KAILUA-KONA — For staff at the Hawaii Island HIV/AIDS Foundation, building a culture of health on the island is bigger than the short-term actions.
“It’s more than just keeping one boy away from drugs — although that certainly would be a goal,” said HIHAF executive director Bruce Merrell, “(It’s) to provide the community with those tools that they need to keep their community safe and healthy and to build stronger communities.”
The foundation was recently awarded $150,000 as one of just nine organizations nationwide that received grants as part of the Forward Promise Empowerment Projects initiative under the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a national nonprofit dedicated to public health programs. Its Empowerment Projects initiative is designed to support local programs that support boys and young men of color in their communities. Other grantees include programs in New Mexico, Georgia and Washington state.
The grant will help support HIHAF’s BRADDAH project, a pilot program developed in 2015 designed for Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and Asian boys and men over the age of 13. It’s modeled after the similar SISTA program, designed for Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and Asian women living in the community.
The BRADDAH Project is an 18-hour curriculum that touches on a variety of issues — from taking pride in one’s self, to education about and prevention of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, as well as developing and sharing healthy ways to cope with stress. It’s also designed to be tuition-free.
Statewide, Native Hawaiian high school students were more likely to report having recently experienced signs of depression, more likely to say they had experienced dating violence and less likely to say they had an adult to talk to about matters important to them, according to reports at the Hawaii Health Data Warehouse, a partnership between the state Department of Health and University of Hawaii Office of Public Health Studies.
The BRADDAH Project, which was developed in 2015, incorporates education not just on skills and knowledge but also gives participants opportunities to talk story with one another, said program director Jewel Castro.
And HIHAF’s efforts already seems to be bearing fruit, she said.
Those who took part in the program said in feedback that they’ve adopted strategies on avoiding drugs, learning to trust others and taking contraceptive measures.
“There’s a whole lot more,” Castro said of feedback they’ve received, “but it shows that these young men, the program gives them a time to sit down and talk story and focus on what’s going on in their lives and how can they better improve what’s happening.”
It also shows the boys they’re not alone in what they’re experiencing, she added, so they can learn together how to cope with traumatic situations.
The program is also flexible enough that the curriculum can adjust to the time constraints of the group, Castro said. She said the curriculum can take as long as a semester or as short as three days.
And a key component of the BRADDAH Project is looking to elements of Hawaiian culture to bring a sense of relevancy to the program to which students can connect.
Now with this grant money, Merrell said, they hope to expand the curriculum to incorporate cultural resources and invite cultural practitioners.
One example is a potential field trip to Puuhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park where a practitioner can discuss its historical context as a place of refuge.
“What we’re looking at is to help these boys understand ‘Where is your refuge? Where is your healing?’” Merrell said. “Where is your escape and how can you use that to help you get through the trauma and to go beyond that?’”
That, added Castro, can lead the program to “connect them back up with the aina as well.”
That means that following the sessions, there’s an effort to to solidify the lessons through an activity that connects the young men with the land.
“Because for Hawaiian people, the aina is life,” Castro said. “It’s part of the ha and the breath and a lot of the healing comes from that connection — knowing that connection and feeling that connection.”
The goal of all this, Merrell said, is to give young men the tools needed to grow into not just responsible adults but also leaders in their community with the potential to become mentors to the island’s next generation of young men.
“This is a program that expands beyond just simply the 10 or so, or 12, that we have within the curriculum but it provides them the ability to also help their friends and their peers,” he said.
Although the curriculum is designed for Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and Asian young men, the program itself isn’t racially exclusive.
Castro said in the SISTA Project, there have been women of all races and ethnicities.
“This curriculum, it goes beyond barriers,” said Castro. “It starts off with Hawaiian culture but if you look at all cultures, there are so many similarities, and that’s what we talk about.”
Currently, the BRADDAH Project is still in its pilot phase and is primarily on the island’s east side. But Teri Hollowell, director of programs for HIHAF, said the money will let the foundation hire one more educator to reach even more people, potentially getting the program into West Hawaii.
“Eventually, our dream with this money as we progress with this program is to have a very solid team not only in Hilo, which we already have, but another co-existing solid team in Kona as well,” Hollowell said.
But in the meantime, she said, they could “certainly make it work” for anyone on the west side, such as a teacher, family support worker or other person with a group interested in trying the program.
While the program isn’t likely to get to West Hawaii by the end of this year, Hollowell said if someone, such as an athletic coach, was interested in the program, they could possibly work out some dates. Castro said they would want a group of at least 6-10 people in the class.
Merrell said the program is also looking for volunteers to help with the program and they’ve already identified folks in the community wanting to pitch in.
“And obviously we would like to have the men involved in this program,” he said.
There’s particular interest, staff said, in finding volunteers who are Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander or Asian, giving the young men in the program role models and people to look up to.
“And to know too that these successful men may have had their own journey to reach where they are today,” added Castro.
Merrell said having these men share their own personal experiences with youth gives them a chance to see a way through their own personal traumas and a potential future for themselves.
“It’s helping them understand that there is a way forward,” he said. “The program is called Forward Promise, and it’s the promise of a future.”