Noho Nā Hiapo
Hawai’i FoundHer Match Challenge
Kauwela Waiwai
Lau Maiʻa Luncheon with Gov. Waiheʻe
Hawaiʻi FoundHer in Las Vegas for CNHA Convention
Pacific Inno: Access to funding is top challenge for woman entrepreneurs in Hawaii, according to report from local accelerator
What School Could Be Podcast, featuring Purple Mai’a
Hawai’i Business Magazine: Purple Mai‘a Is Building a Tech and Innovation Ecosystem, Starting with Keiki
In three years of offering our Hiapo workforce development program we’ve had over 800 signups, 120+ graduates, and 82 people who earned Salesforce certifications. The average salary upon employment for our graduates is ~$82k. This is almost double the average salary of a recent Hawaiʻi college graduate and is approaching the $100k ALICE threshold to support a family of four in Hawaiʻi.
Hiapo participants receive wrap-around career counseling support and have the opportunity to apprentice in our Olonā Consultancy, which provides cost effective Salesforce solutions to local and national companies while mentoring and growing budding local Salesforce professionals. Clients like Opportunity @ Work, MAʻO Farms, and TRUE Initiative have benefitted from our services.
In an effort to broaden the onramp into our programs, we’ve even piloted Digital Transitions, a collaboration with WorkNet, Inc. that provided a beginner course in data entry and data management to incarcerated women at Women’s Community Correctional Center.
Right now our attention has turned to the urgency of not just continuing but expanding this life-changing program that helps keep Hawaiʻi’s people in Hawaiʻi and increases the presence of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in technology.
Please contact dkealoha@purplemaia.org if you or your organization are interested in supporting the Hiapo program or contracting with the Olonā Consultancy.
We are so happy and humbled to be receiving support from Stupski Foundation to advance the Hawaiʻi FoundHer vision of uplifting NHAAPI women founders. From now until September 29 Stupski Foundation will 1:1 match donations to Hawaiʻi FoundHer from new donors.
Your donation goes to support our next cohort of Hawaiʻi-based women entrepreneurs who receive non-dilutive capital and childcare support as part of their accelerator experience. It also helps us as we prepare to scale the program to better serve rural communities and diasporic kanaka wāhine.
Please contact kelsey@purplemaia.org with your interest in taking up this match challenge.
This past summer, two programs: Future Ancestors and the Mālama Design Studio Certification focused on building value in communities.
Future Ancestors, which encourages haumāna to find waiwai in their communities and in themselves, was held concurrently at four sites in ʻEwa, Waimānalo, Honolulu, and Lānaʻi. It was the first time we’ve run multiple Future Ancestors sites at once and our first neighbor island site. At the end of the program, the students congregated on Oʻahu to share what they learned with each other.
VP of Education Mike Sarmiento shared, “I think overall it was an amazing experience, and the biggest take away I got was that getting haumāna together from different moku is a really powerful experience. There was a moment where we were all in a circle and one by one each hui shared an oli from their community. It was really beautiful!”
In June we launched the pilot of our Mālama Design Studio Certification. Select students who participated in our Digital Creators program were invited to work directly with Native Hawaiian owned businesses from our Mālama Design Studio companies to apply their new skills and gain real world work experience. Students earned a certification at the end of the internship to reflect their training and experience supporting local businesses with marketing, website design, and digital content strategy.
Purple Maiʻa is proud to have awarded 5 scholarships to stand-out youth as part of our second annual Lau Maiʻa Scholarship Award. Lau Maiʻa scholars and their ʻohana attended a celebratory luncheon with special guest former Governor John Waiheʻe in July.
Hulō and best of luck to these purple young people: Tiffany Bento, Landon Choy, Lexie-Marie Kia-Cox, Shaelyn Loo, Paul Selhorst Jr, and Allena Villanueva.
As sponsors of the CNHA Western Regional Native Hawaiian Convention, Purple Maiʻa showed up to promote Hawaiʻi FoundHer over the course of the week-long conference in June.
Hawaiʻi FoundHer Program Coordinator Angel Permito-Kaheaku was featured on the Women in Business panel. Moderated by Ku‘ulani Keohokalole, the panel also included Mālia Ka‘aihue of Aloha Modern and Kailee Freitas of Mahina Made.
The panelists shared manaʻo about challenges they face as women entrepreneurs and the importance of lifting up other women on similar journeys. They agreed that being mothers improved their essential entrepreneurial skills such as problem-solving, adaptiveness, multi-tasking and the ability to think five steps ahead. In a real-time demonstration of adapting to new situations, Ku‘ulani made an impromptu request of the women entrepreneurs in the audience to each share the name, product, and instagram handles of their business with the group.
“It was really nice to hear about Native Hawaiian women’s businesses on the continent,” Angel reflected. “I was glad to share the FoundHer program with them too because we are searching for partners who can replicate the program outside Hawai‘i,” she said.
Reminder: The application for the next Hawaiʻi FoundHer cohort opens August 1st and info sessions will follow soon after. Visit foundher.org to learn more.
