public benefits, job training and career advancement tools, as well as match savings programs and education. The cohort will also work to create more affordable housing opportunities and community organizing which play a critical role in creating systemic change. This cohort of ALICE Fund grantees will work as a collective to develop shared goals, create strategies and indicators of progress; and adopt and implement these shared strategies over the three-year period.

“Working in partnership with Aloha United Way, the Hawai‘i Community Foundation is committed to finding solutions that lead to a more equitable Hawai‘i,” says Michelle Kauhane, senior vice president of community grants and initiatives at HCF. “Doing so requires focused work on tackling systemic change over multiple years. Through the ALICE Initiative Cohort, we’re creating a space where experts can come together to share their experience, knowledge and best practices and work collaboratively to create a measurable impact in our communities.”

“Through this collective approach, we can address complex social problems and systemic barriers that no single entity or sector is able to address on its own,” says John Fink, the CEO of Aloha United Way. “This is not a grantor/grantee model, but rather an innovation that requires long-term partnerships that build trust, collaboration, shared resources, and metrics. We are excited to convene such dedicated providers as part of a larger hui to tackle these big issues together.”

Caroline Hayashi, president of the Waikīkī Community Center (WCC), says she’s excited for her organization to be part of this 2022 – 2024 cohort. “As a community center, especially during the pandemic, we have witnessed the power of community—coming together to accomplish things we never would have thought possible just a few years ago. Collective impact harnesses the synergy of all of our organizations, communities and partners, so we can be so much more than the sum of our parts. That is why WCC is so grateful for the opportunity to participate in this collective impact cohort, which leverages the power of community, amplifies our own work, and acknowledges that no one can do it alone.”

HCF partnered with AUW due to the ALICE Initiative’s alignment with the HCF CHANGE Framework. Each of the six letters of the HCF CHANGE Framework represents a sector that affects the community and its ability to thrive. Under the Community & Economy sector, housing affordability and the cost of living in Hawai‘i are included as indicators that affect the well-being of Hawai‘i’s people.

The 2022 – 2024 ALICE Initiative cohort includes:

• Hawaiʻi HomeOwnership Center
• Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement
• Family Promise of Hawaiʻi
• Feed the Hunger Fund
• Goodwill Hawai‘i
• Hawaiʻi Childrenʻs Action Network
• Institute for Native Pacific Education and Culture
• Legal Aid Society of Hawaiʻi
• Parents And Children Together
• Partners in Development Foundation
• Waikīkī Community Center
• Residential Youth Services & Empowerment (RYSE)
• Catholic Charities Hawaiʻi
• Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice
• Hawaiian Community Assets Inc.
• The Institute for Human Services Inc.
• Kōkua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services

To learn more about this cohort, visit https://www.auw.org/2022-2024-alice-cohort

Original story published on Honolulu Civil Beat’s Community Voice column on March 16, 2022 by Leah Delos Santos and Lyla Gonsalves, click here to read.

Driving by the small Nuuanu elementary school we attended together is a reminder of teachers who encouraged our civic engagement.

Looking back, it wasn’t all idyllic. We saw rampant homelessness and our school had brushes with minor crime like vandalism, but we were shielded from many harsher realities.

No one told us that youth our age are entering the criminal justice system after truancies or school suspensions, that a high proportion of sex trafficked youth are Native Hawaiian, or that people our age can be held in solitary confinement when incarcerated, with few limits.

As first-year college students, we learned about these problems — or, we say, opportunities to make a difference — not in a classroom, but as part of a policy internship program with the Opportunity Youth Action Hui. Now that our eyes have been opened, we feel compelled to act. This program gave us the knowledge and tools to support bills in the Legislature, seven of which are currently advancing.

OYAH is a collaboration of organizations and individuals committed to reducing the harmful effects of a punitive incarceration system for youth and promoting Native Hawaiian equity in the justice system. OYAH seeks holistic and culturally informed approaches among agencies serving youth.

Our work as policy interns has been to identify legislation that will prevent youth incarceration and improve the criminal justice system. Of the 2,800 bills introduced in the Legislature, more than one hundred would make a difference in the lives of incarcerated youth, or Opportunity Youth.

OYAH has a specific commitment to the Native Hawaiian community, a group that is over-represented in various disadvantaged and troubled fields, including incarceration, homelessness, poverty, sex trafficking, abuse, poor health (both mental and physical) and more. According to a report by the American Civil Liberties Union, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders made up only 23% of adults in the state but a reported 47% of people incarcerated under Hawaii’s jurisdiction.

Furthermore, Native Hawaiians are more likely to receive a sentence of incarceration over probation, are more likely to get a prison sentence than all other groups, are sentenced to longer probation terms and receive longer prison sentences than most other racial or ethnic groups and make up the highest percentage of people incarcerated in out-of-state facilities, says the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

As OYAH’s policy interns, we are presented with opportunities to write testimony, testify at legislative hearings, meet legislators, write weekly policy newsletters, and learn the legislative process. We have been tracking over one hundred bills regarding youth in Hawaii, homelessness, abuse, social services, and much more.

For instance, we supported Senate Bill 2770, regarding Native Hawaiian rehabilitation programs for prison inmates. This bill would require the Department of Public Safety to collaborate with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for the creation of a program that will put an emphasis on Native Hawaiian values and cultural practices. This program will help build cultural identity and connection to community.

As an example of what this bill can produce, we were able to visit Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center, where we had the opportunity to visit Kupa Aina: a beautiful farm that sits next to the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility that implements aloha and malama aina through planting Native Hawaiian plants for food, encompassing community, unity, and service.

Kupa Aina offers a place of healing and restoration for youth and community members alike, showing that Hawaiian values and traditions can provide learning, growth, change and connection in all who practice them.

Another bill we support is Senate Bill 2115, which establishes time limits for minors placed under room confinement at a detention or shelter facility. It is intended reduce trauma from solitary confinement.

Through OYAH, we have met inspiring leaders like Dr. Shawn Kanaiaupuni, the CEO of Partners in Development Foundation, who has a passion for improving the lives of Native Hawaiians. She has mentored us and helped us navigate the legislative process, guiding our work with OYAH’s policy priorities.

An OYAH member recently told us that advocating at the Legislature is the best way we can inform policy leaders of the needs of the people we are devoted to serving, and that “changing a law or policy can help us meet those needs and assist in building strong, thriving communities.”

It is said that you can’t fix a problem if you can’t see it. We now know that the corollary is that when you do see it, you must take the opportunity to act.

Community Voices aims to encourage broad discussion on many topics of community interest. It’s kind of a cross between Letters to the Editor and op-eds. This is your space to talk about important issues or interesting people who are making a difference in our world. Column lengths should be no more than 800 words and we need a photo of the author and a bio. We welcome video commentary and other multimedia formats. Send to news@civilbeat.org. The opinions and information expressed in Community Voices are solely those of the authors and not Civil Beat.

About the Authors

Leah Delos Santos

Leah Delos Santos is a student at the University of Hawaii and a graduate of Kamehameha Schools.

Lyla Gonsalves

Lyla Gonsalves is a student at Chaminade University and a graduate of Pacific Buddhist Academy. For information about the Opportunity Youth Action Hui policy initiatives, please visit www.oyahpolicy.com.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – On a small farm at the foot of Mount Olomana, the Kawailoa Project helps disadvantaged and at-risk youth find their way.

“We wanted to create a place of healing, a place for them to come and say, hey, everything is OK with what’s happening to you. We want to give them opportunities to survive,” Mark Patterson said.

He co-manages the Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center, which is a partnership initiative from Partners in Development Foundation, Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility, Hale Kipa, Kinai ʻEha, Olomana School, and RYSE.

The Kupa Aina farm is one piece of a large vocational training system that assists helps homeless and incarcerated youth and victims of sex trafficking.

“Pre-COVID, we were serving up to 200 to 300 kids a day, which is remarkable,” Patterson said.

Machijah Perez-Fonseca went through the program and now works at the farm.

“From when I was volunteering to working full-time now, it’s been almost like a whole year,” he said.

KYFWC wants to establish a residential mental health campus for minors. The ultimate goal is to perfect a program rooted in Native Hawaiian practices that ends youth incarceration.

“We’re almost there with the girls, and the boys will come soon after,” Patterson said.

Kawailoa caught the eye of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. It named KYFWC one of 10 finalists in its Racial Equity 2030 challenge.

“The top three finalists will receive $20 million each over a 10-year period,” Patterson said. “The next two finalists will receive $10 million each.”

The other five will also get continuing financial support.

An old canoe outside one of the campus’s buildings is a visual reminder that the project is on a journey and there’s a destination.

“We’re going to say that this model can be replicated in the mainland, on the continent, and any indigenous population around the world,” Patterson said.

KYFWC partners with local and national agencies and organizations. Patterson said the farm and its other programs lay the groundwork for turning lives around.

Today, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation announced a Hawaiʻi based project to replace youth incarceration led by Partners in Development Foundation (PIDF) among 10 finalists for the Racial Equity 2030 challenge, an open call for bold solutions to drive an equitable future for children, families and communities across the globe. The Challenge is awarding $90 million to help build and scale actionable ideas for transformative change in the systems and institutions that uphold racial inequities.

“The overwhelming response of this Challenge has demonstrated the urgency of racial equity in nearly every corner of the world,” said La June Montgomery Tabron, president and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. “Each of these visionary finalists embodies a deep commitment to community and local leadership. We’re proud to partner with them as they unveil their bold and game changing solutions to advance racial equity in the next decade.”

With this Challenge, the Kellogg Foundation is seeking to partner with communities and build momentum around critical issues and areas of work. The finalists are advancing racial equity with unique approaches – from building networks of legal aid for Indigenous land ownership to ending migrant worker exploitation and supporting culturally-grounded restorative justice for youth, among others. 

The “Kawailoa: A Transformative Indigenous Model to Replace Youth Incarceration” project supports youth to find their roles as healers and community contributors by replacing youth incarceration with a Native Hawaiian restorative system that empowers communities, trains youth healers, and shifts resources to community-driven and culturally-grounded puʻuhonua, sanctuaries of support, for opportunity youth. 

“They helped me out cause I was homeless and now I’m living in a shelter and I’m working full-time,” said Machijah Perez-Fonseca, farm assistant at PIDF’s Kupa ʻAina Natural Farming program. “I’m just like a sponge you know, like soaking up all this kine knowledge and stuff just from working with PID and running this farm called Kupa ʻAina.”  

The Kawailoa project is led by a cohort of state and national agencies, including lead fiscal sponsor PIDF and community partners Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center, Hawaiʻi Youth Correctional Facility of the State of Hawaii Department of Human Services, Hale Kipa, Kinai ʻEha, Olomana School, RYSE, UCLA Asian American Studies Center, UH John A. Burn School of Medicine, Kamehameha Schools, and Liliʻuokalani Trust. 

“Family Court is pleased to be a partner in this effort to create culturally-tailored alternatives to help Hawaiʻi’s youth thrive in their communities,” said Judge Matthew Viola, Senior Family Court Judge. “We share the vision to look to restorative indigenous practices to overcome the racial disparities in the juvenile justice system. Healthy and thriving youth are essential to the overall well-being of our state.” 

The work of the 10 finalists’ projects reflects the complexity of achieving racial equity and the structural changes that are needed to achieve meaningful, long-term change, including access to economic opportunity, improved governance and justice, and social well-being. Other finalists projects include 574+ Strong: Creating Regenerative Food Economies in Indian Country, and Healing Through Justice: A Community-Led Breakthrough Strategy for Healing-Centered Communities in Illinois, U.S.A. 

The Racial Equity 2030 Challenge is being managed by Lever for Change, a nonprofit affiliate of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation that helps donors find and fund solutions to the world’s greatest challenges, including racial and gender inequity, economic opportunity and climate change.

“The finalists of the Racial Equity 2030 Challenge have proposed inspiring ideas to redress one of the most pressing issues of our time,” said Cecilia Conrad, CEO of Lever for Change. “By partnering with like-minded applicants, these teams have the potential to build on each other’s work and achieve transformative change in the world. We are looking forward to following their progress as a cohort, across communities, borders and continents.”

The Challenge received submissions from 72 countries. Applications were evaluated during a five-month review process – involving peer applicants and multi-disciplined experts from across the world – based on four criteria: whether they were game changing, equitable, bold and achievable.

The dynamic and multi-layered work proposed by the 10 finalists will challenge and change norms, address root causes of racialized outcomes, and create sustained conditions in which children, families and communities can thrive. Most importantly, local and proximate leaders from each of the target communities are a key part of the decision making processes, taking the lead on defining success.

Each of the 10 finalist teams will receive a one-year $1 million planning grant, which includes nine months of capacity-building support to further develop their project and strengthen their application. 

Among the finalists, five awards totaling $80 million will be announced in the summer of 2022. Three awardees will each receive a $20 million grant and two awardees will each receive a $10 million grant. Grants will be paid out over eight years to coincide with W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s 100th anniversary in 2030.

More information about the Racial Equity 2030 Challenge and the finalists can be found at https://racialequity2030.org.

Original story posted by Ka Wai Ola News, kawaiola.news/hoonaauao/a-correctional-center-becomes-a-puuhonua/

By Oha Public Policy Staff on Jan. 1, 2021

Nestled at the foot of Olomana in Maunawili in the ahupuaʻa of Kailua, on a verdant, sweeping property dotted with slumbering cattle, is the Hawaiʻi Youth Correctional Facility (HYCF). It is an unusually tranquil setting for a juvenile correctional center, but HYCF Administrator Mark Kawika Patterson sees it as a perfect puʻuhonua – a place of healing.

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.

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.