Convening Resilience Efforts

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on individual health, family, and work considerations as well as broader systemic, economic, and social conditions. A large number of individuals and groups who were working to address said impact before and during the pandemic expressed a desire to connect with others to find points of synergy and alignment. With support from institutional and resource partners seeking longer-term solutions to systemic challenges, the collective efforts shown above were brought together under the umbrella of “resilience.”

Guided by the collective values and principles that were shared in individual talk stories, a series of four convenings were held in November and December 2020. The collective efforts nurtured cross-sectoral and individual relationships and identified shared goals, outcomes, and collaborative opportunities to address challenges to resilience. This led to the formation of subgroups focused on the following areas for action: 

• Coordinate & Strategize on Policy & Advocacy — creating a place-based experiential learning pilot focusing on centering voices of individuals closest to the issues, working in environments that expose participants to current issues, and in doing so build the awareness of participants to affect change within their different sectors. 
• Support Coalitions & Coalition Building of Smaller Actors — created an action learning huakaʻi to Hawaiʻi Island on November 3-5, 2021 where community practitioners held a “mirror” up to representatives from all 4 counties and had open and honest self-reflection to problem-solve around strengthening capacity, as government practitioners, to more effectively engage and partner with communities. The subgroup is now working to continue the process of ongoing action and reflection (praxis) by growing a statewide community of practice around recovery and resilience. 
• Build Trust & Mechanisms for Internal & Institutional Relationship Building — thinking through an ahupuaʻa approach to agriculture site visits that lift up a larger narrative as tied to food systems and food security issues here in Hawaiʻi, the group hosted a Windward Zero Waste School Hui Tour on April 1, 2022 to identify models to manage waste on Oʻahu. The group also toured Hawaiʻi Meats on May 27, 2022.