La'Akea Village

“The finance committee reviews the form 990 and recommends board approval.”

“Before taking action on any item, board members are required to disclose any conflicts of interest.”

“The board of directors uses comparable data from other nonprofits to set the salary of the executive director.”

“Governing documents and the form 990 are available upon request.”

“Day treatment program: covid and the doh rules that were put into effect significantly altered our approach to providing services. Prior to march 2020, the campus was considered a community hub where participants and mentors gathered in morning circle, a community and communal lunch was served every day, the country store was open and many activities took place. All of this quickly took a pivot to limit potential exposure for this vulnerable population. We had to find ways for our participants to continue to touch and feel the inclusive, life sharing setting where they engage in a healthy productive lifestyle. With the help of zoom, the participants continued to connect for morning circle, zumba, hula, fitness, non-violent communication and numerous other classes. Our agricultural activities continued to thrive as participants and mentors scheduled times to come onto campus in pairs. We have recently upgraded our data and goal tracking capabilities with a software program, therap. This program has the capabilities for mentors to log data in real time through their smartphone. Even the anecdotal stories can be recorded. All of this is resulting in increased data collection. Funding from medicaid waiver subjects la'akea to rigorous and thorough annual audits by the department of health. Although meeting compliance standards is not our end goal, we view clean audits and successful re- certifications as critical confirmation of our ability to serve the safety and well-being of our participants. The country store is considered a part of program rather than a retail endeavor and been subject to strict safety rules which have effectively kept it closed since march. This has been a key location for many skill building and community interaction activities. This necessitated a pivot to producing a subscription based weekly csa produce box distributed in the community. Participants were involved in harvesting and producing the boxes. For example, kat, one of participants, picked and packed the produce box to bring home to her father who was one of our first csa members. More recently, the "store" has moved outside under the fresh pa'ia air for a weekly farmers market and participants are involved in all aspects including the harvesting, preparing, selling and engagement with the community. Our community lunch and food production program out of the kitchen has also shifted. Large community lunches are still on hold, though small groups of 2-4 people are back in the kitchen to continue their skills training. For example, abby, one of our participants, recently received her safe food handling certificate. She is practicing safety, hygiene, and cleaning routines in the campus kitchen with her mentor to prepare small scale meals.”

“Our residential home, mele house, became the mele house bubble. In this way, we have been able to continue working toward providing programs that are full of rich and gratifying experiences, that help with everything from how to write an email, or say a name, or make eye contact, to learning to cross the street or use a knife, to actual job skills like manning a cash register. This program is created to help reach the goals of each participant's individual service plan (isp) that is developed with the participant, their family, la'akea and the doh case manager. The isp articulates the diagnoses, goals, appropriate strategies, behaviors and safety analysis to track. Staff assigned to each participant make notes daily, and supervisors aggregate these and prepare monthly and quarterly assessments for each participant's file which are submitted to the participants' case managers at the department of health. These assessments record outputs like services provided and activities completed, but they also document outcomes, both through anecdotal stories and metrics that show progress against goals.”