APHN ProgramCulture Of Health

How did the program start?

I talked to my clients and I say, look when you get home at the end of the day, look around you and tell the kids what you see. So the clients would come home and they'd go, ho look at what you guys did today and the kids were just like burst with accomplishment and pride. And they'd be back there the next morning, just, they couldn't wait to go. And I'm kind of looking back at this as the boss going, wow, you know something's going on here.

So when my kids graduated high school, I went to the school and proposed

I'd like to come into school and bring the job to the school day so these kids have a chance to be superstars for even one hour during the school day and maybe that one hour will rub off on the rest of their classes. So they said sure try it and I talked to four of my rich clients and within a week I had four $10,000 checks in the bank. So the nonprofit started.

For the first couple years we built classrooms at school with great success with the kids feeling they were part of something that that they were, you know a special team. They had all this pride in what they did.

You know, how do these kids, how do they change, how do they develop, how do they become, step into the adult world is if they're coming from a point of being told for, let's say, they don't play the school game well and for the last 10, 12 years they've been told they're stupid[WU1] and they witnessed this. They live it, they live it six hours a day. They go home and they get a little more of the same you know you stupid and you start to act this way. But, if this gets flipped over and you get the kids and they can taste success and they come into the shop and you tell them okay I need 12’ 9 ¾” and they look at the tape measure and go what's this? And you show them how the tape measure and then you show them where the ¾ is and you show them how to use a chop saw and they cut that 12’ 9 ¾” and the buggah fits right in where it's supposed to go. And all of a sudden they taste success which the good students have been tasting all along with their A grades and everything. But these kids have never tasted it.

this is a way of looking at life that either I can do it or I can't do it. And give yourself success after success and pats on the back and being a part of something and you begin to, you change that around. Instead of I can't do it, I no can, yeah, I'll figure it out. I can do that and that is addictive behavior. And another day addictive behavior is helping someone. You know, the word kōkua and when you get a 17 year old and they get kōkua, kōkua, kōkua. They get it, take care of the community and then they get the pats on the back and the compliments and they step back and go, whoa, look what I just did and you get that as part of their everyday life. Then, you know, then it comes, when, you know when Saturday rolls around and their friends ask them, hey let's go down to the bay and we'll smoke a few and drink a few six-packs. But auntie calls him and she says oh boy you know my roof leaks and you're the only one that can come and fix it and I really need you to help me. And then the kid

he's got this choice to make. Which one is the better high? Which is the stronger addiction?

Health, obviously there's a traditional Western medicine way of looking at health, blood pressures and things like that. But I think that as from my position as a teacher and community member is there's the health of the kids, what's going on inside of them. And are they, are they happy, are they part of things, are they useful, are they meaningful? Are they part of our community? Do they have a purpose and once you look at those things then health takes a new meaning on and some kid that might have been diagnosed in 50 different ways of you know at-risk and everything we diagnose our kids with. All of a sudden if he or she has a purpose and has done something great and is part of our community, all of a sudden they're up there springing. They're a different person. Their health is different. So a lot of ways that health can fit. The way they eat, if they're involved in farming, if they're involved in cooking, if they're involved in kuʻi, in making their own paʻiai, bringing it home to their family, feeding their family good food. All of a sudden their health and their family's health goes up.. So health is so many things.