Palama Settlement

Programs: Psycho-social well being - the in community treatment program (ictp) is an alternative learning environment for youth who are referred by family court. The youth are failing in school, and ictp provides an opportunity for credit recovery toward graduation requirements by working in partnership with each student's home school. Staff also work with probation officers to ensure compliance to family court plans. The program integrates mentoring, character development, one-on-one counseling, and group sessions to encourage the students to eliminate law violating behaviors and develop into healthy, productive adults. During the 2013-2014 contract year, 46 unduplicated youth were served. While in the program, the number of law violations committed dramatically decreased with only one charge of assault reported. This compares to three robbery, nine theft, four burglary, six assaults and three sexual assaults, in addition to other law violations adjudicated prior to program entry.

recreation programs - recreation programs are provided for low to moderate income families and individuals, at risk youth, and the elderly. Programs for youth include swim classes / free swim, after-school drop in activities, after-school tutoring, and access to a computer center. Palama's goal is to provide safe and nurturing environment for youth during those hours when delinquency is high. Late night basketball during the summer months provides an option for teens to engage in a physical, team sport rather than a delinquent activity. The late night league drew over 200 youth from various kalihi area non-profits to the palama gym for the weekly games in june and july. In addition to the games, the teams were required to participate in educational and community service components of the league. The honolulu police department, a league partner, provided the educational component that focused on cyberbullying. Quarterly cultural events were initiated in 2014 beginning with a lion dance to celebrate chinese new year's; introduction of the mardi gras celebration in the spring and observation of the japanese obon season with a taiko drum demonstration in the summer. The senior citizens' program includes line dancing, tai chi, zumba, chair yoga, qi gong, mah jong, hula, ukulele and sewing classes. These programs all support palama's mission of providing programs that promote good physical, educational, and cultural health. In 2014, in excess of 600 youth and 215 senior citizens took advantage of palama's programs and facilities. New to the senior citizens' programming was the addition of performing arts classes. The hula classes, which were absent for many years, quickly developed a loyal following.

delinquency prevention programs - palama's pakolea program coordinates football, basketball and volleyball for youth. In 1968 the pakolea program was established in response to the low number of high school graduates from the community and the high number of boys rejected from entering the military. The program utilizes sports participation as an incentive to improve academic achievement and behavioral change. Even today, in addition to time on the field or court, academic hours are required for pakolea participants. Assistance with homework, guest speakers, and other learning opportunities are conducted with the student athletes during these hours. Mentoring and character development are integrated into the program to develop student athletes who are respectful and value education. In 2014 a record number of youth enrolled in the volleyball program. With 76 registered, a wait list had to be created. The football program registered 43 players on two age group teams and the basketball program registered 40 players on four age group teams. With a generous donation from an individual supporter, many of the players were awarded financial aid to pay for their registration fees. This enabled a large number of community youth to participate in a structured sports program where they not only gained athletic skills, but made new friends and learned the values of being scholar athletes.

other programs: community organization - palama's community services program (csp) provides emergency services to the residents of the surrounding low-income neighborhood. These include maintenance of an emergency food pantry and in partnership with other agencies, emergency financial assistance for rent or past due electricity bills. On a monthly basis, palama staff coordinates surplus food distribution in partnership with the hawaii food bank to two low-income housing projects. In 2014, 1600 household members were beneficiaries of the food bank and emergency food pantry distributions. The csp also coordinates palama's keiki (children) thanksgiving supper and the annual holiday event. Approximately 160 children participated in the turkey supper and over 600 children received a wrapped gift from santa at the holiday event. Both events included free food, entertainment and games or information tables. Annually, the kahala nui senior center donates 300 gift bags filled with toiletry and non-perishable food items which the csp delivers to homebound as well as active seniors who reside in the low-income neighborhood. For many seniors, this is the only holiday gift they will receive. Education - during the 2014 summer, palama expanded its prek ace boost camp program to include not only the palama site, but also a classroom at linapuni school located in the towers of kuhio park. The prek ace boost camp is a four week, kindergarten readiness program for students without or with limited preschool experience. The students at the palama site were also offered the opportunity to participate in the parents and children together's (pact) mikiala early screening, and school readiness program. The children who signed up for mikiala received hearing, vision and developmental screening. At the conclusion of the prek ace classes, a pre and post-test evaluation of both sites indicated that there was the greatest number of student improvement in the test areas of rote counting (average increase of 126%), ability to read numerals (average increase of 29%) and ability to read upper case letters (average increase of 13%). The evaluator also noticed an increase in learning skills such as the ability to self-correct and to apply learned information to their everyday world. An afterschool tutoring program is managed by a small hawaii non-profit who assists children with homework assignments. Many of the neighborhood children who attend the program are from non-english speaking homes where parents are unable to provide homework assistance. Palama settlement provides the classroom where the tutoring is conducted, and the room is crowded daily with children from the nearby elementary school. The program has proved so successful with increasing number of children attending, thus palama plans to acquire the entire program in 2015. The henry and colene wong computer center is managed by a hawaii non-profit for a monthly fee. The instructor meets twice per week with the students of the ictp who are taught how to use the different microsoft applications including power point and publisher. Utilizing publisher, the students produce a quarterly newsletter composed of research topics, opinion pieces and/or articles about their accomplishments in the program. For students with long histories of truancy, it is a self-esteem booster to see their work in print. The computer center is opened afterschool and on saturdays for the neighborhood children to use for homework, computer instruction and/or educational games. Palama settlement offers two scholarship funds for students attending local private schools or colleges and universities in the state or on the mainland. Preference is given to those students who have participated in a palama program, or to those residing in the kalihi area. In 2014, the blackfield and friends scholarship awarded $20,000 to eleven students and the hannah cochrane scholarship awarded $45,000 to 29 recipients.