Page 6 - Hawaii Island MidWeek - Nov 3, 2021

6 HAWAI‘I ISLAND MIDWEEK NOVEMBER 3, 2021
(From left) Tiare Kaolelopono, Kamaka Ka‘aloa, U‘ilani Fonoti, Allan Silva and Carolyn Murren of Kāpili Like
U‘ilani Fonoti and
her team at Kāpili Like are constantly working to help the underserved achieve sustainable and fulfilled lives.
mother of four wanting to set an example for her kids as she gets back on her feet.
This was the beginning of Kāpili Like — helping those who Fonoti saw were underserved within the community.
So she rolled up her sleeves and got to work.
tent,” Fonoti explains.
That was in 2017. Today, Kāpili
A man, laid off after 21 years and look- ing for a career change. A young man hoping to start his life off on the right footing.
“I would work in the community, just doing volunteer work because I worked in Kailua at the time and I would tu- tor families on weekends and support homesteaders to do just the basic stuff that you would assume would be done at school, through the education sys- tem,” she says. “They needed more. They needed more attention and then it led to understanding that it was a gen- erational thing. It wasn’t just the keiki, it was mākua and it was kūpuna that needed the services, since ... academics (reading, school and education) was not something promoted within the family and maybe even in the homestead, it extended down to generations.
“We were there and we did ser- vices there on the homestead, back in Waimānalo,” recalls Fonoti. “We were working out of just basically a farmland with tables and chairs.”
Like services people islandwide and its home base is now located in Kunia. “It allows us office space, classroom
These are just three examples of the people who’ ve been helped by Kāpili Like — a nonprofit organization that is the brainchild of executive director U‘ilani Fonoti.
Fonoti and other volunteers helped people receive assistance beyond ed- ucational pursuits. They even helped with job placement.
space and an ag lot,” says Fonoti.
She credits the move to the support of community partners that helped the group apply for a Youth Build grant,
Years ago, while working in Wind- ward O‘ahu, Fonoti recognized a need for support services in education, job training and healthcare in Waimānalo.
Soon, the work they were doing was noticed by entities that would become strong community partners.
working on academics to expanding and evolving into a trades academy,” she says.
“I noticed that our homesteaders, they were not serviced. It was a cycle of not promoting education and no support. We had basically a poverty rate that was just extended through generations,” she recalls. “We also had lots who could not even read.”
“The need and importance and urgency of education wasn’t something that they were promoting within their own ‘ohana.”
“Luckily, word spread and Kame- hameha Schools and the Castle Foun- dation saw what we were doing there and they supported us and decided to fund us to help us build our foundation and ... help us be a functioning enti- ty rather than just pull up a chair and a
“We realize that most of our youth did not want to go to higher education or were not college-bound. So, where does that leave them? There was no point in pushing them to graduate with no next step.”
“It started out as a basic grassroots, community effort,” she says.
which was received in July.
“We went from training youth and
The group sought input from the community to learn what skills and SEE PAGE 7