H.T. Hayashi Foundation awarded $115,000 in grant funding

At its September board meeting, the H.T. Hayashi Foundation awarded $115,000 in grant funding to five local organizations supporting keiki and their families, women nonprofit leaders, those struggling with Alzheimer’s as patients and caregivers, and at-risk mothers and their babies. This is the first round of funding in our fiscal year (July – June) 2022.

“The ongoing nature of the pandemic has created several challenges for families and communities across the state. We are humbled to be able to provide some support to those organizations who are working to address challenges that, while not new, were exacerbated by the ensuing economic and care crisis,” said Jan Harada, executive director of the H.T. Hayashi Foundation. “The work of these five organizations reflects the foundation’s values of love, compassion, humility, perseverance, and accountability.”

Alzheimer’s Association – Hawaii was awarded a one-year $20,000 general operating support grant for their Hawaii programs supporting individuals struggling with Alzheimerʻs and their caregivers. We are particularly interested that women bear most of the burden of all dementias, both as patients and caregivers. We applaud the organization’s long-range goal to contribute to a dramatic increase in the accurate and timely diagnosis of people living with Alzheimer’s, and to provide affordable, high-quality care and support to people living with dementia and their caregivers.

Collaborative Support Services, Inc. was awarded a one-year $60,000 grant as the fiscal sponsor of a pilot project operated by the Early Childhood Action Strategy (ECAS). Our funding will support the ECAS Perinatal Substance Use Workgroup, which focuses on improving care and support systems for perinatal women with substance use disorder (SUD). The program is designed to break the cycle of trauma for infants born to mothers struggling with addiction. We are pleased to support the project, which will provide peer support for pregnant and parenting women with SUD and their children (0 to 5 years old) with an active Child Welfare Services case.

Hana Retreat (dba Ala Kukui) was awarded a one-year $10,000 program grant for their Wahine Po’ai program. The foundation believes it is essential to support the capacity of those in the nonprofit sector, including personal and professional development for nonprofit leaders. With a particular interest in helping women, the foundation is pleased to support this pilot project that provides leadership counseling, mentoring, coaching, and professional development for women nonprofit executive directors who have spent less than three years in their role. The pandemic has been particularly hard for newer nonprofit executives, and across the country, women have shouldered the pandemic burdens differently than their male counterparts.

Hawaii Children’s Action Network (HCAN) was awarded a one-year $15,000 program grant in support of the essential work they are engaged in to help the state Department of Human Services (DHS) and all relevant stakeholders regarding childcare. Their work will ensure appropriate and effective expenditure of American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding for childcare stabilization and improvement. Over two years, their work will span four phases – planning, distribution of funds, outreach and information, and monitoring impact/evaluation. During the pandemic, the historical challenges with how the childcare system has operated (funding, staffing, regulatory requirements, policy decisions, etc.) were magnified ten-fold. Our support of HCAN’s work reflects our belief that access to quality, affordable and safe childcare is essential to a healthy and thriving economy and community. Without it, families have struggled to stabilize households and income and have begun to backslide on progress in the workplace, especially for women. As a result, the children have suffered.

HawaiiKidsCAN was awarded a $10,000 one-year grant in support of three significant efforts – (1) their WiFi on Wheels project, working to provide equitable access to the internet/WiFi for children and communities who need access for education, healthcare, employment, etc.; (2) their public policy work as they look to drive digital equity solutions at the systems and legislative levels; and (3) helping to mainstream the conversation around digital equity across the state through public education and communication strategies. The organizations believes, and we agree, that lack of equitable access to technology and WiFi/the internet creates inequity when looking at STEM (especially for female students) and access to essential support like healthcare, government support, employment, and poverty prevention initiatives. During the pandemic, we have been especially worried about children living in households and communities without reliable internet/WiFi capabilities, making it more challenging to attend school. The risk of negative impact on their learning and their social-emotional health cannot be overstated.