Community Empowerment
the Answer to Hawaii’s Economic Dilemma

Golden Rules are very helpful and should be taken seriously, especially in these times. Consider these four:

Golden Rule One - He who has the gold rules. Thus, we follow the rules and guidelines of granting agencies in our public service to our communities.

Golden Rule Two - Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Thus, we are required to be introspective, examining our own beliefs and circumstances, and project how we would want others to treat us.

Golden Rule Three - Do unto others as they would have you to do unto them.Thus, we are required to be culturally, socially, economically, and spiritually sensitive in order to provide culturally competent services.

Golden Rule Four - Help others do for themselves.This is empowerment of others, the greatest democratizing tool we have.Teach people to fish, better yet, have them raise their own school of fish.

Hawai`i needs a revitalized community empowerment initiative.   Stimulating the economy with a “trickle down” approach somehow never gets far enough down to those in greatest need. $10 million for a new tourism marketing plan, $11 million for public works construction projects, more millions for a new medical school may all be worthy projects, but they will not give the stimulation Hawai`i needs today. We must help those at the neediest social, economic, health, and education rungs of society do for themselves.

We should first look at the assets already available. Take Wai`anae, in many ways, like many other communities.

The foremost assets are the people and organizations from and governed by this community. There are numerous such organizations, some in long existence, others freshly started. There is Hale Na`au Pono, a national award winner, providing a full array of mental health services including alcohol and drug treatment and prevention to therapeutic foster homes for children, adolescents and adults. It even has a medical doctor who makes house calls. Its governing board members either live or work in Wai`anae. The Wai`anae Coast Community Alternative Development Corporation (WCCADC) has, for over a decade, placed backyard aquaculture tanks throughout the community, instigating the spread of these cultivation systems throughout Hawai`i and into the Pacific. Ka`ala Farms, Inc. inspires thousands of young and old, to get muddy and plant taro, honor the traditional land practices, and cultivate healthy relationships. Ho`omau Ke Ola takes the hardest drug users and apply a native culture-based treatment to turn them around. From the community came recently Legal Services for Children, Ka Waihona O Ka Na`auao, a community Charter School, ahupua`a councils and many more, all not-for-profits ruled by members of this community. They know their community better than anyone else.

Another asset is the treasure trove of experience, knowledge, and skill of people. There is a large retired community, filled with experience and anxious to teach and work side by side with others in well structured and managed, locally operated programs. There are talents in the people which are unlimited - in music, in sports, in ingenuity. We also have frustrated people anxious to find opportunities to break from their boredom and the limitations of education, economic conditions, poor health, and lack of experience. They are developing new attitudes - “work is medicine”, “if I work, I eat”, “my pharmacy is the land and sea.”

The land and sea also serves as major raw resource assets. The Wai`anae ocean, like all of Hawai`i, are extremely productive, capable of feeding much larger numbers of people if properly managed. The lands are the breadbasket for the people, able to produce 10 times more food than it currently does. What’s needed are better systems of accessing these resources under a common approach of cooperation, equitable work and fair distribution of benefits.

With all these assets, why are the communities in dire economic and health conditions? Because there are also major liabilities - dependence on government services; poor government management (or no management); lack of support for community organizations; a history of importing experts from outside who have no real commitment to the communities themselves; an inability to access the resources of the community due to laws regarding private property; a failure to effectively maintain a continuity by the people of skills and knowledge, such things as hard work, natural healing, social relationships, and ancestral knowledge and respect.

Positive steps need to be taken.

a) identify core community organizations to immediately plan accessing the community assets;

b) liberate land use from current restrictions - entice owners of non-productive lands, through tax penalties or tax relief/credits, to allow the community opportunity to garden or farm; streamline or waive approvals for designated building permits for structures under $100,000; etc.

c) maintain productive and fair use of ocean - develop kapu against the abuse of the shorelines and ocean. Create a regime of shoreline rehabilitation including the replanting of limu, the limited taking of ocean resources, a community distribution system of seafood resources, etc.

d) support the core community organizations with technical assistance to communities on efficient methods of farming, fishing, use of traditional healing methods, environmental awareness, etc.

e) invest public funds to support this initiative, including sufficient resources to cover the basic needs of families as they transition from consumers to producers of community assets.

Let’s See How This Could Work

The WCCADC, identified as a core community organization, forms a hui with Hale Na`au Pono, the mental health center, Ka`ala Farms Inc. and Ka Waihona O Ka Na`auao (Charter School). This hui, has collaborated on numerous projects successfully. It has among them administrative capabilities to operate a multi-million dollar budget, produce programmatic results and document evidence of their work and aid in reproducing programs. They are able to network with additional organizations within the community, and if necessary, obtain specialized services outside the community.

The hui does a number of things:

a) identify families and individuals willing to engage in productive team programs;

b) identify additional resources necessary to make programs work;

c) interact with government bureaucracy to achieve cooperation among all players to proceed,

d) obtain necessary experts to fill in those areas not otherwise available to the team;

e) organize financing to implement programs.

For example, the WCCADC identifies a homeless family of five desiring to develop a fish and vegetable farm. The family, however, has no available land site, has no funds to begin such a project, and already face several medical, mental health, educational and disability issues among their members. To qualify for the program, the family agrees to conditions - consistent attendance at all training, willingness to undergo unannounced drug testing, absolutely no law violations while a member of the program, children attend school regularly, and repayment schedule of all loan obligations incurred in the program. A case manager from Hale Na`au Pono works with the family to secure all available services currently existing. For those not existing, the case manager uses his ingenuity to get them. The family has a partner in the case manager and the hui.

Next, the hui negotiates with non-productive land owners to make it available. Land-owners, usually not living in the community, are told of the tax advantages of dedicating their lands for a period of years (10) for this program. The advantages could either be the avoidance of property taxes, surcharges for unproductive land, penalties for maintenance of unsightly, unhealthy, or hazardous (fire) conditions, tax credits or other incentives where necessary. There could also be a sharing of the produce from the land, such as a 1% net value of crop harvest paid to the owners, cash or in kind, not to exceed the fair rental value of the property used.

From three to five families would be teamed as they learn the life cycle of the bio-system from raising fish to planting to preparing food and proper nutrition, to eating together as family. Support is given in their first fish grow-out cycle (6 months). Gradually, services withdraw as families become adept at maintaining their farm At harvest, the hui helps distribute and sell.

Financing comes through existing programs, grants and loans. For example, existing health care and education programs not used would be introduced by case managers. Vocational training funds for the disabled would also be used.

Government grants would finance the overall administrative work for the hui and meet those gap areas where existing programs do not exist or services for families have expired.

Government loans would go to development of family bio-systems. Loan payback would be at low interest over a period of years. The repayments would go into a revolving loan fund.

Each family bio-system of one 12 feet diameter fish tank, class instructions, agriculture tools and start-up supplies requires initial investment of $7,000. The improved health, reduction in crime, decreased cost in social services, improvement in family relationships, improved caring for children, and attitude changes within the community will be immeasurable. The money value of the produce from the tanks and gardens could easily reach $10,000 per year. Operating cost as low as $2,000 for a margin of $8,000 annually. Increasing tanks and field size naturally increase productivity and reduce cost in proportion to the value of the production.

It would take about 30 days from initial identification of a family to tank start-up. Land accessibility and preparation is assumed to have already been completed. Depending on the plant crop to accompany the fish production, one could begin agriculture harvesting as early as 45 days from planting. A family could be turned about from only consuming resources to becoming a net producer of resources within 90 days. Others, of course, may take a little longer, to about six months, the time it would take for the first fish harvest.

What Needs To Be Done

At least five communities should be identified for this State wide initiative. Community teams should be selected based on their community governance, experience, capabilities, cooperation with one another, and acceptance within the communities.

Each identified community should have $1 million from the State. This amount should stretch over two years for the costs of administration, community organizing, establishing the initial operating (including fiscal) policies and procedures, meeting personnel expenses, purchase of office equipment and supplies, obtaining common machinery and tools for projects, securing professional consultation, etc.

A one-time revolving loan program of another $1 million for each community should be set aside for individual family accounts. >

Legislation should be developed to support community empowerment. New laws and regulations are needed addressing taxing policies, land and ocean management programs, building permitting requirements, land use and zoning laws, expansion of the Department of Agriculture’s support for such programs, etc. The community hui should be authorized to expedite bureaucratic processes so government will not be an impediment to the program success.

Every year, a program and fiscal accounting review should provide guidance and assess cooperation among all parties, government, community organization, business and individual participants. After five years, an overall program evaluation should be conducted to determine the success and corrective action necessary for the program.

CONCLUSION

We have little faith in the continuation of an economic system built around plantation thinking whereby someone from afar will save us. The long term answers to our economic woes do not lie in tourism, militarism, a new agriculture crop idea, another convention center, a computer chip, a theme park, or more foreign investment in Hawaiian land. While these might be fruitful in spurts, real benefits never trickle down far enough or long enough. To have a healthy community, our solutions must be home grown, bottom up, instilled in community pride of authorship, meeting community defined needs.