Environmentally-Focused Organizations are Crucial for the Revival of Our Hawaiʻi Community
By John Leong, Founder and CEO, Kupu and Pono Pacific
Now more than ever, organizations like the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi with its goals of advancing climate solutions, acting for justice, getting people outdoors and protecting the state’s natural environment, and Kupu, our nonprofit that offers hundreds of service opportunities to Hawaiʻi’s youth focused on creating positive environmental and cultural impact across the state and the Pacific region, are being called to action. We must engage hands and hearts to build out a better Hawaiʻi through a new green workforce founded in service, environment, and values-driven skills development.
Haleakalā National Park, Civilian Conservation Corps Members
Photo: National Park Service
One of COVID-19’s drastic global effects include 7.7 million young people who have become unemployed. Our state, which once boasted the lowest unemployment rate in the nation, now has the highest, with nearly a quarter of a million residents out of work. Multiple individuals and groups have turned to our country’s history in search of lessons and solutions. President Franklin Roosevelt’s creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps in response to the 1930s’ Great Depression is now being examined more closely as a possible template, inspiring the application of the idea of creating jobs in conservation and sustainability sectors for our country’s youth to address an economic downturn. During that time, about 7,000 men took on environmentally-focused tasks like clearing brushes from trails and planting native trees, similar to what Kupu and our partner organizations do regularly. The overarching result was one of the most successful New Deal initiatives that contributed to America rebounding into the strongest economy in the world.
Kupu members restoring Kaloko-Honokōhau National Park. Photo: Kupu
Hawaiʻi has the aloha spirit, an inherent element that is not found in many other places. Native Hawaiians also developed the ahupuaʻa land management concept that encouraged collaborative resource management so all in the community thrived. Today, ʻāina-based education and service is on a rebound that embraces these concepts with groups like Paepae o Heʻeia, Waipā Foundation, Maʻo Organic Farms, and Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke guiding the way to manage lands and engage community. The Department of Education, many of Hawaiʻi’s private schools, and charter schools have come to embrace ʻāina-based education or outdoor service-based curriculum. Yet, despite this emerging desire, there is a gap between progressive ʻāina engagement and current job offerings.
Youth corps are a perfect way to bridge that gap and create new jobs for Hawaiʻi. For example, Kupu has been able to connect private companies, nonprofits, universities, and local government entities in partnerships that create hands-on education and job training that Hawai‘i’s youth can apply in real-world settings to preserve our natural resources, protect watersheds, increase food security, and problem-solve the many challenges global warming presents to us, the most isolated landmass on Earth—all while earning income for themselves and their families.
Lindsey Carson removing invasive species with DOFAW Forestry on Hawaiʻi Island. Photo: Kupu
For every dollar invested in youth corps, there is close to a $4 community return on investment nationally. Prioritizing sustainable land-based economic revenue streams, investing in conservation of our natural and sustainable infrastructures, species preservation, and evolving from mono-crop exports mentality to food sovereignty are all areas in which a green workforce can support and position Hawaiʻi to have a greater degree of economic diversity and resiliency. Currently, tens of thousands of young adults all over the country serve in youth corps and are innovatively contributing to enhancing eco-tourism, restoring natural resources, conducting energy efficiency audits and installations, building and restoring modern and clean parks/playgrounds, and building out socio-enterprises. Corps also create an inclusive family that unifies beyond race, socio-economic background, and beliefs, and provide wraparound support that elevates the youth in building transferable skills to help them succeed in life.
Here are some examples of successful youth corps programs:
The New Jersey Youth Corps has an award winning bee/honey program that is run exclusively by its corps members.
The LA Conservation Corps has done a remarkable job in bringing young people from different gangs together for a common purpose and shared brotherhood in service.
Programs like AmeriCorps fund youth corps members with millions of dollars annually to use for college tuition.
Photo: Kupu
Youth corps build healthy character and capacity. Young people learn the value of hard work from having to backpack for miles, camp under the stars, and conduct work that pushes them to their limits. If we want the next generation of leaders to move the needle, they need to be instilled with a purposeful vision, paired with the internal grit necessary to create change. Many of Hawaiʻi’s leading conservation professionals have participated in youth corps or partnered with one, moving from corps to career. If we start building now, growing our green workforce can inspire our local residents, visitors, and the global community to create a more resilient future in which we can all thrive.
John Leong is a current Obama Foundation Fellow, serial social-entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Pono Pacific and nonprofit Kupu, amongst other social enterprises. He is a former board member for The Corps Network, a national organization for youth corps. Kupu’s work has created over $150 million in socio-economic and environmental benefits for Hawaiʻi and the Pacific region over the last thirteen years, engaging thousands of young adults in national service, building successful entities that support land conservation, leadership and career pathway development, natural resource management, community development, local agriculture and other land-based economics.