Community Fellows Organize Basketball Clinic and Equipment Drive for Kahauiki Village Youth

Sports have had a positive impact in many of our lives and we hope to give the kids at Kahauiki Village the same experience.

Kahauiki Village (KV) is a plantation-style permanent supportive housing community for formerly homeless households. A hui of leaders from private and public made this community possible to build a future and store hope to many families with children, ending their cycle of homelessness.

“All of us who worked on the project believe that Hawaii will be able to address the homeless issue if we all stepped up and do something about it,” says Duane Kurisu, organizer of Kahauiki Village. “It can be done.”

When KV opened in 2018, it was able to house 30 families which consisted of 123 individuals, 60 adults and 63 children. In 2023, KV served 159 households (145 families and 14 kupuna) comprising of 714 individuals (14 kupuna, 336 family adults, and 364 children). That’s 5.8 times more individuals who were served in one year from when they first opened.

In late July, Local University of Hawai‘i basketball players and coaches from both the men’s and wāhine teams partnered with the aio fellows program, a leadership development program for aio employees, to host a special basketball clinic for the children of Kahauiki Village.

The clinic provided Kahauiki Village children the opportunity to learn basketball fundamentals from experienced university players and coaches. Participants engaged in skill-building exercises, drills, and friendly competitions designed to foster teamwork and boost confidence.

A total of 26 players and coaches came to facilitate the basketball clinic of 40 Kahauiki Village children. Some of the volunteers included Lelsie Imai, Junior, Guard from the Wahine team and Aaron Hunkin-Clayton, incoming freshmen, Guard on the men’s team, both Hawaii natives.

“We are so fortunate and grateful for UH Athletics partnership and their willingness to help us out. The whole team from the men’s and women’s team pretty much came out today,” said Cole Mausolf of the aio fellows “and the kids were all smiles.”

In addition to the clinic, the organizing fellows are spearheading an equipment drive to provide much-needed sports gear for the village. They are actively seeking donations from individuals and businesses to ensure that the children have access to quality equipment for ongoing recreational activities.

Resources are still needed to keep the center operating and if you can help, your generosity goes a long way and have a positive impact on these keiki’s lives.

Here are two ways to donate:

1. Visit their Amazon wish list and have your donation mailed to them directly: https://a.co/hnDTGAA
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2. To make monetary donation, visit https://ihshawaii.org/donate/
   
   • a. When making your donation, select “Dedicate my donation to honor or in memory of someone”
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   • b. Select “In honor of”
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   • c. Then in the First Name, enter “KV “and for Last Name, enter: “Sports” to ensure that your donation will go to the Kahauiki Village Children’s Center sports equipment.

To read more about Kahauiki Village, read https://www.hawaiibusiness.com/how-to-replicate-kahauiki-village/.

To learn more about Kahauiki Village and how you can get involved, visit https://ihshawaii.org/kahauiki/.