Clear Messaging

Although the Native Hawaiian community has been working on improving its socio-economic status for more than 50 years and has made accomplishments on an individual level, our people as a whole are still struggling.  We have the worst statistics for homelessness, incarceration, living below poverty level, and substance abuse. Most recently we have high rates of human trafficking and sex trafficking.  We have high rates of high school dropouts and low rates of college degrees.  Although the unemployment rate for Native Hawaiians is the same as other groups in Hawai'i, Native Hawaiians earn less money.  Recent studies tell us it is because Native Hawaiians have fewer job skills and less education.  We are still suffering from PTSD from the overthrow of our kingdom in 1893 and one hundred years of marginalization of our culture and identity in our own home.d

Our situation is exacerbated, especially as to homelessness (which we call "houselessness"), by the global demand of people who want to live in and invest in Hawai'i.  They cause our real estate prices to constantly accelerate.  The average cost for a simple, standalone 3-bedroom home in Hawai'i now costs more than $1 million.  Very few Native Hawaiians can afford it.

The size of the Native Hawaiian community is about 650,000.  This project would affect all of the Native Hawaiian community.

My solution is to constantly send clear messaging throughout the Native Hawaiian community that staying in school is important.  Going to school from pre-school through K-12 is critical.  Graduating from high school is critical.  This message is not only for children but also for their parents because pockets of Native Hawaiian parents do not stress to their children the importance of going to school.,

The message would also be that high school is not enough.  To have control over one's life and future, a college degree is very helpful.

The messaging campaign would include cell phone "apps" with messages designed for parents and children/youth of all ages.  It would be a continual message for at least 20 years that would be updated constantly.  It would be reinforced by advertising campaigns on TV and radio and in print.  It would be a constant message to change the mindset that education is critical.

The target population is all Native Hawaiians, a total of approximately 650,000 people.  I know the needs of this community because I am a member of this community.  I have had the privilege of education and have observed the difference in individuals and families when a college degree is obtained. I've talked to other Native Hawaiians about this dilemma, and they agree.

Having a high school diploma and college degree will help Native Hawaiians to obtain the best jobs and pay.  They will have the skills to start their own companies and obtain loans.  They will have many more options.  They can direct their lives better rather than be floating in the circumstances of the global world that keeps affecting our homeland

I and the friends I have discussed this with and those I would recruit to join us are the right people because we care deep in our na'au (gut) about the Native Hawaiian community and we have the experience of having struggled in our own lives and seen how education makes all the difference.

I say we are in the Concept stage because it is only an idea that we have discussed.  We have not implemented any part of it.

I am applying to Solve because you have the expertise to help talk-through and guide this project and to help develop cell phone "apps" and other technology.

Member of the Native Hawaiian community.

On one hand, it may seem that this solution is not innovative.  It's just a message that nearly every parent or community could say.  But what makes it innovative is that this message is not getting said.  It needs to be said over and over again until pursuit of education and higher education becomes one of our core values.

It will have an impact because parents and youth and young adults will start to internalize the necessity of education.  We will share real-life examples of Native Hawaiians who improved their lives and that of their families by staying in school and getting an education.

Impact would be measured by the increase in numbers of Native Hawaiians who graduate from high school, and who get different forms of higher education -- vocation certifications, A.A. degree, B.A. or B.S. degree, graduate degrees, etc.

We would use apps that include traditional knowledge and comparisons to traditional technologies that Native Hawaiians applied for centuries.  We would reference traditional irrigation techniques, for example, and draw analogies to ways to address modern-day dilemmas and make thoughtful decisions using our ancestral knowledge.

Hawai'i

Hawai'i and continental U.S., mostly on the west coast such as California and Nevada where a significant number of Native Hawaiians have moved to.

So far only two of us, on a volunteer, talk-story basis.

We first started discussing this in 2017.

We would welcome Native Hawaiians of all backgrounds for discussion and understanding.  We would welcome non-Hawaiians who want to help us.  One of our core beliefs is that diversity brings a wide spectrum of options and viewpoints, which leads to the best solutions.

Probably non-profit.  Help the community where help is needed.

Once the model is created, we can obtain free public service announcements (PSAs) on TV and radio and in print.  We would need to learn about low-cost or no-cost methods of getting messages out via apps and other technologies.