Please feel free to copy and utilize any of these sample letters. Email to counciltestimony@hawaiicounty.gov by Tuesday, August 4 at noon and attend the meeting to give your in-person testimony Wednesday, August 5th at the County Council building. View the agenda here

Sample Letter Bill 179 Neighborhood Place of Puna

Sample Letter Bill 179 HOPE Services

Sample Letter Bill 179 Community Alliance Partnership

View the bill here

Neighborhood Place of Puna (NPP) began as community response to the high amount of child abuse in Puna and the disproportionately high removal rate of Hawaiian children from their homes.

In 2002 a collaboration of community groups including; The Island of Hawaii YMCA, Child Welfare Services, the Children’s Justice Center, Turning Point for Families and several concerned citizens submitted an application to Blue Print for Change to open a Neighborhood Place in Puna.

The collaboration was seeking to develop and support a family centered, and community driven, home visiting prevention program that would help ensure that families had access to the resources and skills necessary to raise safe and healthy children.

In August of 2002, the Island of Hawaii YMCA opened the Neighborhood Place of Puna in Pahoa to families and community groups in Puna. In 2003 NPP received additional funding from the Hawaii Children’s Trust fund.

In effort to expand the reach more families with home visiting services and create sustainability, NPP applied to the IRS for and received its 501(c) (3) non-profit organization status in 2006.

In 2010 Neighborhood Place of Puna applied for and received Title IVBII funds. This multi-year grant allowed NPP to hire staff dedicated to serving the many isolated families living in Upper Puna.

In 2013, in response to a rise in Child Abuse and Neglect in the Hilo district, Neighborhood Place of Puna opened its office in Hilo, in the mixed income neighborhood of Puueo.

Today we reside at our office location 16-105 Opukahaia St., Keaau, HI, 96749 and our temporary family housing shelter Hale ‘Iki in lower Puna. We’ve been blessed to expand staff and resources and with your help hope to grow our reach even more!

Ka Papahana Hoʻōla Pilina ʻOhana

The Ho`ōla Pilina `Ohana Program

He papahana ʻo Hoʻōla Pilina ʻOhana e ʻimi ana i ke kākoʻo i nā pono aʻoaʻo o nā ʻohana Hawaiʻi ma nā kaiāulu o Puna a i Hilo ma o ke kuanaʻike Hawaiʻi. E hoʻokō ʻia ana kēia ma o ka ʻōlelo makuahine a pēlā pū ka ʻōlelo pelekania, ke pono. ʻO ka pahuhopu nui ʻo kēia ʻimi ʻana ʻo ia ka hoʻoikaika i ke ola kino, ka manaʻo paʻa, a me ka mauli o ka ʻohana holoʻōkoʻa. E walaʻau ʻia ana :

KA ʻALOʻAHIA: Nā mea e uluhua ai ke kanaka kēlā lā, kēia lā

KA ʻEHA: Ka ʻeha e ili mai ana mai kekahi hanauna a i kekahi hanauna hou

KA MAULI: Ka pilina o ke kanaka i kona mauli Hawaiʻi

E ʻike ʻia ana ke ʻano e pā ai nā pilina ʻohana e kēia ʻaloʻahia, kēia ʻeha, a me kēia mauli, me ka noʻonoʻo mau i ke ala kūpono.

The Hoʻōla Pilina ʻOhana program offers culturally based counseling services to Native Hawaiian families living in Puna and South Hilo.  These counseling services are provided bilingually — in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi  and/or english, as appropriate — to Native Hawaiian families with underage children to increase overall health, resilience, and wellbeing of entire ʻOhana in addressing issues arising from day-to-day life stressors, multigenerational trauma, cultural identity issues and how it affects the pilina (relationships) within the ʻOhana and itʻs overall pono (proper) functioning.

 

 

ʻO ka nuʻukia o ka papahana Hoʻōla Pilina ʻOhana ua kupu mai ka ʻike pinepine i ka hopena o ka nui ʻeha o ka Hawaiʻi ma ka nohona kolonaio. Mai ka ʻaihue i ka ʻāina a i ka pepehi i ka ʻōlelo, ua pā ʻino ke kanaka Hawaiʻi e ke kolonaio a ua hua mai nā alaina hou o ke ola kino, o ke kālā, a o ka mauli. ʻO ka nui o nā pilina e ola ai ke kanaka Hawaiʻi ua wāwahi ia a na kēia papahana e ʻimi i ka hoʻōla hou i mea e ola ai ke kanaka a pēlā pū ka ʻohana Hawaiʻi.

Wahi a nā oli a moʻolelo o kahiko, ua ʻike ka Hawaiʻi i ka nui waiwai o ka “pilina” – ka pilina o ke kanaka i kona ʻāina, i kona kaiāulu, a i kona ʻohana. ʻO kēia manaʻo o ka pilina he kahua ia o ke kuanaʻike Hawaiʻi, kahi e ʻike leʻa ai kākou he kuleana ko kākou e kahukahu i kēia mau pilina i mea e ola ai kākou. ʻAʻole nō ahuwale nā pilina e pono ai ke ola pono. ʻO ka pilina o ke kanaka i kona moʻomeheu a me ka ʻohana i kona ʻaumakua – he mau pilina kēia e pono pū ana e hoʻokahua, hoʻokaulike, a hoʻopaʻa. Ma kēia papahana ʻo Hoʻōla Pilina ʻOhana, e kia ana kākou i ka hoʻoikaika i kēia mau pilina i mea e ola ai ka ʻohana. E kelepona (808)956-5550 aiʻole leka uila ohana@neighborhoodplace.org mai i ka papahana Hoʻōla Pilina ʻOhana.

Hoʻōla Pilina ʻOhana literally translates into “there is life in relationships and family.” The term Hoʻōla Pilina ʻOhana for this specific project was created from a kaona (hidden meaning) perspective, given the hidden translation to preserve overall well being through all relationships that connect us. These relationships could be those more obvious to the human eye like the connection between keiki (children) and mākua (parents) or ʻohana (family) and kaiāulu (community); these relationships could also refer to the connections between kanaka (individual) and moʻomeheu (culture), kanaka (individual) and the ʻāina (land), as well as ʻOhana (family) and ʻaumākua (ancestors) and everything else in between that connects us. Native Hawaiians were very much connected to one-another, to the culture, language, the land, all living beings etc. It is almost entirely innate for Native Hawaiians to have various healthy connections and relationships to keep them grounded, balanced and secure.  Hoʻōla Pilina ʻOhana program vision is influenced by the generational and historical trauma native Hawaiians have experienced through colonization, creating various obstacles related but not limited to cultural identity, language and educational incompetencies, new health and mental health problems, low socio-economic status, poverty and homelessness. For more information about Hoʻōla Pilina ʻOhana program call (808)965-5550 or email ohana@neighborhoodplace.org

Ending Family Homelessness

In the summer of 2019 Neighborhood Place of Puna was blessed to work in partnership with other non-profit  agencies, communities of faith and government to open the first and only family emergency shelter in Puna. Hale ‘Iki Family Assessment Center consists of nine small homes that can accommodate up to four family members. This housing first based program provides emergency shelter to families experiencing homelessness.  Families at Hale Iki are provided housing navigation, tenancy skills training, and case management to help move them from homelessness and into stable housing as quickly as possible.

Neighborhood Place of Puna is committed to ensuring that no family – and certainly no child – experiences homelessness in Hawaii County.

Homelessness can have lifelong negative developmental and health impacts on a child. Children who experience homelessness are more vulnerable to child abuse and neglect. The longer a child remains homeless, the more bleak the outcome. Children raised in persistent poverty, including periods of homelessness, are less likely to finish school. They are at higher risk for incarceration, teen pregnancy/parenthood, substance abuse, and a life of poverty.

Neighborhood Place of Puna believes that we can end family homelessness in Hawaii County and that doing so is a moral imperative!

To this end:

1. We work directly with homeless families to connect them with emergency shelter, permanent housing, and the supports they need to remain housed. 
2. We work with local churches to identify emergency short term shelter and support to homeless families who have nowhere else to go. 
3. We work with Communities of Faith, businesses, and Social Welfare groups to address the lack of affordable housing for families. 
4. We work to address the underlying causes of family homelessness and poverty. 

Neighborhood Place of Puna needs your help. Please make a donation today to support our homeless families and the work that we do to ensure that no child has to experience homelessness.

If you or a family you know are experiencing homelessness contact us at 965-5550 to see if we can support you with housing or family strengthening services.

More about Hawai’i and U.S. Homelessness

Honolulu Civil Beat Poverty persists among Hawaiians despite low unemployment

Splinter News They were there first, but now Native Hawaiians have nowhere to live

Daily Mail Homelessness in Hawaii has grown so fast that the eighth-smallest state in U.S. has the nation’s highest homeless rate per capita

Star Advertiser HUD: Hawaii still No. 1 in per capita homeless

Download the Aloha United Way’s ALICE Report. ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income, Constrained, Employed.

Listen to Terri Gross’ April 12, 2018  interview with Pulitzer Prize winning author Mathew Desmond as they discuss America’s Eviction Crisis.

Download a simple graphic about the 2018 cost of housing in Hawaii Count.

Download the Touchpoints of Homelessness Report, which looks at Homelessness in Hawaii.

Donate to NPP

Make a monthly or one-time donation to Neighborhood Place of Puna. Your support helps us to build strong, healthy families in your community.

East Hawaii Family Strengthening Program

Neighborhood Place of Puna is committed to the well-being and success of families and children. We strive to help families develop the knowledge, skills, and resources necessary to raise their children in safe, stable, and nurturing homes.

Our Family Strengthening Program provides intensive, on-going, in-home services to families with under-age children. Often families enroll in our program because they are in crisis. Sometimes that crisis is an unexpected pregnancy. Or it could be a child that is constantly “acting out.”  Or it might be that the stress and insecurity of poverty have made parenting unmanageable.

Our program staff work with families wherever they call home. This might be an apartment, a park, an unpermitted dwelling, a car, or an emergency shelter like Hale ‘Iki. Our program services are tailored to address each family’s unique needs. Sometimes a family’s needs are very concrete. They just need stable housing. Other times there are complex family issues that require Neighborhood Place of Puna staff to provide ongoing coaching, parental education, advocacy, and referrals to additional professional services.

Families living in Puna and South Hilo can access Neighborhood Place of Puna’s free and voluntary services whenever they need help.

Would you or a love one like to participate in family strengthening services? Email family@neighborhoodplace.org

You can help Hawaii families. Please consider a donation to support our local families in their efforts to raise safe and healthy children.

Download the Family Outreach Referral Form