Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 32, Number 4, 1 April 2015 — ASSESSING OUR STRATEGIC PLAN Aloha mai kākou, [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ASSESSING OUR STRATEGIC PLAN Aloha mai kākou,

Sometimes we forget to celebrate our successes. The kuleana of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is so broad that we often move on to the next task rather than to stop and smell the pakalana. I've been reflecting on this because we are at the midpoint of our strategic plan. In 2010, the Board of Trustees adopted our plan. Since then, we've been diligently working on it. The goal was to raise Native Hawaiian achievement in a number of areas. In eaeh area, it has been a community effort. For instance, one of our goals has been to raise scores in standardized tests in reading and math forNative Hawaiian students. AndNative Hawaiian students have met the challenge. The Department of Education has done a great job identifying the gaps that exist and providing extra resources in order to raise the achievement of Native Hawaiian students. OHA's grantees have helped as well. We've helped raise the median ineome for Native Hawaiians and lowered the rate of obesity. OHA can't elaim all the credit, but in the past four years, we've dedicated $62 million to address these issues, and we are meeting or exceeding our goals to ensure Native Hawaiians are healthier, better educated and are economically better off. In addition, we're moving forward with plans to create a new governanee structure forNative Hawaiians. Even though we've been working on the details for many months, these plans are in their infancy. We hope to be able to give you more details in the next few months.

But while we have these wonderful successes, there are portions of our strategic plan that have been left wanting. We pledged to do more to get more people involved in cultural activities and to understand our culture and history; we also need to address the sustainability of the pae 'āina. Our challenge is to be more disciplined so we have the greatest impact. We need to be more discriminating on the projects we fund to have a well-rounded impact on culture and history. We have to be more strate2ic. There is no shorta2e of 2reat nroi- li

ects that deserve funding. But we need to stand by our strategic plan and fund projects that have the best impact in diverse fields. We must show everyone our Hawaiian heritage that sustained us for generations was diverse and rich. Yes, there might be times when we tell good projects we can't fund them. k But we have to ensure that we follow our strategic plan to M advance all Native Hawaiians and to Ho 'oulu Lāhui Aloha - ^ to build a beloved nation. 'O au iho nō me ke aloha a me ka 'oia'i'o, Kamana'opono M. Crabbe, Ph.D. Ka Pouhana/Chief Executive 0fficer

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