What is the name of your organization?
Ma Ka Hana Ka Ike Building Program
What is the name of your solution?
Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
To provide work-based learning opportunities to youth of Hana through a service-oriented education continuum to strengthen environmental stewardship, cultural identity, intergenerational relationships, and technical skills.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Hana, HI
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
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What type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
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What specific problem are you solving?
We serve East Maui (population, 2,264), where the median household income is just $51,500, compared to Maui County's $95,322 (ACS, 2023). Hāna School offers the fifth-lowest percentage of licensed teachers in Hawaiʻi, and 59% of Hāna students qualify as economically disadvantaged, according to the 2024 DOE Databook.
What is your solution?
Hana provides meaningful work-based learning opportunities to Native Hawaiian youth in East Maui through a service-oriented education continuum to strengthen environmental stewardship, cultural identity, intergenerational relationships, and technical skills.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our solution provides place-based, culturally relevant solutions to our youth and community's need for economic self-sufficiently and food sovereignty. Our indigenous-led organization strives to meet the housing and nutritional needs of our predominantly Native Hawaiian community through youth-led agricultural, culinary, and building projects.
In the coming years, as we see more Hawaiian-language-medium students on the Hāna School campus, our team will be positioned to support the use of the language across our programs. Through weekly language lessons for existing staff and new hire requirements for proficiency (or willingness to work towards) in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, we will be prepared to instruct our native-speaking generation of youth in the vocational trades. By accessing places and practices of cultural significance and Hawaiian language application through applied learning opportunities, Native Hawaiian youth will experience indigenous concepts of health that go beyond access to modern medical services or standard education.
