Community Resilience Spotlight: Kōkua Kalihi Valley

Featuring Puni Jackson, Hoʻoulu ʻĀina and written by Tanya Dreizin, Chapter Office Manager

COVID-19 has hit people hard, both globally and locally. Although the pandemic has created new struggles—and exacerbated current challenges—many organizations and community members have made it their mission to aid in the recovery process. As we move into a new normal, community leaders are helping us navigate the process by providing resources, care, and connection. One of these leaders is Puni Jackson, Director of Hoʻoulu ʻĀina at Kōkua Kalihi Valley. I had the honor to speak with Puni, who discussed how Hoʻoulu ʻĀina and Kōkua Kalihi Valley have been fostering community health and wellbeing since 1972, and how that journey has continued during COVID-19. 

Can you tell us about the mission of Hoʻoulu ʻĀina and KKV, and what roles the organizations play in the community? 

Hoʻoulu ʻĀina is a 100 acre nature preserve in the back of Kalihi valley where community members connect the health of the land and the health of the people through food, forest, culture, and community. Since 2006, this welcoming place of refuge has served as the ʻāina-based health component of Kōkua Kalihi Valley (KKV), a Federally Qualified Health Center founded almost fifty years ago. While KKV has grown to become one of the largest employers in our community, serving over 50,000 people each year in all kinds of ways – food systems advocacy, elder and youth services, aloha ʻāina education, medical, behavioral and dental care – we have not strayed far from our founding story of deep listening, connecting to community members, and co-creating systems of health and care. In 1972, our first staff members and community leaders went door to door to learn the needs of our community and respond to those needs.  Then, and now, health is at the forefront of our conversations.

Photo: Kaʻōhua Lucas

How have these roles and missions been affected by COVID-19?   

Today, KKV faces both the health and economic challenges of COVID-19. Our medical staff has reconstructed our clinical processes to address the largest coronavirus outbreak in the state, our dental facility has upgraded to include the very safest technology and protocols, and our behavior health staff has increased their outreach and service through the wonder of telehealth services. Similarly, elders gather via phones and tablets for collaborated exercise and youth circle up virtually to learn about their social biographies, sharing as usual, name, home, and ancestor. And our popular Roots Food Hub has grown from purchasing and selling organic produce from local farmers on a scale of 500 lbs to 7000 lbs each week.   

Hoʻoulu ʻĀina’s gate sports a "CLOSED" sign in compliance with DLNR closure regulations, and the spaces that once held thousands of youth and families now deploy daily deliveries of fresh produce, lāʻau lapaʻau, dry goods, prepared meals, and cleaning supplies to support kūpuna sheltering at home and families of COVID-positive patients in quarantine. And the picnic tables that once held space for community meals and hana noʻeau now hold the phones and laptops of masked and socially-distanced young advocates calling community members to discuss the social determinants of health in any one of the 27 languages spoken by our patients. New cohorts of hires reaching out to patients and families experience community education through action and advocacy, an inspiring facet of aloha ʻāina leadership development in Kalihi.

What role do you envision for Hoʻoulu ʻĀina in the recovery plan for Kalihi, and maybe even as a model for the rest of Hawaiʻi? 

While we couldnʻt have guessed the important role of Hoʻoulu ʻĀina as a community land-base in this coronavirus pandemic, it is no surprise that many ʻāina-based organizations across Hawaiʻi responded nimbly and early in the year. An aloha ʻāina response to the influx of illness from foreign shores includes awareness of the historical trauma caused by such contagion in the past, an awareness acutely held by the many Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders who call Kalihi home. In fact, the same social-determinant motivators to rekindle connections to land, language, and culture are now highlighted by the social-determinant impact of the pandemic. This pandemic reminds us of the integral role of ʻāina to our health, food, and economic systems; this is a must-have, not a nice to have. We see courageous support of ʻāina as the foundation of Hawaiʻiʻs health, a shift away from common pre-COVID attitudes about mālama ʻāina and ʻāina-based programming for health and education which often painted the work as a peripheral and elective component of society.

Photo: Kaʻōhua Lucas

What are your hopes and dreams for the future post-COVID. With priorities re-adjusted in a post-pandemic society, what is Hoʻoulu ʻĀina looking to teach people, help push for, etc....? 

It has always been the kuleana of the farmers, foresters, native healers, and cultural practitioners to keep the dreams and teachings of our elders alive, to care for the land and the people with aloha. These past few months have both implored us and allowed us to push that care to the highest measure, listening deeply once again, door to door, neighbor by neighbor. The ʻāina and the values that we learn from caring for the land are the constant compass, reminding us of the blessings of our ancestors: the forest, the soil, our voices lifted in chant, our stories, connections to one another, the resources to respond when any of us are in need. The history of our peoples navigating the oceans with the guidance of this knowledge speaks of the resilience we see in our community today.

We continue to imagine an ever-increasingly resilient community steeped in the values of the ancestors and in deep and constant relationship with land. We build hope for a lasting impact of relationship, even as we respond to the urgency and emergency of each moment. We dream of co-creating community that values kinship with land, abundance in resource and economics, sovereignty in education, and agency in health.

Is there anything else you'd like our supporters to know about the organizations and the work you all do? If someone wanted to get involved, what kind of help is most needed?

Share in the dream. Make courageous choices that value aloha ʻāina. Visit our websites: kkv.net and hoouluaina.com for information and opportunities in employment, services, programming, and online donations.