Building a unified voice

Children’s Policy Agenda

HCAN convened the fifth annual Hawaiʻi Children’s Policy Agenda, reflecting the input of 37 Community Champion members. These organizations, coalitions, and individuals are committed to improving the lives of our keiki by promoting public policy changes that benefit children’s health, safety, education, and economic security.

The Agenda contained 25 priorities, including creating a state paid family leave program, providing support for families experiencing diaper need, and creating a family visitation facility at a correctional center. They were launched at a joint press conference with the legislative Keiki Caucus.

HCAN Executive Director Deborah Zysman speaks at the Children’s Policy Agenda launch in January 2020.

The COVID-19 crisis disrupted the legislative session, but three bills still passed and were signed by Gov. Ige.

• HB2543 will expand Preschool Open Doors Program eligibility to all children who are 3 to 4 years old and are in the two-year window before entering kindergarten. It establishes a state goal of ensuring all children 3 or 4 years old are enrolled in a preschool program by the year 2032.
• SB2486 will require the Department of Education to establish a standardized data collection process for schools and complex areas to maintain records and report data to the department. The department will be required to submit an annual report to the legislature including data collected about student discipline, seclusion, restraint, and other information on students.
• HB1346 will prohibit the suspension or expulsion of children participating in the Executive Office on Early Learning’s Public Prekindergarten Program.

Convening community advocates

Coalitions

During the COVID-19 pandemic, HCAN’s coalition partners mobilized to tackle the unexpected challenges facing Hawaiʻi’s families. Even before the pandemic, though, these coalitions were making an impact:

Hawaiʻi Early Childhood Action Alliance

The mission of Hawaiʻi Early Childhood Action Alliance (HECAA) is that “all children will have equitable access to affordable, culturally reflective, high-quality care and education.” HECAA now includes 75 individual members from a range of organizations, including the American Heart Association, Kamehameha Schools, Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice, HEʻE Coalition, Parents and Children Together, PATCH, and UH Center on the Family/Hawaiʻi KIDS COUNT.

Led by HCAN, HECAA’s policy priorities this year were:

• Expanding public and charter school pre-kindergarten in areas where there are insufficient early education programs to serve the population of children. Before the legislative session began, HCAN pushed legislative leaders to prioritize early childhood education, resulting in its inclusion in the historic joint legislative package. HCAN then continued pushing for improvements to the early childhood bill.
• Restructuring the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) subsidies so that they provide sufficient support for low-income families and reasonable reimbursements for child care providers. HCAN and HECAA worked to build and strengthen a long-standing relationship with the Hawaiʻi Department of Human Services to develop the new CCDBG administrative rules.
• Increasing the child and dependent care tax credit to relieve the tax burden on families struggling to make ends meet. A bill was introduced in the House to increase the dependent care tax credit. With support from HCAN, HECAA, and the Working Families Coalition, the bill made it to the Senate, but stalled amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Working Families Coalition

The Working Families Coalition (WFC) is a diversified group of nonprofit organizations, academia, unions and community advocates fighting for Hawaii’s families through policy, advocacy, and education. In January 2020, several WFC members organized a Policy and Advocacy Training with approximately 100 participants in attendance. The training included workshops on issue development, using the Public Access Room, and how to effectively use your story to advocate on your issue. Additionally, a panel with legislators shared their perspectives and offered suggestions on being an effective advocate.

Participants learn about policy and advocacy.

The WFC’s legislative priorities in 2020 included increasing the minimum wage, making the state earned income tax credit (EITC) refundable and permanent, creating a statewide paid family leave program, establishing a refundable tax credit for child care expenses, creating an affordable homeownership revolving fund, and improving the kūpuna caregivers program.

Hawaiʻi Oral Health Coalition

The mission of the Hawaiʻi Oral Health Coalition is to improve the overall health and well-being of all Hawaiʻi residents by increasing access and equity in oral health care through collaborative partnerships, advocacy, and education. The HOHC was established in the summer of 2019 but follows in the footsteps of decades of collaboration within the oral health community. Led by the Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute and HCAN, the HOHC is community-owned and has membership representation from all islands and diverse sectors.

Stepping up to the crisis

COVID-19 Response

As COVID-19 became a global pandemic in March, Hawaiʻi Children’s Action Network quickly shifted gears to focus on urgent issues created by the health and economic crisis.

Urgent advocacy to protect children and families

Within a week of COVID-19 reaching pandemic status in March, HCAN worked with the Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute (HIPHI) to urge Hawaiʻi Governor David Ige to implement social distancing measures, through a public letter signed by more than 100 doctors and public health professionals. HCAN also convened letters urging the Governor, mayors, and government officials to support working families and protect child care.

HCAN Executive Director Deborah Zysman also gave a presentation to the Hawaiʻi State House Select Committee on COVID-19 Economic and Financial Preparedness on COVID-19’s impacts to the state’s child care sector.

With the Working Families Coalition, HCAN put together recommendations and spending priorities for the state’s share of federal coronavirus response funds through the CARES Act. HCAN also helped to organize a public campaign pushing the legislature to adopt those priorities, which included a socially distanced rally at the Capitol, digital action alerts, media coverage, and op-eds. The legislature ended up allocating $15 million toward child care assistance.

HCAN and the WFC mobilized community members to push the state legislature to prioritize the needs of children and families.

With the Hawaiʻi Early Childhood Advocacy Alliance, HCAN sent letters to three statewide business groups regarding working families and supporting parents: the Hawaiʻi Employers Council, Society for Human Resource Management, and the Hawaiʻi Chamber of Commerce.

In partnership with the Hawaiʻi Afterschool Alliance, HCAN conducted two surveys of parents to find out about their concerns around child care and afterschool programs. Each survey received approximately 700 responses and underscored the need for working parents to have care for their kids. Read the results of the first survey and the second survey.

In July, the state cut funding for seven public pre-K classes due to its budget shortfall caused by the pandemic. HCAN raised the alarm, and public pressure — including media coverage featuring HCAN — eventually led the governor to restore funding for all seven classrooms.

Informing the public about resources and rights

With information constantly changing, and the latest updates often hard to find, HCAN quickly realized that public education must be a critical component of our response. By the end of March, HCAN put together an interactive, mobile-friendly map of resources to help families cope with the COVID-19 crisis, which includes information on food, child care, financial assistance, and more. It’s become the state’s leading resource list, having been cited by Governor Ige, state and county officials, and numerous local organizations.

Tens of thousands of families have used HCAN’s resource map to find critical information.

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) gave many workers the right to emergency paid leave and paid sick days. After its passage in March, HCAN quickly put together information and graphics (in English and Filipino). As caregivers began anticipating distance learning in July, HCAN published additional information about how this paid leave can be used to care for kids whose schools are closed or doing online instruction. Click here to read about your rights.

At the end of April, the State Department of Human Services changed child care subsidy rules to make many more families eligible. HCAN helped to inform the public about these changes by publicizing information through our networks, email newsletter, and social media. As a result of this community effort, applications for child care subsidies more than doubled.

New community engagement and digital organizing efforts

In March, HCAN and HIPHI launched a new collaboration hub on Slack, which now has over 200 members representing social services, education, labor, small businesses, and other sectors. By coordinating our efforts, we’ve been able to serve the community more efficiently and effectively. This community effort also mobilized volunteers to assemble 12,000 face shields for essential workers.

Physically distanced volunteers at the Neal Blaisdell Center assembled thousands of face shields.

HCAN has also been a leading voice on the importance of child care in the state’s economic recovery. HCAN staff members have been interviewed numerous times for news stories appearing on TV, in print, and online. We have also successfully submitted or coordinated op-eds on this subject, including one written by three HCAN board members urging the state to not let child care to “become an afterthought.” We also created Facebook profile picture “frames” for supporters to display the message that “There’s no economic recovery without child care.” (Click here to change your profile picture, or click here for an alternate design.)

Developing community leaders

Parent Leadership Training Institute

PLTI is a leadership, civics and democracy training course for parents and family members to improve child outcomes in their communities. Based on a national program, our program began in Hawaiʻi in 2015, and we now have 61 alumni actively engaging and changing their communities.

This year, HCAN expanded the program from Oʻahu to Maui. In June 2019, a team of 5 community leaders from Maui were sent to California to become certified PLTI trainers. The cohort attracted 29 applicants, and 15 were accepted into the program. HCAN also launched the fourth PLTI cohort on Oʻahu, which garnered 69 applications, 17 of whom were accepted and joined the program. Both cohorts were disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, with the Oʻahu cohort needing to finish its sessions virtually.

After improving their leadership and advocacy skills, PLTI participants are already making an impact in their communities.

Some projects this year included:

• Maui: “Broken DHHL Promises: 28,000 Waiting”: Working with the community and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to help get Hawaiians homes faster and more affordably. This project was entered into the “Art of Trash” contest and won fourth place.
• Oʻahu: “Honolulu Tenants Union”: Organizing and uniting renters to know their rights, connecting them with legal help when needed, pushing for legislation the protects and empowers tenants.
• Oʻahu: “Greener Bingo Night”: Make the annual Mānoa School parent-teacher bingo night a “green” bingo night. Providing time and space for students to speak about their passion for the earth, sharing the work they are doing on minimizing waste and to create an asset-compost, encouraging families to make consumption choices intentional ones, and encouraging the use of compostable wares at future school events.

Parent leaders from these cohorts are already engaged in work to improve child outcomes. For example, two PLTI parent leaders participated in a town hall meeting with Senator Brian Schatz on paid family leave, one spoke at HCAN’s annual Early Childhood Day rally at the State Capitol, and another is being appointed by Gov. Ige to the Hawaiʻi State Commission on Fatherhood.

Community engagement

Family strengthening

We started our fiscal year with a series of statewide child abuse and neglect prevention events in partnership with Family Hui. From August-October 2019, we organized:

Kids enjoyed Uncle Wayne’s performance at the Maui Family Fun Day in September 2019.

• Family Fun Day events on Maui, Hawaiʻi Island, Lānaʻi, Molokaʻi, and Kauaʻi, which featured family-strengthening craft activities, a survey among caregivers in attendance, distribution of child development and positive parenting resources, and a performance by Uncle Wayne and the Howling Dog Band promoting messages of self-confidence, resilience, and leadership.
• Statewide screenings of the documentary Resilience, which captures the new movement thatʻs fighting to treat and prevent the insidious effects of toxic stress. The first Oʻahu screening was at the “Preventing Early Childhood Toxic Stress in Hawaiʻi Through a Trauma-Informed Response” conference, and the second was held at the Maʻili Community Center and featured a discussion with Twinkle Borge, leader of Puʻuhonua o Waiʻanae.
• Two Keiki Talks on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and resiliency, led by Dr. Sarah Watamura from the University of Denver. Through the Keiki Talks series, HCAN invites national experts on issues affecting children and families to give impactful presentations to audiences of business and nonprofit leaders. Danny Goya, Pua Aquino, and Kasey Galariada also joined the Keiki Talks from Partners in Development Foundation.

In 2020, this work shifted to better support communities during the public health crisis. In-person events were canceled, but a digital event in April, planned by Ho‘oikaika Partnership, CoMMIT for Keiki, and Islands of Hope Maui, raised awareness about child abuse and neglect prevention. Partnering with Aloha United Way, we created multilingual flyers and social media graphics about the free 2-1-1 resource hotline; 10,000 flyers were printed and distributed. We also distributed funds to support programs that directly addressed the risk factors for child abuse and neglect, like poverty, stress, mental health issues, and social isolation as a result of the pandemic:

• Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies
• Neighborhood Place of Puna
• Molokaʻi Child Abuse Prevention Pathways
• Kauaʻi County Partners
• Hoʻoikaika Partnership

HCAN has also been actively working to bring the community together to develop a new Statewide Prevention Plan for Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention and to re-build a stronger Hawaiʻi Children’s Trust Fund Coalition.

2020 Census

HCAN organized the Hawaiʻi Kids Complete Count Committee to coordinate efforts to ensure all children in Hawaiʻi were counted in the 2020 Census. In particular, we focused on families with children under age 5, because Hawaiʻi had the 10th highest undercount of this demographic. Before stopping in-person events due to the pandemic, HCAN raised awareness and encouraged families to complete the census through community events at Windward Mall and the Entrepreneurs Sandbox. We also commissioned custom coloring pages to distribute to families as a way to promote the census.

HCAN adapted a video made by Advocates for Children of New Jersey to inform local audiences about the importance of the census.

During the pandemic, our efforts turned virtual. We developed a tool to target social media ads to areas with a high risk of undercounting kids, using real-time data of census response rates. These social media ads featured one video from Sesame Street, two from the US Census Bureau, and one from Advocates for Children of New Jersey that HCAN customized for a local audience. HCAN also led additional outreach to targeted areas on Hawaiʻi Island through postcard mailers and phone calls.

Grassroots supporters

This year, HCAN’s network grew to over 9,000 individuals who can be contacted via email, phone, text, or physical mail. Before the pandemic, HCAN engaged supporters through advocacy trainings, talk story events, and film screenings. Our social media audience grew by 40% in the past fiscal year, driven largely by Instagram, where HCAN started the year with just over 100 followers and ended with over 1,000.

Our email database increased by about 900 subscribers. We have also increased our newsletter frequency and doubled the average rate at which subscribers open our emails, meaning more people than ever are seeing our action alerts and informational updates. Our new blog, Keiki First, provides regular updates on HCAN’s work and national news about issues affecting children and families.

Hawaiʻi Children’s Action Network Speaks!

Hawaiʻi Children’s Action Network Speaks! is a nonpartisan 501(c)4 nonprofit. Although it’s a separate organization from HCAN, the two have a shared mission of ensuring all keiki are healthy, safe, and ready to learn. HCAN Speaks! focuses on lobbying and endorsing candidates who work to pass legislation on behalf of Hawaiʻi’s children and families. It gives voters the tools they need to make informed decisions when choosing Hawaiʻi’s leaders.

This year, HCAN Speaks! supported HCAN’s policy priorities and submitted testimony during the legislative session. Through a new discussion group, HCAN Speaks Up!, we also started building a grassroots base of advocates.

During the 2020 election, the HCAN Speaks! board chose to endorse nine state house and senate candidates. They decided on this select group after a thorough vetting process to identify the candidates who would be the strongest champions for keiki.

The board sent every candidate a questionnaire with detailed questions on five topics: early learning; economic justice; health and wellness; child safety, welfare, and family strengthening; and improving Hawaiʻi. 32 house candidates and eight senate candidates returned their surveys. The top 24 candidates — 20 house candidates and four senate candidates — were invited for interviews. Each candidate was asked how they would be a champion for keiki, how they would involve the community and be effective legislators, how they would advance racial equity, and how they plan on winning their seat.

Advocates joined a virtual pau hana with the candidates endorsed by HCAN Speaks!

Each of our nine endorsed candidates ran spirited campaigns that brought to the forefront critical issues like public health, economic injustice, and the need for high-impact investments in our keiki. HCAN Speaks! volunteers helped get out the vote through socially distanced sign-waving and virtual phone-banking.

Seven candidates were ultimately elected: Sen. Stanley Chang, Rep. Jeanné Kapela, Rep. Adrian Tam, Rep. Sonny Ganaden, Rep. Lauren Matsumoto, Rep. Amy Perruso, and Rep. Lisa Kitagawa. We’re excited to work with our seven elected candidates, along with all legislators, in the pivotal upcoming legislative session.

In Memoriam: Dr. Calvin Sia

Dr. Calvin Sia, a pediatrician and lifelong advocate for children in Hawai’i and across the world, passed away on August 19, 2020 at the age of 93. Dr. Sia was one of the founders of Good Beginnings Alliance — which later became HCAN — and changed the lives of countless children through his tireless advocacy. Read more about Dr. Sia.

In early March, HCAN spoke with Dr. Sia, who was one of our inaugural Champions for Childreen honorees. In this short video, he reflected on his career and his vision that all children will “achieve physical, mental, and social well-being” — a mission that we will continue in his honor and memory.

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