The Malama Ohana Working Group, established by the Legislature to develop recommendations to improve the state’s child welfare system, concluded in a recent report that integrating Native Hawaiian cultural values into policies and practices is necessary to fix a failing system.

MOWG released a report in December, which fulfilled its 2023 legislative mandate, and ultimately concluded, “There are good people doing difficult work throughout the system, but altogether, the system is failing.”

MOWG said it came to its conclusion after its 17 members conducted statewide listening sessions over 15 months with hundreds of community members “that focused on understanding the child welfare system through the experiences of those it touches — from families and children to workers and community partners.”

The antidote, among proposing legislation and addressing staffing and administrative issues at the state level, requires integrating Native Hawaiian cultural values into the policies and practices of t he Department of Human Serv­ices and Child Welfare Services, according to the report’s recommendations.

But five months after the MOWG report was released, MOWG Co-Chair Laurie Tochiki said it’s hard to pinpoint exact changes that are directly related to the working group’s recommendations, especially after a flurry of MOWG bills failed at the end of the legislative session.

“The recommendations are very thorough, they’re community based but they’re really hard,” Tochiki said. “They’re hard for government and DHS to understand and embrace because we are asking for not only a shift in programs and policy, we’re asking for a shift in heart — and that’s harder.”

However, Social Services Division Administrator Daisy Hartsfield and Child Welfare Services Branch Administrator Elladine Olevao said in a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that “many of the values and goals identified by (MOWG) are already reflected in current DHS efforts such as involving individuals with lived experience in decision-making, prioritizing relative placements, and rebuilding trust with families.”

DHS said CWS is only one part of the larger child welfare system.

“That system also includes law enforcement, the courts, mandated reporters, community organizations, neighbors, and families,” DHS said in a statement. “It takes all of us working together to ensure the safety and well-being of children.”

Equity issues

For the past two decades, Native Hawaiian youth have been disproportionately represented in the foster care system. In 2022, despite making up 33% of Hawaii’s youth population, Native Hawaiians made up 44% of Hawaii’s foster care youth, according to the report.

Since the 2023 death of 6-year-old Isabella Kalua, also known as Ariel Sellers, due to abuse by her adoptive parents, five more children have died due to child abuse in Hawaii, according to DHS’ 2024 Child Fatality Report, including 11-year-old Azaeliyah Pili-Ah You and 3-year-old Sarai Perez-­Rivera.

An April 2024 state auditor’s report found that foster children were at risk systemically after it found shortcomings in the Child Welfare Services household licensing process.

The MOWG report speaks to the possibility of cultural reform, but it’s a question of how to manifest what might seem abstract, Tochiki said.

“That’s been my prayer for the last five months is for the clouds to part and show where the solutions are, where there can be change,” Tochiki said. “Unfortunately, I think (DHS) saw our report and the auditor’s report and the lawsuits and the deaths as a threat, and when we have a threat, we fight, flight or freeze — that’s been the government’s response.”

In its statement, DHS said most of the MOWG’s recommendations already align with existing efforts within the department but that others will require significant resources, long-term planning and collaboration beyond DHS.

“For example, building and stabilizing the workforce has been an ongoing challenge since the 2009 reduction in staff,” the statement said. “While progress is being made through expedited hiring, shortage differentials, and incentives, true sustainability will require continued investment and support.”

Charging ahead

Delia Ulima, executive director of Epic Ohana, said the working group has outlined recommendations and guidelines; however, the report has left leaders within the child welfare services community wondering, “Is there a specific leader who takes up the charge?”

Since 2018, Epic Ohana has hosted Na Kama a Haloa, a community-based network of organizations, DHS representatives and young people and parents with experience in the foster care systems to understand how Native Hawaiian culture and values embedded within policies, operations and training could have real impacts in CWS.

Three years ago the network established a baseline Native Hawaiian perspective training for new employees at DHS that integrates teaching values of aloha (affection), kuleana (responsibility), malama (care) and pilina (connection).

“That’s a huge learning curve to maybe come from Ohio or California and to now have to go into Waianae or into Hana or Puna on Hawaii island and to adequately and appropriately work with a Native Hawaiian family,” Ulima said.

By the end of December, Ulima said, with the support of private funds from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, 85% of the DHS staff had undergone an all-day Native Hawaiian perspective training that addressed historical trauma, resilience and “what might work better for Native Hawaiian families and what some of their needs are.”

“That was really hopeful, and that was a sign to us that the department was serious about at least having a baseline about what Native Hawaiian values are,” Ulima said.

The culturally based training makes a difference for everyone, not just Native Hawaiian families, Ulima said.

“When the Native Hawaiians who struggle the most in the system are uplifted, everyone’s uplifted,” Ulima said. “When the tide rises, all the boats float better.”

DHS said they also plan to contract a provider with cultural and subject-matter expertise to better equip staff with cultural knowledge and have ongoing partnerships with community organizations to ensure that Native Hawaiian traditions and practices are considered in both policy and daily operations.

Native Hawaiian lens

DHS also has contracted organizations in the past, like Child &Family Service, whose free services are open to anyone and everyone, to create programs that are culturally based and trauma-informed.

Kahikina Abuluyan, program director for CFS’ ‘Imi ‘Ike, said the cultural-learning program focuses on youth ranging in age from 10 to 21 who may be undergoing personal challenges, violence at home or substance abuse.

During each week of the 12-week program, youth learn coping skills, communication and healthy relationships through a Native Hawaiian lens with themes like ‘ike pilina, or the knowledge of relationships.

They’ve taken field trips with their families to a fishpond or loi kalo, and recently they worked with Papahana Kualoa to restore a stream in Kaneohe.

“It’s so healing,” Abuluyan said. “It doesn’t have to take being in a program or being a part of an organization, as a participant of CFS or a part of DHS — you individually have the power and authority to engage in the community, to engage in your culture. Seek that knowledge, deploy ‘imi ‘ike.”

On the Windward side, the Partners in Development Foundation’s Kupa ‘Aina program works with at-risk youth, some of whom have gone through the foster care and juvenile system. The focus is on aina-based problem solving, healing and communication.

Program director Celeste Andres, who has had experience in the child welfare system as a kid and as a parent, said while Hawaiian values are important, organizations and the state need to recognize that Native Hawaiian culture is not a one-size-fits-all solution — it comes down to the personal values of children and their families.

“When people say cultural approach, to me it’s just really understanding what is the culture in their household,” Andres said. “There can be two Native Hawaiian families, but it’s not they’re the same, so what are the values in the household? How can we remind them of the important things in life?”

Perspective training and culturally based solutions are crucial, said Letha DeCaires, a retired Honolulu Police Department captain who fostered two Native Hawaiian children in the 1990s and eventually adopted both of them. But DeCaires added that reforming the foster care system and ensuring the children are in the right homes mostly comes down to finding “good human beings trying to raise other human beings.”

DeCaires’ children — Sarah, who is grown up with a child of her own, and Sachi, who died from cancer in 2019 — both went to Kamehameha Schools summer programs and grew up surrounded by her Native Hawaiian husband’s family, which DeCaires said made a difference in connecting to each other.

“We need stable human beings who have the ability to wrap around and see the child wherever their need is,” DeCaires said.

Clarification: This story was updated to clarify that Sarah and Sachi DeCaires were enrolled in Kamehameha School’s summer programs.