Program Updates! Help Trafficked Kids through Health, Education, Advocacy, and Reintegration

Looking Back – and Ahead Sex Trafficking Education and Advocacy

2018 was a year of great expansion for Hoʻōla Nā Pua. Two of our programs, the Education Program and Starfish Mentoring Program (SMP), experienced phenomenal growth and reached more keiki than ever before. Our Education Advocates reached over 3,900 middle and high school students through sex trafficking prevention education – nearly doubling our 2018 goal of 2,000!   Trafficking prevention education was provided to students on three islands (Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi Island, Maui) in five school districts (Central, Honolulu, Leeward, Hawaiʻi, Maui).

• SMP’s Hoku group mentoring expanded from three juvenile facilities to five: Hawaiʻi Youth Correctional Facility, Hale Hoʻomalu Juvenile Detention Facility, Hale Kipa Girls Emergency Shelter, Hale Lanipōlua Trafficked Victim Assessment Center, and Noho Olu Girls’ Safe House.   2019 is bringing even more significant opportunities in continuing to build the continuum of care needed for children in Hawaiʻi.   This year we are focusing on our programmatic impact and measurement along with continuous expansion and sustainability by:
  • Reducing trafficking vulnerability and demand through creative education, advocacy, and partnerships.
  • Driving a cultural shift in reducing stigma around the issue of trafficking and being a thought leader in the anti-trafficking space
  • Expanding the much needed Hoku group mentoring service into more adolescent facilities both on Oʻahu and Hawaiʻi Island.
  • Increasing the number of trained volunteers for in the Starfish Mentoring program as well as our Educational Advocacy program to deliver in-school prevention education.
  • Developing an advocacy agenda and engaging our volunteers and supporters to be a part of the needed legislative changes.
  • Cultivating more partnerships and collaborative opportunities- because together our impact is greater!

Sex Trafficking Program Updates

Hoʻōla Nā Pua has partnered with Child & Family Service and Catholic Charities Hawaiʻi to offer free services to children and families who are survivors of sexual abuse. The Hope and HealingProgram provides an ʻohana style approach, offering wraparound services of counseling and support to child survivors and their families.The program also screens and assesses the risk of sex trafficking and provides concurrent treatment planning as needed. HNP provides trafficking prevention and identification training, mentoring services, and Hoku group activities. Other services include assessment, family support, and individual, group, and family counseling.   There are new faces at HNP headquarters! Kim Allen, LSW, has joined us as our new Direct Services Program Manager for the Starfish Mentoring Program. Kim comes to HNP with over a decade of experience with program management at the State Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division. Tim Hitchens, MSW, is our new Education Program Manager. Tim is an experienced social worker from Philadelphia where he was a policy and program supervisor at the Department of Health and oversaw the Child Welfare hotline. If you see them around our offices, say hello!

Pearl Haven Residential Treatment Updates

Pearl Haven is in renovation phase 3 of 6, and we are close to 50% of the project cost raised. We are so thankful for the MacNaughton Foundation and John Dean, among others, who in the fourth quarter of 2018 made significant contributions to keep construction moving forward at Pearl Haven.   We are at a critical step in project development, and are working on securing an operation partner for the services Pearl Haven will provide. We believe in quality programming to ensure a strong and sustainable program. The community and national support for a place like Pearl Haven continues to increase, and recognition of the level of trauma interventions are becoming apparent. Once completed, Pearl Haven will be the safe space for the girls we serve! Learn more about Pearl Haven construction updates.

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