Services & Programs
Community Case Management
Sawali
“Sawali” is a type of traditional woven split-bamboo mat used as a wall, paneling or wall cladding. This technique is used to make “bahay Kubo’s”, “banigs/mats”. The bahay kubo is our foundation, where our family grows and thrives. Where we teach and learn. Where we live and heal. Weaving is the ancient art of recognizing health and wholeness as the primary state, and overcoming the blockages of broken connections.
Sawali will weave together an effective plan towards a long-term recovery for clients who have been affected by the fires. Case workers will provide intervention and collaborate with other agencies providing long-term wellness and care. Sawali’s intention is not only to weave back survivors of the fire into the community but to reweave a stronger and tighter Lahaina home.
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Assure prompt and appropriate assistance and achieve rapid and effective recovery.
To assess, address and meet ones needs through a recovery plan.
To assess barriers related to ones recovery.
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A designated case manager who can collaborate with other agencies and long-term recovery groups, to meet the needs of the client.
A designated case manager who will develop, monitor and evaluate treatment plans and progress.
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Upon needs assessment, client will immediately be triaged. Met needs will vary upon degree of necessity.
Clients needs should be addressed by the standard time frames for rescue, relief and rehabilitation are defined as 7 days, 3 months and 5 years respectively.
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Clients will be assigned a “unique” case manager. Because we are primarily serving the immigrant/Filipino community, our DCM’s will be versed in client’s native tongue. Ensuring the trust of the client.
Cases will be revisited periodically (every __week/ month ) to continue to monitor client’s needs and if they have been successfully triaged.
Case management will not stop at achieving immediate needs. SAWALI will be dedicated in the long-term wellness of one’s being.
Mental Health & Wellness
AMIN
Ancestral Medicine and Intercultural Native Health or “AMIN” is our mental health and well-being program. AMIN, in Tagalog and Ilokano, means “us”/”we”, aims to provide a personal, collective and shared approach to our mental health and well-being. AMIN seeks to eliminate barriers in accessing mental health services, providing mental health advocacy and culturally-inclusive therapeutic services at little to no-cost. Utilizing frameworks rooted in Filipino epistemologies AMIN will create culturally affirming spaces that foster community mental health and wellness.
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Eliminate barriers to healing for the Lahaina community by providing mental health advocacy and culturally inclusive, therapeutic services at little to no-cost.
To improve community health by reducing the stigma of mental health, increasing access to services, and further empowering he community through outreach and engagement.
To ensure culturally appropriate services through provider and community collaboration.
Aim to make mental health services accessible to our people who have historically been unable to access services due to systemic barriers such as race, gender or socioeconomic status.
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A strong sense of family to support each other and share stories of loss and resiliency, while understanding our history, cultural practices, and personal identities.
A physical space for community care. A place where we can convene and talk story with each other for emotional and mental support with a trained, mental health provider.
Choice to engage in individual or family therapy and receiving financial assistance to pay for sessions.
Receive a framework for understanding grief. Collective group support is led by leaders in the community with training in the stages of grief and trauma. This framework can be used as a layer of understanding about what you are going through as we continue to connect and rebuild Lahaina.
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AMIN is accessible on a case-by-case basis. We recognize healing is not linear and looks different for everyone.
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We are Lahaina, born and raised here. We are actively grieving loss of home (family members, physical home, etc.). We are collectively reimagining and rewriting what 'home' looks like. Our goal is to create a central hub that feels and looks familiar. Coming together as a group to help each other normalize the experience of collective grief.
Healing is collective, not individual. We heal in community, not solely by ourselves. We can solve problems we have by knowing we are not the only ones suffering from the devastation of our town. In that way, we give back and allow you to be an active participant in the healing process.
Trained networks of support groups that are language and culture specific. We recognize that our community has the resources and traditions to move from surviving to thriving. It is our duty to build these relationships for future generations.
Workforce Education & Training
WAYA
Workforce and Youth Advancement or “Waya” is our educational and professional development program. Waya is the root word for freedom, or liberation in Ilokano. The idea is education for empowerment and socio-economic liberation through educational and workforce development. The program will provide educational and workforce training and certification in order to create skill sets that promote a more diverse economy. In addition, it will be a space for cultivating the youth’s innate gifts and developing future industry leaders through mentorship and civic engagement.
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Assure prompt and appropriate assistance and achieve rapid and effective recovery.
To asses, address and meet ones needs through a recovery plan.
To assess barriers related to ones recovery.
-
A designated case manager who can collaborate with other agencies and long-term recovery groups, to meet the needs of the client.
A designated case manager who will develop, monitor and evaluate treatment plans and progress.
-
Upon needs assessment, client will immediately be triaged. Met needs will vary upon degree of necessity.
Clients needs should be addressed by the standard time frames for rescue, relief and rehabilitation are defined as 7 days, 3 months and 5 years respectively.
-
Clients will be assigned a “unique” case manager. Because we are primarily serving the immigrant/Filipino community, our DCM’s will be versed in client’s native tongue. Ensuring the trust of the client.
Cases will be revisited periodically (every __week/ month ) to continue to monitor client’s needs and if they have been successfully triaged.
Case management will not stop at achieving immediate needs. SAWALI will be dedicated in the long-term wellness of one’s being.
Cultural Experiences
ILI
The fabric of Lāhaina weaves many different cultures, languages and practices that helps to not only diversify the community but enrich it. Our goal is to draw back the instinctual senses that people have to a place - to find identity and culture in the natural surroundings and in the relationships between peoples through shared experiences and understanding.
Filipino cultures possess many that align in parallel with the Native Hawaiian culture; and the values of Lāhaina readily translate from one culture to the other. To find resilience and strength for what is to come, we must look to where we come from and learn from the cultural languages, dances, music, food, arts, practices and stories to guide us. Filipinos throughout the diaspora offer evidence of past resilience, experiences that will help to stabilize us in the current uncertainties, and to set a foundation for future generations in finding pride, a sense of place and belonging to Lāhaina.
Our Indigenous Learning Initiative or ILI is our Philippine cultural education program. Ili in Ilokano-Filipino is the word for land-base. It connotes home, town and community of belonging. ILI will introduce curriculum and pedagogies that center on conservation, preservation, and good stewardship of land, natural resources and cultural foods that reduce dependence on western food sources. ILI leans into one’s indigenous roots, languages, stories, mythologies, and rites and rituals of Philippine indigeneity. We will foster a sense of self-worth and self-becoming as a process of decolonization.
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Introduce, educate and utilize indigenous practices and methods that supplement the recovery, healing and resiliency process, focusing on the rediscovery of indigenous cultural experiences and exchanges.
Create an intercultural program that promotes multi-ethnic and multi-cultural collaboration.
Emphasize on land and natural resources as means of sustainability and wellness.
Focus on education for children and youth, to introduce and integrate language, stories, and practices that differ from colonial worldviews to facilitate their growth in highly cultural methods.
Create and establish a sense of pride for culture and identity that challenges colonialism and western-centric standards.
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Addressing food security through indigenous and cultural practices surrounding agriculture, environment, fishing, and natural resource responsibility.
Addressing health and wellness through cultural-centric medicine and addressing health needs as our indigenous ancestors may have practiced.
Addressing land and water conservation through education of sustainable practices, and bringing awareness to responsible consumption.
Addressing and creating integrated identities and communities through cultural exchanges, promoting language education and access, and establishing a greater sense of sense and place.
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Ongoing as a foundational basis for our comprehensive programming.
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We will use Filipino methods and knowledge not centered on colonial standards of Filipino history and culture.
We will promote indigenous education for all ethnicities and cultures, finding parallels and movements toward collective approaches for community-wide enhancements.
We will seek knowledge and advisement with existing practitioners and resource curriculum from genuine experts.
