Strategic Plan
In 2021, the Hoʻoikaika Partnership engaged in a strategic planning process to identify goals for the next three years. This process was facilitated by external consultants, The Stellar Group, and took place through a series of three meetings, all held virtually via Zoom conferencing platform on February 24th – 26th. The planning sessions were open to all partners, with a total of 46 participants. Five additional meetings were held with partners in March to refine the goals, objectives, and activities, as well as one final meeting in April to revise the mission, vision, and values.
In July 2024, the Leadership Hui approved revisions to the strategic plan objectives and activities. A total of 53 individuals participated in the review and update process, ensuring diverse perspectives were included to shape the plan’s direction for 2024-2026.
Goals
- Create a seamless safety net of services to support children and their caregivers.
- Strengthen the prevention and provider workforce.
- Successfully educate and advocate for policy, program, and systems changes to prevent child abuse and neglect.
- Engage the community in prevention of child abuse and neglect.
- Strengthen the foundation of the Ho‘oikaika Partnership.
1. Create a seamless safety net of services to support children and their caregivers.
A 2016 Service Gap Analysis found that for ʻohana and keiki on Maui Island involved with Child Welfare Services (CWS), there was inconsistent, untimely, strained or lack of communication/ documentation between CWS, providers, and families regarding: case status, services availability, referrals, lack of clarity about roles and expectations, program requirements and contract limitations, and discharge readiness. To address this and other systemic problems, strategies to support comprehensive and coordinated service delivery are needed including navigation services to help families obtain resources and weave a seamless safety net among providers.
2. Strengthen the prevention and provider workforce
Strengthening the provider workforce improves the quality of services and supports delivered to ʻohana and keiki who are at risk of or involved with CWS to better meet their needs and reduce the incidence of child maltreatment. Training on the Protective Factors helps to develop a common language and framework for working with families across the workforce. Fostering cross-sector relationships and trust is crucial for leveraging diverse expertise, resources, and perspectives to address complex societal challenges more effectively and innovatively. It also enhances collaboration, strengthens community resilience, and ensures more sustainable and impactful solutions.
3. Successfully educate and advocate for policy, program, and systems changes to prevent child abuse and neglect.
Education and advocacy are powerful ways to engage the public and policy makers on topics related to child abuse and neglect in order to create systems-level change in the county, state, and nationally. This can help change the way programs and organizations operate to better prevent child abuse and neglect in Maui County and raise the profile of the Hoʻoikaika Partnership and its partners as leaders on these issues. Advocacy can also empower and raise up the voices of parents, caregivers, and youth with lived experience. Advocacy and education on child abuse and neglect to community and legislative leaders has been a longstanding interest since the Partnership formed.
4. Engage the community in prevention of child abuse and neglect.
As a community, greater understanding and awareness of child abuse and neglect can help reduce risk factors, provide supports, promote resiliency, and reduce stigma for families seeking services. It can also help community members learn how to identify child abuse and neglect and how to respond. Engaging and educating the public about preventing child maltreatment has been a longstanding focus of the Hoʻoikaika Partnership.
5. Strengthen the foundation of the Ho‘oikaika Partnership.
Hoʻoikaika Partnership has a long history in Maui County, and strong engagement from agency partners. Partners are eager to create more structure to successfully achieve the mission and goals in the strategic plan. Adopting a collective impact approach includes a common agenda, shared measures, mutually reinforcing activities of partners, continuous communication, and an identified and funded backbone organization.
Hoʻoikaika Partnership Logic Model
The Logic Model offers a comprehensive framework that delineates Hoʻoikaika Partnership’s strategic approach to achieving its objectives.
Research to Understand Child and Family Service Needs in Maui County
In recognition of 2022 Child Abuse Prevention month, the Ho’oikaika Partnership released a report that helps us better understand child and family service needs and pandemic impacts. Conducting this research is part of our Strategic Plan.
The Stellar Group examined existing data from the last five years, focusing on the most common risk and protective factors for Maui County children and families, supports available to prevent child maltreatment, and the service gaps that exist.
Key Findings
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- Reflecting our housing crisis, inadequate housing is cited as a precipitating factor in child removal more than twice as often in Maui County as statewide.
- Heavy continuous childcare and inability to cope with parental responsibility are also cited much more often in Maui County than statewide.
- In FFY21, there were 212 children from Maui County in foster care and Native Hawaiian children are disproportionately represented.
- Workforce challenges are common and affect the quality and continuity of services, especially due to issues with recruitment, retention, and cultural competence.
- It’s difficult to know what’s working and what’s not – program outcome data is limited and families’ own voices and experiences are lacking from research and data.
- There is some good news – child maltreatment rates in Hawai’i are lower than the rest of the United States.
A high-level overview of the most significant findings presented by the Stellar Group at Ho’oikaika Partnership’s Special Convening on April 13, 2022.
The full report: Preliminary Assessment of Family Services, Supports and Needs on Maui County A Synthesis of Existing Data