Duane and Jonahlyn Pagay of Maui have fostered 15 children since 2015, adopted one, all while raising three keiki of their own.

Duane first entered the foster care system when he was in elementary school. He and his two brothers were just three of the more than 1,500 keiki in HawaiI who are unable to live with their own families for a variety of reasons.

“There’s substance abuse, there’s finances, there’s alcoholism,” explained Duane. “I just truly feel that no child needs to go through any of that.”

Duane reunited with his parents in middle school. That’s when life got rough.

He describes jumping out of a window to escape abuse, getting involved with drugs, serving prison time, and at one point even attempting to take his own life.

“I always wanted someone to save me. At the same time, I wish there was somebody that could help my parents,” said Duane.

That’s why Duane, his wife Jonahlyn, and their three kids, have made it their mission to foster other children in need.

“Some of these kids, they come back looking like how I felt,” explained Duane. “It’s very disturbing and really hurts me. But, lucky I have my wife and kids of our own. We do this all together.”

The Pagay’s 9-year-old daughter Jaida says it’s all about making the kids feel welcome in her home.

“I just tell them, you can take your time and stuff like that, you can get comfortable” she explained.

This past February, the Pagay’s adopted one of the 15 keiki they fostered.

“There’s a lot of kids out there that really needs foster care right now so you know, once one gets reunified, you don’t know that next week they could be calling you like hey, I have a placement,” explained Jonahlyn.

The Pagay’s message to others who are interested in fostering children but feel they don’t have the time or money for it, is that financial help is available.

“We don’t do any of this for the money, but the state does help. They do provide you with the room and board which is something that a lot of people don’t know about.”

May is “National Foster Care Month”. For more information, click here.

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) – Emily and Joey Rogers have a five-bedroom home. And they need every inch for their growing family.

“We had to expand a couple times,” Joey said.

The Big Island husband and wife are devoted resource caregivers, also known as foster parents.

“When we started we were looking for kids that were going to need a permanent home,” Joey Rogers said. “That’s how our first adoption happened.”

That was nine years ago. They have adopted five of the 14 children they fostered, and three are medically fragile.

“I think that it’s definitely harder for kids that have severe medical issues to find homes. That’s why we wanted to get into helping those kids, where there is a major need,” Emily Rogers said.

On any given day there are more than 1,500 children and youth in Hawaii in the Hui Hoʻomalu Foster Care Program.

“There is a need for more homes that can take in teenagers, large sibling groups, children and youth that identify in the LGBTQ community and also children that are medically fragile,” said Alana Power, Hui Hoomalu’s community liaison.

The Rogers have a small farm and three kids of their own, who help with the foster care.

“It’s really taught our kids patience, and to share. It’s been really good for our biological children,” Joey Rogers said.

Through their church the couple runs a support program for other foster families that include activity days like horseback riding. They hope their story inspires other families to get involved in foster care.

“Just don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and help other people that are in need, especially children. There are a lot of children that need homes, and you could help them,” Emily Rogers said.

May is National Foster Care Awareness Month.

To learn more about foster care in Hawaii, go to PIDF.org.

“It is truly great when you find organizations that just want to do something from their heart,” said Hui Hoʻomalu’s Community Relations Manager, Carol Hayashida. 

The 18-acre property is an aquaponics and hydroponics farm that promotes sustainable living, organic urban farming, and buying local. They offer fresh vegetables, fruits and fish, as well as farm tours, farm-to-table hosted dinners, workshop events, and more.

Partners in Development Foundation sends a heartfelt mahalo nui loa to Tanya, Mari, Brendan, the rest of the team at Mari’s Gardens, and all of this year’s vendors and attendees for their generous contribution to our program! We are grateful for their giving spirit and partnership.

Mari’s Gardens’ YOGA in the Gardens event raised over $1,100 for Hui To learn more about Mari’s Gardens, visit their website.

From 7:15AM to 1:00PM, people can stop by their tables in the second floor atrium of the Dole Cannery building in Honolulu and purchase a variety of treats, gift certificates and other goodies, as well as bid on a number of auction items.

This year’s items include:

• 2 day/ 1 night stay at The Modern Honolulu
• Sunday brunch certificate for 2 at Hoku’s at The Kahala Hotel & Resort
• Guest passes to Sea Life Park
• Big Island Candies gift basket
• Whole Foods gift cards
• And much more!

Don’t miss your chance to grab some wonderful last-minute treats and gifts and give back to a good cause! ALL proceeds from this event go to events supporting youth in foster care and foster families in Hawaiʻi nei.

Heartfelt mahalo to everyone who donated items!

Although Native Hawaiians only make up about 20% of Hawaiʻi’s population, nearly 50% of keiki in the foster care system are Native Hawaiian.

In this Ka Wai Ola News exclusive video, we hear from some of the kānaka who dedicate their hearts and homes to care for Native Hawaiian children in foster care. The Keola and Osorio families share their stories of resource caregiving (fostering) and send their kāhea out to encourage other Native Hawaiian families to become resource caregivers to Hawaiian keiki.

Resource care professionals Jan Dill and Billie-Ann Bruce also share their manaʻo about the crisis, emphasizing the importance of keeping Native Hawaiian keiki connected to their culture by keeping them here in Hawaiʻi with Hawaiian families.

As Kauʻi Keola reminds us, “it’s our kuleana” to care for Native Hawaiian keiki. To find out how you can become a resource caregiver, or other ways to kōkua the foster care community, contact our Hui Hoʻomalu foster licensing program. 

Read more about Hui Hoʻomalu, foster care in Hawaiʻi, and these ʻohanas that are fostering aloha.

Since 1919, Aloha United Way (AUW) has helped raise $677 million for nonprofit organizations in our community. AUW seeks to “address problems at the root,” and supports solutions that have will have lasting, sustainable change. 

This year in honor of their 100th anniversary, AUW is asking participating organizations like Partners in Development Foundation (PIDF) to strive for 100% participation in their internal campaigns. We will be working hard as an ʻohana to do our part for our sister organizations here in Hawaiʻi nei!

To donate to PIDF through Aloha United Way, use our number (#96730) when filling out an online or paper form.

To learn more, visit auw.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!

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

Despite having received a FLEX Grant from HCF in the past, PIDF was no less thrilled to such a generous amount to help support its mission and programs serving Hawaiian families.

“We are ecstatic to receive this grant from the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation,” said PIDF President Jan Hanohano Dill. “They provide much needed unrestricted funds that allow nonprofits like ours to take vital programs to the next level by enhancing or expanding services, developing new programs, securing additional funds for staff trainings and conferences, and more.”

The importance of unrestricted funds cannot be understated. While restricted funds are designated for a special or particular purpose (such as an individual program or project), nonprofits can take unrestricted funds and allocate them to wherever they are needed most.

PIDF was selected as a grantee because of its demonstrated strengths in accountability, achievement of results, and “community connectedness.”

The funds from HCF will go to PIDF operations statewide, programs on specific islands, and PIDF programs supporting healthy development of Hawaiian children and young adults (birth to 20 years old). The specific funds granted to PIDF are as follows:

Jean I. Fennimore Fund
Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation Fund
Annie Sinclair Knudsen Memorial Fund
Marisla Fund
Reverend Takie Okumura Family Fund
Tai Up Yang Fund
Henry A. Zuberano Early Education Fund

The FLEX Grants Program would not be possible without the generous sponsorship from these partners and many others.

For more information, contact our communications office at (808) 595-5290.

Over 2,000 people came out to the event for some “non-scary non-scandalous” fun. This year there were food trucks, horses, carnival rides, face painting, free flu shots and of course, games. Hui Hoʻomalu had their own game for keiki at their booth, and information on foster care for parents and other caregivers.

“We’re here tonight at this festival because it’s a family event,” said Cindy Holloway, a Recruitment Assistant and trainer with Hui Hoʻomalu. “What we’re looking for is families that can take in children who need… a temporary home for them when they can’t be their own family.”

Despite it being the night of fright, the event’s “non-scary” aspect extended to foster care. A resource caregiver (foster parent) herself, Cindy, along with Community Liaison Carol Hayashida, had plenty of information and advice to offer potential resource families.

Hui Hoʻomalu was created to help enhance and advance Hawaiʻi’s foster care system. This program recruits, trains, and assesses families who wish to become “General Licensed” resource caregivers — those who foster children not related to them.

For more information on how to help keiki in need and becoming a Resource Caregiver, visit the main program page here.

This year, Partners in Development Foundation’s Hui Ho‘omalu program had the privilege of witnessing some of these effort come to fruition as Kaua‘i resident Estrella Barnett regained custody of her daughter Alexi after being separated by CWS in August 2016. Looking back, Barnett says there are days it all feels like a dream. While their journey has not been an easy one, it has been fueled by determination, commitment, and love.

After Barnett and Alexi were separated, Barnett went into rehab on the mainland for four months to do the personal work of shifting priorities. When she returned to Kaua‘i she could no longer live with her parents who were fostering Alexi, and so had to find a place of her own. She found a new job, attended daily AA/NA meetings as required by CWS, and had regular visits with Alexi under CWS supervision.

Although at first her family distrusted her and didn’t believe she had changed, Barnett stayed committed to her path of recovery so she could be reunited with her daughter. “Life is not easy,” she says. “It’s hard and I couldn’t have got here without my family and without God.