Native Hawaiian education programs are awarded $28 million in federal funds

Officials say more than $28 million in federal funding will help much-needed Native Hawaiian education programs across the state.

The grant money, part of the American Rescue Plan and the Native Hawaiian Education Program, will support 35 programs that offer Hawaiian-language services, professional development, early childhood education, family engagement and more, according to a Tuesday announcement by U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

Sheri Daniels, executive director of Papa Ola Lokahi, an organization that works to improve Native Hawaiian health and well-being, said the $740,577 it received will be used for student and family support services in areas such as Waianae, Waimanalo, Honaunau and Ocean View.

As part of the program, Papa Ola Lokahi will partner with school and community groups to help 60 students and their families link up with and provide resources and cultural activities. Ohana navigators, who are community health workers and educators, will be assigned to these families to help them with whatever they need.

Daniels said they are trying to address social determinants of health in a broader, more holistic way. Factors such as housing, education and employment, she said, contribute to children’s and their families’ overall health and well-being.

“If we want to change the trajectory of someone’s life, then we have to make sure we’re able to address some of those pieces,” she said. “It may not have this direct correlation of right now, in the moment, but it does have impacts (on health).”

Maui Family Support Services also plans to use the $776,400 it received to help young families in Maui County, said CEO Edel Baguio-Larena. Since 2015 the organization has operated a licensed infant and toddler center in Hana that provides early childhood education and support programs to young families. It also offers home-visit services and parent support groups that are rooted in Hawaiian culture. The federal funding will help continue these programs for three more years, she said. Baguio-Larena estimated that more than 70% of the families the programs serve are Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.

“Parenting itself is very challenging. Especially during the pandemic, families go through a lot when they have young babies and are expecting,” she said. “These programs will allow us to support them in these challenging times to raise young kids.”

Maile Loo-Ching, director of the Hula Preservation Society, a nonprofit dedicated to perpetuating hula and Hawaiian culture, said the $260,948 it was awarded will be used for a new education program that will share the oral histories it has collected over 20 years from dozens of hula masters and kupuna with keiki, ages 7 to 12, at public, charter and immersion schools. The curriculum and materials also will be translated into Hawaiian and made available on the nonprofit’s website.

“In our culture we look to our elders for guidance. Everything they speak to is not just hula, but it involves ways of being in the world, caring for our communities, the dedication to living aloha and taking care of the place we all call home,” Loo-Ching said. “For (our oral histories) to now be curated into these units for use in the classroom and by families is a dream come true.”

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Jayna Omaye covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national serv­ice organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under­covered issues and communities.