Lorie Casuga’s an Americorp HIPPY with a fascinating RIF!
Hired to assist in the HIPPY program, Lorie was offered an internship as an Americorp recipient. “Every employee hired into the HIPPY program has the option of being an Americorp intern,” Lorie explained. “For me it was a real benefit. Americorps interns receive an educational stipend of $2800.00 per year for two years!”
Lorie received her A.A. degree in Liberal Arts and was working towards her B.A. in a dual major, psychology and sociology, at the University of Hawaii, Hilo, when she was got the HIPPY job. Two years later, her student loans for her A.A. Degree were paid, with money left over going towards her B.A. Degree as well. Today Lorie assists in the Americorps program by tracking all Americorps recipients statewide.
The primary focus of Lorie’s work, however, is the HIPPY program. The HIPPY program is designed to teach parents how to become their children’s first teachers. The program is free to parents of 3, 4, and 5 year olds. Parents receive 30 weekly learning packets, representing the regular school year assignments made September through May. Parents also receive all the supplies and story books necessary to complete the learning packets.
HIPPY Home Visitors educate parents once a week in their homes, on the job, or at the weekly socials arranged for all the parents. At these meetings parents receive training on the education packets.
“Our home visits are with the parents,” Lorie says with emphasis, “not the child. The most exciting part of this job is seeing changes at the parent level, which trickles down to the child! I put my own 6 year old daughter, Kaiya, through the HIPPY program and will put my 2 year old daughter, Alma, through it, too. I know exactly what our home visitors do – we teach parents how to teach their children! It’s a great program for both the parents and the children.”
In addition to the weekly meetings, HIPPY holds monthly dinner socials for the parents and keiki. The monthly gatherings have delightful, creative themes celebrating literature and life. They’ve honored Dr. Seuss’s birthday, cowboys, coffee farms, petting zoos, Hawaiiana, and Curious George, to name a few.
The Reading is Fundamental, or RIF program, is the perfect supplemental component to the HIPPY program. It offers three free books a year for each child in the HIPPY program, and for other programs at FSSWH as well. Healthy Start and Early Head Start are RIF partners with the HIPPY program. Literally hundreds of children have been reached through this reading program.
“And what is the value of reading to your kids?” Lorie Casuga smiles broadly as she answers her own question, “They become life long readers!”
Lorie’s interest in the well being of children and their education is not limited to the programs she presently serves. In addition to her formidable administrative skills Lorie is also a successful advocate. According to her director, JoAnn Bishop Freed, Lorie was instrumental in getting an infant center established at Konawaena School so that teens with infants could complete their high school education.
“I’m quite convinced that if it weren’t for Lorie’s advocacy that center might never have happened,” JoAnn said. “Lorie is so far beyond that accomplishment now, she forgets, but that infant center really has helped so many teens and their babies.”
Hats off to Lorie Casuga for her strong sense of purpose and visible commitment to supporting children and families!
By Theresa Alderdyce, Ka’u Family Center Coordinator, talderdyce@fsswh.org
A few months back, a family’s house burned down destroying everything they owned. The center was used as a drop off site for items for this family. Blankets, clothing and household items, along with food, were brought to be picked up by the family or delivered by the Center Coordinator.
Other service providers use the Center for groups and meetings. The Salvation Army meets with families at the Center to provide financial assistance and in-kind donations. Their Family Intervention Services meet with youth to provide workshops and assistance in accomplishing their goals. The Violence Intervention Project, anger management for men, meets weekly at the Center after closing.
The Ka`u Family Center has many partners in the community for special events and activities. One of our biggest collaborations is the Annual Easter Event which is held in partnership with Ka`u Parks and Recreation.
The Ka’u Family Center also houses the Healthy Start Program, Early Head Start Program, and the Youth Development Program, effectively providing educational outreach services to families with children age birth to 18 years of age.
By Joe Fichter, Youth Development Director, jfichter@fsswh.org
A primary function of the Kohala Family Center is the provision of information and referral services. These services are available to all members of the community and are designed to match the needs of individuals and families with available community resources. Services involving employment, financial assistance and substance abuse are the most often requested at the Center.
Another important role of the Family Center is to act as an incubator for needed community initiatives that can grow and move towards self-sufficiency. Two examples illustrate this function quite well. One, The SHARE food pantry began at the Kohala Family Center. It has since expanded and moved to the local Catholic Church. Two, FSSWH’s Family Center coordinator was deeply involved in the creation of North Kohala’s community based 501(c)(3) corporation. The Family Center provides the meeting space for this organization that is designed to foster the development of community based non-profit services with the corporation acting as a fiscal agent and incubator.
FSSWH’s Healthy Start program works out of the Kohala Family Center. This program works with mothers to support and educate them on various parenting issues while tracking the development of both parent and child. We have one outreach worker who services the geographic area of North Kohala. FSSWH’s Early Head Start program has begun a toddler play group in Kohala as well.
The Kohala Family Center also provides a meeting place for local service providers including Narcotics Anonymous, Americorps, Women in Recovery Support Group, T.E.A.M. Kohala and others.
The Kohala Family Center has been and will continue to be very involved in issues of importance to the community it serves.
The 8th annual Huggo’s “Na Pua O Ke Kai Wahine Fishing Tournament!”
“Peach” Coad, the Wahine Fishing Tournament producer along with Sue Vermillion, of Vermillion’s Kona Billfish in Honokohau Harbor, came up with the idea for the all ladies fishing competition eight years ago. Noting there wasn’t an all female competition on the Big Island, Peach encouraged Sue to start one. Sue agreed to produce the event if Huggo’s sponsored it. Joining forces with Eric von Platten Luder, proprietor of Huggo’s, FSSWH was chosen as the non-profit recipient of this fundraising event. Eight years later, Sue Vermillion has created a strong business producing stellar fishing competitions from Kona to Mexico, and has grown the Wahine Fishing Tournament from 75 boat entries last year to 91 boats this year. The results are over $47,000.00 in contributions to FSSWH since the tournament began!
The event starts on Friday night with the registration of the teams at Huggo’s and a fundraising auction of “men who will work the boats” to the highest bidders. Tall stories and plenty of bragging punctuate an evening of dress-up glamour and high-spirited claims for the big prize. After a full day of fishing on Saturday, the Sunday event features dinner and the presentation of the monetary awards. A video of the weekend action is the highlight of the evening, featuring the antics of the “all women teams” and the glory of the various categories and catches. The video, a DVD this year, is available by contacting Sue Vermillion at 329-7371.
This year’s winner of the $15,300.00 first place prize went to Stormy Hayes of team “All in the Ohana.” She boated a 566 pound blue marlin on the Piilani B with Captain Tootsie Tim. The second place prize of $6,350.00 went to Gae Callaway of team “Pamela,” Captain Peter Hoogs, for her 470.5 pound blue marlin catch. Third place, a $2,500.00 prize, went to Lillian Matsumoto of team “Deceivers” for her 311.5 pound blue marlin. The competition landed 13 marlin - five weighed at the harbor and eight tagged and released.
The 9th annual tournament dates are set for next year and the event will grow yet again to 100 teams! The scheduled date is July 31, 2004 and entry forms will be available on September 1st. Call Sue Vermillion to register early for this ever-popular wahine fishing event!
By Don Bebee, Exectuive Director, dbebee@fsswh.org
On the awareness and education side of things, a lot has happened: There are now six well-established Community Response to Ice Coalitions in West Hawaii and several more communities in the beginning stages of development. An incredible theatre production, “Breaking Ice,” was developed and performed by six recovering addicts, and presented to area schools. Plus, the whole fight against Ice has spread statewide!
Our state legislators have gotten involved and a joint legislative committee is touring the state to get input. The Lt. Governor has personally taken on the role to find answers to the Ice problem. A Second Annual Big Island Ice Summit is scheduled and a statewide summit is being planned as well. Federal dollars have been earmarked for the Big Island and numerous grants have been written to try to locate resources for needed programs.
FSSWH has been involved in all of the above and presently is operating two State Incentive Grants to help prevent substance abuse in our young people.
Is there more that needs to be done? Absolutely! This issue is so large and the threats so multiple that we must and will forge ahead. More treatment, more prevention, more education, and more efforts on the part of our communities are needed. FSSWH is active in these efforts and is committed to working on them on behalf of families of West Hawaii.
Finally, this is a personal issue for all of us and the stakes are too high to just “walk away.” We are confident that we can find solutions. As more people become involved we must strengthen our efforts to assure that needed resources come into West Hawaii. At FSSWH we pledge to continue to help coordinate and collaborate with other groups to utilize resources well. Our families deserve nothing less.
Your support is needed, too. It can come in many forms, but it is critical that you join in efforts to stop drug use in our families and communities. There is simply too much at stake to not be involved!
By Judith Lyon, Development Director, jlyon@fsswh.org
In this issue of the FSSWH News we take a look at a hallmark feature of our organization – the Family Centers in Ka’u and Kohala. The centers, demonstrate the basic principles of FSSWH’S mission to “support families and communities in providing love and care for our children.”
A visit to Ka’u Family Center in Na’alehu and Kohala Family Center in Hawi provides an interesting contrast to the applications of family and community support services. The Ka’u Family Center is an icon for social justice, a genuine “feel good” service provider that cares about the people in the community. When a house burned down in Ocean View, the gathering place for support was the Ka’u Family Center. Food, clothing, housing arrangements and other supplies were found for the family that lost their home. When the community mourned the loss of a child at the hands of her father, people young and old sought the solace of FSSWH staff and counselors, both more commonly and locally known as “friends.”
The Ka’u Family Center represents what every town in America would like to claim as its own – a trustworthy and reliable place to go when in need of vision, education, information and support. In 2002 the Center served, through information and referral, 275 people. The Center also houses most of the programs offered by FSSWH and has become a helpful hub for this rural and isolated community.
The Kohala Family Center’s calling is equally as fascinating as Ka’u, but of a completely different tenor. Kohala serves to answer the most pressing issues of its community through leadership and support of many of the community’s major initiatives. It is a smaller Center than Ka’u and is staffed only twenty hours a week. Yet in 2002, Kohala served nearly as many people, 236, through its information and referral services. The Center also acts as a meeting place for many other organizations in Kohala, during and after office hours, and as space for other FSSWH outreach programs.
The Kohala Center is an incubator for programs that meet local needs. In collaboration with other important organizations, it takes an important stand in the struggle to stop the use of crystal methamphetamine and has served to further efforts on pressing issues like substance abuse treatment. It’s been a long, uphill climb but the rewards are visible - the citizens of Kohala repeatedly come out in force to admonish their community to stop drug abuse and a treatment facility has become reality for the Kohala community. Though the process to eliminate drugs from a community is frustrating and fearfully slow, the entire island acknowledges the excellent work being done in Kohala. The Kohala Family Center is an important player in this difficult public awareness process and FSSWH is proud of the meaningful work the Center performs.
At one time family support centers like these were seen as an important way to provide health, education and welfare services to communities. Friendly, non-bureaucratic and open to all people, a single family center could offer solutions to the most common problems and social ills faced by all members of society. Then, with changing political times and reductions in government funding, the family center concept fell out of favor with state and federal government and funding ceased. FSSWH is grateful for the County of Hawaii funding which provides the core support that keeps our two centers open.
Today, FSSWH continues the legacy of its Family Centers through generous donations from the people of Hawaii. Without private donations, neither Ka’u nor Kohala Family Centers would exist As we look forward to the future of our Family Centers we face the nagging reality that as important as the Family Centers are to the communities they serve, they survive based solely on the kindness and generosity of our private donors.
With Mahalo to all our donors…
….and special thanks to our new Host A Dinner participants - KTA & Kona Brewery for their kick-off support of the South Kona Barbeque (net $550)! Shawn Nakoa & Betsy Strance for their celebration of “happy childhood memories” and a $500 donation to FSSWH! Hugs to our Host a Hoagie genius, Jan Signorelli, for her fabulous $128 dollar Italian hoagie! (Yum!) To Catherine Hawkins and Kathie Geliga for their wildly creative Let’s Have a Parade for Early Head Start! (Yet to be held - but just how many keiki does it take to make a parade?) We’ll have a dozen other dinners to tell you about next issue! To all who are participating, a happy, happy, thank you!
Special thanks, also, to our beloved staff who volunteered to participate in the recent Na Pua O Ke Kai Wahine Fishing Tournament: Randi Lawson, Wendy Wagner, JoAnn Freed, Janet Crossley, Arline Harmon, Marian Alfaro (2x!), Don Bebee, and Linda Bradley. Also a big Mahalo to Ms. Kate Kaemerle, a new FSSWH volunteer, for joining the crew!
Over the past 25 years FSSWH has grown and changed, adapting to the needs of our families and local communities. Our ability to meet changing community expectations has become the hallmark of our service delivery. From the time of a child’s birth to the day that child leaves home, FSSWH has an educational and support component for both the child and their family. We’re proud of the work we do and believe we have made an important contribution to the families of West Hawaii.
We would be honored to have graphic artists in our community submit their logo vision for FSSWH. All logos submitted will be considered. Final selection will be made by FSSWH employees with final approval by the FSSWH Board of Directors.
Please be our “hero” and design a logo for Family Support Services of West Hawaii! Contact Judith Lyon at 334-4115 to learn more!