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Mālama Design Studio launch: targeted support for Kanaka-owned businesses
FoundHer in the national spotlight, finishing 2nd cohort, and releasing data on NHAAPI women-owned businesses
Hawaiʻi’s first middle college opening its doors in fall 2023
Food+ Policy at the Hawaiʻi Food Systems Summit
Purple Maiʻa wins Best Places to Work
PMF Women in leadership
Eahou, economic sovereignty, fresh air
At the beginning of March, we kicked off our newest entrepreneurship program, Mālama Design Studio. Funded by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Mālama Design Studio (MDS) is a nine-month program designed to provide targeted support to Kānaka Maoli-owned companies to maximize their growth and impact. Participants will be guided through design-thinking processes rooted in Hawaiian culture, and our team will help implement targeted solutions including branding, marketing, website design, UI/UX, SEO, & business strategy improvements in order to scale their business.
The inaugural MDS cohort includes 12 companies from all six main islands, representing a holistic cross section of a community-focused economy.
MDS represents the next step towards our goal of developing a pae ʻāina-wide coalition of Kānaka businesses focused on achieving economic self-sufficiency and, ultimately, a regenerative, uniquely Hawaiian circular economy rooted in environmental sustainability and social justice. Mahalo to OHA for funding this program.
Congratulations to the five mana wāhine of FoundHer Cohort 2 who graduated from the program in mid-March! Over the 6-month program, the cohort worked extremely hard to keep up with intensive business development classes, participate in pop-up markets, and grow their businesses. Here are some highlights of their accomplishments:
In its first two years, the FoundHer program has received incredible support and recognition—in part because of the critical need for holistic support for women entrepreneurs. In April, FoundHer was featured in an article by CNBC about the challenges faced by NHAAPI women entrepreneurs.
Because so little data on NHAAPI women-owned businesses exist, this year we’ve gone to the effort to collect and share anonymous data from the applications received for FoundHer Cohorts 1 & 2. You can check out the report here. We’ve also developed a survey so that we can get a thorough, more holistic view of the needs of local women entrepreneurs. If you are an NHAAPI women business owner, we want to hear from you!
In collaboration with Windward Community College and Kailua High School, we are proud to announce Hālau Hekili, Hawaiʻi’s first middle college program.
A middle college is an innovative high school located on a college campus where students earn dual credit. Hālau Hekili is designed to uplift Windward Oʻahu’s bright, capable students who may be uninspired by traditional schooling. Our aims are to reduce high school dropout rates, encourage interest in academics, and normalize participation in higher education. Hālau Hekili will offer an alternative learning environment that empowers students to believe in their own value and ability to create a thriving future for themselves and their communities.
Purple Maiʻa’s role will be to collaboratively build and teach curriculum designed around WCC’s Hawaiian Knowledge and Innovation certificate, which is a set of courses from the Computer Science, Business, and Hawaiian History Departments. Throughout their four years, students will complete all DOE high school graduation requirements while taking dual credit courses, with the opportunity to graduate with an associate’s degree. Students will receive their high school degrees through Kailua High School and will participate in their extracurricular programs.
Mahalo to the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation for supporting the launch of Hālau Hekili!
In January Food+ Policy, our young adult food system advocacy program, participated in the 2023 Hawaiʻi Food System Summit put on by Transforming Hawaiʻi’s Food System Together. The summit brought together stakeholders and advocates from the food system to identify priority policies and build momentum. Food+ helped facilitate Day 1 of the Summit and organized a panel of policy experts. You can check out the recording here and learn the fate of food system bills this legislative session here.
Food+ Policy then started its third cohort of 12 college interns who use technology to advocate for a regenerative and equitable local food system. Mahalo to the Kim Coco Iwamoto Fund for Justice for supporting this cohort!
We are stoked to have been named one of Hawaii’s Best Workplaces for 2023!
Based on the anonymous survey responses from 46 of our 53 staff members, Pacific Business News (PBN) decided that Purple Mai‘a is one of “the companies that are doing it right.” Purple Mai‘a received an overall rating of 95% on whether employees feel engaged, valued and supported.
For example, here’s a survey response:
I love being part of Purple Maiʻa. I have a strong sense of belonging and value being part of this organization and love that I have the freedom and agency to make decisions that will push my work forward. I feel highly respected and trusted by everyone in the org and I know if I needed something there would be a line of people who would not hesitate to lend a hand. I am learning a lot and I find that both exciting and challenging at times. I am excited about the future of the org and the work we are doing together in service of our community.
As an organization, we strive to encourage people internally and externally to use their gifts for the betterment of the lāhui. This survey was a vindication that staff feel empowered and supported to do that.
The full rankings of the Best Workplaces in Hawaii will appear in the Friday, May 19, print edition of PBN. The survey was conducted by Quantum Workplaces.
2023 brought some exciting changes, with women leaders stepping into key roles at Purple Maiʻa.
Board member Elena Farden was voted Board President and was joined by new Board Vice President Kanakolu Noa. Elena is Executive Director of the Native Hawaiian Education Council and formerly worked at Elemental Excelerator and Kamehameha Schools. Kanakolu is the Interim Director of Sustainable Industries at Kamehameha Schools and was recently named a 20 for the next 20 by Hawaii Business Magazine. Both wāhine bring so much experience, acumen, and creative thinking to the board; we are excited to have them!
We are also happy to announce that Dr. Kiana Frank, a microbiologist at the University of Hawaiʻi, and Andrew Ogawa, Managing Partner and Founder of Quest Venture Partners, also joined the board, with Ogawa taking the role of board treasurer.
Women leaders on staff include Kelsey Amos, co-founder, who has shifted titles from COO to Co-CEO alongside Donavan Kealoha. The Co-CEOs were joined in fall 2022 by Nicole Brodie as Director of Operations. Nicole has already drastically accelerated our administrative capacity and data analytics as an organization; Kelsey and Donavan are just trying to keep up. Nicole previously worked at Shifted Energy and has worked and volunteered with Hawaiʻi nonprofits since 2006.
You know what the end of hoʻoilo means–it’s time for another Purple Maiʻa Fun-raiser!
In this, our 9th year, we’ll take you on a retrospective of where we started and how we’ve grown into a Hawaiian-led nonprofit with programs in culture-based youth technology education, workforce development, and entrepreneurship & design.
silent auction, door prizes, keiki activities, participant demo alley, eahou gallery
When we think about our origins, we usually think of our 2014 board and staff retreat at Kaʻala Farms. We spent the morning clearing weeds out of a loʻi that had been lying fallow and opening it back up to water flow again. Then we spent the afternoon taking turns talking, sharing our manaʻo about what it was that Purple Maiʻa was founded to do. In retrospect, we had a lot of questions on our minds that we were trying to work through together:
Can our kids succeed as technology makers, and if they do, what will that look like? Can we as Hawaiians and people of Hawaiʻi do technology innovation–is that ok? Were our ancestors innovators and can we call ourselves that too? Can technology be a way to rapidly upskill our people, access higher incomes, and keep people from having to leave Hawaiʻi? Are we just helping disadvantaged kids–or is our work, at its core, about systems change?
Nine years later, it feels like the answer to all those questions is yes. The confirmation is in the programs and people that succeeded along the way and showed us glimmers of what the future could be. Our minds have turned to new questions now:
If these are questions on your mind too, we hope you’ll join us at the Fun-raiser to celebrate where we’ve been and talk about the future we’re building.