News Release
Office of Hawaiian Affairs
A $498,660 award to the Purple Maiʻa Foundation for its Mālama Design Studio is one of four grants in a $1.36 million grants package approved today by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
The Mālama Design Studio is intended to educate 20 Native Hawaiian business owners through a collaborative design research process that will result in the implementation of a technology solution that can improve their businesses and ultimately cultivate economic development for Hawaiian communities. Each participant will be provided a $2,500 stipend to implement a technology solution that improves their business.
The purposes of Office of Hawaiian Affairs’s Economic Stability Community Grant include increasing the number of successful Native Hawaiian-owned businesses and increasing access to capital and credit to strengthen Native Hawaiian businesses and individuals.
An economic stability grant of $398,000 was also awarded to Hawaiʻi Community Lending for its Native Hawaiian Owner-Builder Project which will increase the economic stability of 58 Native Hawaiians in Nāʻiwa, Molokaʻi, by establishing a culturally relevant program that will increase access to capital, credit and technical assistance for Native Hawaiians to build and own homes on Hawaiian Home Lands.
Two Health Community Grants were also announced, including a $220,000 award to Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke Building Program for its Mana ʻĀina, Mauli Ola project and a $250,000 award to Alu Like, Inc., for its Koho Pono project. Office of Hawaiian Affairs’s Health Community Grants supports initiatives, leverages partnerships and engages in strategies to promote healthy and strong families.
“We are proud to partner with such outstanding entities like Purple Maiʻa, Hawaiʻi Community Lending, Ma Ka Hana ʻIke Building Program and Alu Like, Inc., to address the economic and health needs of our people, and we salute them for their innovative strategies and programs that will serve Native Hawaiians,” Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board Chair Carmen “Hulu” Lindsey said.
In June, Office of Hawaiian Affairs announced more than $600,000 in community grant education awards along with ʻAhahui event grants which were the first grant awards to be publicized this year.
Office of Hawaiian Affairs’s Grants Program supports Hawaiʻi-based nonprofit organizations that have projects, programs and initiatives that serve the lāhui in alignment with Office of Hawaiian Affairs’s Mana i Mauli Ola Strategic Plan.
For more please visit www.oha.org/strategicplan/.
About the Office of Hawaiian Affairs
Established by the state Constitutional Convention in 1978, Office of Hawaiian Affairs is a semi-autonomous state agency mandated to better the conditions of Native Hawaiians. Guided by a board of nine publicly elected trustees, Office of Hawaiian Affairs fulfills its mandate through advocacy, research, community engagement, land management and the funding of community programs. Learn more at www.oha.org.
