Caring for Our Keiki the Hawai’i Life Way

As a proud member of the Board of Directors of the Hawai’i Life Charitable Fund, I have the privilege of working alongside a few other committed Hawai’i Life agents doing our part to give back to the communities that we live and work in.

Each year we work closely with the Hawai’i Community Foundation to select non-profit organizations that best match our giving theme.  The 2023 giving theme was Caring For our Keiki – Elevating Hawaii’s children and at-risk youth with improved early development, education, and health care for their brighter futures.  The organizations that will be receiving grants this year are: 

Hawai’i Island

• Hāmākua Youth Foundation, Inc.  – Dedicated to the children and young adults of the Hāmākua Coast, we began serving youth in 1996 when a grassroots group of community members saw the need for youth to have a safe place during non-school hours.
• Humanity Hale –  At Humanity Hale we all have a part to play in creating the world we envision. The compassion and empathy we share is the driving force of our organization and we excel when we are committed to seeing the humanity in everyone. By providing Big Island youth with life enhancing programs, we create a pathway that will continue building promising futures in our community through free education, art and culture, life skills programs, and 24/7 trauma support… But most importantly…Love.

Mau’i

• Grow Some Good – Cultivating a healthy community by strengthening local agriculture and improving access to nutritious, affordable food.
• Nā Keiki O Emalia – Providing peer grief support for children, teens, and their families to help them heal after the death of someone important to them.

O’ahu

• Camp Ānuenue – Providing a community where every child with cancer in Hawai’i is accepted, valued, and celebrated. 
• Keiki and Plow – Inspiring health, empowering children, and connecting our community through sustainable agriculture. 

Kaua’i

• Hui ‘O Mana Ka Pu’uwai Outrigger Canoe Club –  We strive to teach and perpetuate the cultural significance of the canoe, as well as the importance of preserving the traditions of the past. Our club is committed to both our members and the community at large. We believe that paddling together builds a strong sense of purpose and friendship that is hard to find elsewhere.
• Hawai‘i Childrens Theater – Inspiring youth through the study, performance, and appreciation of theater arts. 

Molokai

• Ka Ipu Makani Culture Heritage Center – With a mission to foster an awareness of cultural and natural  resource management and heritage preservation in Hawai’i, we encourage community stewardship, practice, preservation, and restoration of cultural and historical sites, landscapes, and materials while promoting cultural and natural richness, diversity, arts, languages, sciences, history, and traditions of Molokai.
• Molokai Arts Center – We believe that the artistic spirit is inherent in everyone, from the youth to the professional artist to the novice, and everyone in the community should have the opportunities to develop their creative gifts to the extent possible. Artists can be the consciousness of a culture but if we do not allow people the opportunities to develop their creativity then we as a culture, a society, lose out on our greatest resource: human potential.

Lana’i

• Lana’i Academy of Performing Arts – Our goal is to create a safe environment outside of school where students can explore their creativity, and feel a sense of acceptance and belonging while learning valuable life-skills.  Our primary focus is to create contributing members of society that have self-confidence and know how to work together.

Please feel free to reach out to any one of our board members if you have questions about the Hawai’i Life Charitable Fund or if you would like to donate your time or resources. We are grateful for all of you and your generosity. Mahalo!