Responsibility for one’s health and the wellbeing of others.
Aloha mai kakou,
Community First Hawaiʻi has been working on solutions to improve health and access to care on Hawaiʻi Island since its founding in 2014. To that end, Kuleana Health was a cornerstone of Community First’s work from 2021 to June 2023. When federal funding to address disparities in minority health became available, Community First stepped in to develop a plan to implement the grant and distribute funds to community-based health organizations. Through the COVID pandemic and beyond, Kuleana Health served as a collaborative vehicle to identify and address one of the root causes of health disparities and inequities - health literacy.
While Kuleana Health’s initial grant period is complete, our rural communities are better resourced today and into the future as a result of the work we all came together to accomplish. Mahalo nui loa to the County of Hawaiʻi Department of Research and Development for securing federal funding through the Office of Minority Health and acting as the principal investigator and project manager for the grant, the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo College of Pharmacy for evaluating the project, and all our consortium and community partners whose kōkua made Kuleana Health and its success possible.
Mahalo,
Randy Kurohara
Executive Director
Community First Hawaiʻi
Nānā i hope,
Nānā i mua.
Looking back, Looking forward.
2023 and Beyond
While this initial iteration of Kuleana Health has reached completion, we see that our impact is lasting. Through training staff that still work with patients across Hawaiʻi Island and continuing to provide resources via this site, Kuleana Health continues to serve our community. The need, however, for health literacy materials and outreach is still great. We continue to ask ourselves and our community, “What else can we potentially do to ensure that organizational and personal health literacy continue to grow so that we may all thrive?”
2021
During COVID, we learned that certain populations - including rural and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities - were experiencing worse health outcomes in relation to COVID. Kuleana Health’s goal was to not only respond to COVID-related needs (e.g. vaccines), but to address some of the underlying barriers to health and wellbeing that were exacerbating the toll of COVID in these communities. We realized health literacy was a critical piece to ensuring that our communities will be well-informed and resilient in the case of another challenge to our collective health. Based on this understanding, we embarked upon developing a consortium of local healthcare providers and community leaders to convene with, listen to, and reach our underserved communities.
2022
Half way through the two year grant period, we identified the need to pivot and build upon our approach. It became clear that our consortium partners were at capacity dealing with the post-COVID world of increased need and insufficient staffing. In order to achieve our goal of truly meeting our community where it was at, we needed to ramp up our efforts. We added key consultants and partners who boosted the visibility of Kuleana Health and health literacy through social media and increased presence in community.
Kuleana Health Approach and Impact
Approach
At Risk Populations
Hawaiʻi Island data shows Filipinos, Hispanics, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and rural populations are at the highest risk for health disparities therefore we focused efforts on these groups. Kuleana Health was founded on the belief that these disparities can be mitigated through improved health literacy skills.
Language Access
Critical health materials materials translated into 7 languages
Decisions Based on Good Information
At the heart of health literacy is the belief that we need solid information to make good decisions about health. Kuleana Health existed because some people are disadvantaged in getting this crucial information due to access issues, cultural norms, and English language proficiency.
Targeted Strategy
Kuleana Health developed, organized, and delivered a three-pronged health literacy strategy that we believed would help these targeted groups make good decisions that would improve their overall health. By working with individuals, organizations, and communities, we were able to provide the resources people actually needed.
Outreach
360 community outreach events
Impact
People Power
36,573 community members reached
COVID Vaccinations
6,050 free COVID vaccinations provided
Social Media
1,253,949 total impressions
169,975 Facebook reach
116,786 Instagram reach
Healthy Me Books
2,163 books distributed to 4th graders in Title One schools islandwide
Learn more about the impact, outcomes, and learnings of Kuleana Health.
Kuleana Health Final Report coming soon.
ʻAʻohe hana nui ke alu ʻia.
No task is too big when done together by all.
Mahalo nui to the organizations and government entities who came together under the umbrella of Kuleana Health and continue to work to provide access to quality information and care for all Hawaiʻi Island residents.
