Pilina Program

This intergenerational community capacity building and empowerment program aims to grow our membership and establish a culture of collaborative decision making. The directions of our long term efforts will ultimately be led by this community. We meet monthly to discuss health related topics.

Our membership is blended between indigenous life-long Kaʻū residents who are deeply rooted in the community and skilled health workers both professional and traditional.  We consider every kind of knowledge valuable. Our ability to learn from one another, exchange information in a balanced way and practice humility will ultimately strengthen our whole community’s health practices and mend long-standing feelings of separation and distrust.

At every gathering we set time aside for a council circle wherein each participant gets time to voice their thoughts on a specific topic or theme.  After the circle we reflect on a diagram created during the discussion and identify indicators for future actions. In this activity we relinquish focus on products and surrender to the process, which is what will really lead to the empowerment we seek.