Building protective factors and promoting social connection
Family Hui Hawaii, now a certified HOPE-Informed organization, is shifting away from a trauma-informed model to a healing-centered one. For 13 years, the organization has strengthened families through peer-to-peer support and creating safe spaces where families can connect with one another. And it is using the HOPE framework, that centers on promoting positive childhood experiences (PCEs), to make sure that caregivers have the language and tools to provide PCEs for children.
“We create experiences in the community to bring people together, especially to reduce isolation [and] build protective factors, one of the biggest ones being social connections,” said Heidi-Ann Allencastre, family programs coordinator of Maui County at Family Hui Hawaii. “And so when we learned about HOPE, it just really made sense.”
“It’s super fitting with what we are organically doing. I think it also just helped us put a name to what we were doing,” said Ann Davis, the organization’s co-executive director.
Supporting the social and emotional health of children through HOPE implementation
Allencastre says that rural Hawaiians often face isolation, especially on the smaller islands. And some have experienced extreme collective trauma, like living through the 2023 wildfires in Maui. It can be difficult to prioritize the social and emotional health of children in challenging times, and Family Hui Hawaii is a positive intervention.
“Even just coming to programming so that their children can play and learn and connect with other children helps them build those experiences that will impact their child’s health,” said Allencastre.
One of the first things Family Hui Hawaii did after one of its directors learned about the HOPE framework a few years ago was to train their staff. Their leads on each island and county are trained as HOPE Facilitators who are certified to give Introduction to HOPE workshops. Other staff have also completed the Introduction to HOPE training in addition to HOPE: From Theory to Practice. New staff receive an introductory overview of the concepts and framework during their onboarding, with plans to complete the full training. The goal is to ultimately train parent leaders.
In the meantime, Family Hui Hawaii is doing a materials overhaul: They’ve developed a curriculum called Embracing Ohana, and during a rewrite of the curriculum, they wove in practices from the HOPE framework such as the Four Building Blocks of HOPE, the key types of PCEs that children need to thrive. At the end of each chapter they include reflection questions, such as: What is one small, positive experience you shared with your child this week? How did your child respond to that moment? How did it make you feel as a parent or caregiver?
Utilizing the Four Building Blocks of HOPE with parents and staff
Their goal is to also rewrite the guidebook that is given to parents who are leading parent groups. The plan is to look at each of the question prompts in the guidebook and see how they are related to the HOPE framework, and potentially break them out by the Four Building Blocks. Davis says that it will give parents more language for the work they are already doing.
The organization is also making sure the HOPE framework is embedded in its internal culture.
“One of the biggest things for us is being intentional of how we’re practicing all of the Building Blocks internally…Because when you’re living these Building Blocks, and you’re practicing from the inside out, it just becomes really organic to interact with families in this way,” said Davis.
One of the ways they infuse HOPE into their work culture is by creating a consistent ritual at each all-staff meeting, where they start the meeting asking staff to respond to a reflection question based on the Building Blocks. The goal is to reinforce the HOPE framework with the staff so that the staff reinforces HOPE with the parents.
“By regularly revisiting these concepts with staff, we help them build the language, confidence, and understanding needed to support families effectively. It strengthens their ability to communicate the “why” behind our work and deepens the impact of how we walk alongside families.”
