Page 16 - MidWeek - Oct 27, 2021

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mother of four wanting to set an example for her kids as she gets back on her feet. A man,
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.
— 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 Like
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(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 fulfifilled lives.
laid off after 21 years and looking 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.”
services people islandwide and its home base is now located in Kunia.
“It allows us office space, classroom space and an ag lot,” says Fonoti.
Fonoti and other volunteers helped people receive assistance beyond edu- cational pursuits. They even helped with job placement.
She credits the move to the support of community partners that helped the group apply for a Youth Build grant, which was received in July.
Years ago, while working in Wind- ward O‘ahu, Fonoti recognized a need for support services in education, job training and healthcare in Waimānalo.
“It started out as a basic grassroots, community effort,” she says.
“We went from training youth and 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.”
Soon, the work they were doing was noticed by entities that would become strong community partners.
“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.”
“The need and importance and urgen- cy 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 entity rather than just pull up a chair and a
The group sought input from the com-
This was the beginning of Kāpili Like
SEE PAGE 21