Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 11, 1 November 2010 — Providing tools of success for former paʻahao [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Providing tools of success for former

paʻahao

n Maui, lying "smack dab in the middle of Paukūkalo and Waiehu Kou homesteads" is an 11.5-acre parcel, gifted from developer Stanford Carr, that the BEST prisoner reintegration program calls home. It's where newly released prisoners, some coming out of incarceration "with only the shirt on their back" ean find help and shelter in adjusting to life and employment on the outside, said Pomaika'i Kaniau-pio-Crozier, Project Manager for BEST's Kahua Project. BEST - Being Empowered Safe Together - is a program of Maui Eeonomie Opportunity ine. With the help of a $50,000 grant from OHA, BEST offers the new Ke Kahua Project, a cultural, land-based effort with a long-term goal of "building a plaee for clients to eome out and have a plaee to live and work," said Kaniaupio-Crozier. The program runs the gamut, from planting taro, learning the language and building hale to learning basic skills of how to fill out applications, use the phone and get an ID. "For some of our clients that have been incarcerated a long time, the simple things we take for granted are major challenges," he said. OHA's support was crucial to Kahua Project's getting a $1.5 million grant from the Administration for Native Americans, said Kaniaupio-Crozier, whose clients have had such positive experiences there, they return to help out in any way they ean. Kaniaupio-Crozier said his father was part of the 1978 Constitutional Convention that helped to create OHA. And he sees the support he received from OHA as a true testament to those early dreams. "Thirty years ago, this is what they were hoping OHA would do is help Hawaiians," he said. "They wanted culture not just in a section of Hawai'i but for all Hawaiians." — LisaAsato I

Male inmates learn traditional drfstacPi (Uasenry, whieh is the ancient Hawaiian , art used to construct or restore temples, rityal platfarnjs and agricultural walls ' L " " o PhQto: Courtesy ofME0/BJm