Waianae Economic Development Council

E mau ke a'o is a hawaiian culture-based entrepreneurship workshop series for cultural practitioners. The program provides them with the technical assistance needed to create online learning content. This results in building practitioner capacity to create a self-sustaining business through their cultural practice while also increasing public access to cultural knowledge through online platforms. At the completion of the program, participants will: set up a legal entity, prepare cultural content for an in-person and online audience, build content for online modules, perpetuate their knowledge for future generations, and build new revenue streams through their practice. Accomplishments: convened 1 cohort, with 27 participants total.

Financial lo'i is our financial literacy program. It contains a workshop series that was created to help native hawaiian families connect to personal finances through cultural concepts and mo'olelo, or stories. Delivering financial and business concepts through a cultural lens, improves retention and impact of difficult and often new material. Participants can connect to the content and apply the curriculum in a way that will affect behavior and perspective in a positive manner. Accomplishments: convened 6 workshop series, with 113 participants total.