WAILUKU - Hui Malama Learning Center and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Maui County are joining hands, combining the best components of their after-school programs into one called Ka Pilina (The Joining).
The partnership begins Monday at 2 p.m. at the Big Brothers Big Sisters Mentoring Center, 200 Waimaluhia Lane off Waiale Road. Hui Malama will be closing its youth center on Main Street in Wailuku.
Hui Malama, a nonprofit agency that provides alternative education services, will bring its program offerings - cultural, vocational, music and video production classes, drug and pregnancy prevention counseling, and homework help - to the partnership. Big Brothers, the nonprofit agency known for its mentoring programs and work with at-risk youths, will offer the facility and its expertise in youth mentoring and leadership.
"It's a perfect fit," said Char Tomas, operations director for Big Brothers Big Sisters.
"They have been mentoring for so long," said Pualani Enos, executive director of Hui Malama. "We always wanted to develop that part of our program. . . . It's a perfect fit that way."
Ka Pilina is free and offers structured activities to youths 10 to 17 years old and youth mentors 13 to 24 years old. The program is open from 2 to 5 p.m. weekdays, except Wednesdays, when the center is open from 1 to 5 p.m.
Sustainable living practices and building skills that increase self-reliance and community involvement will be the underlying philosophy of the programs, a news release said. There will be organic gardening and healthy cooking classes as well as tutoring, reading groups, video production, student reporting, music workshops and Native Hawaiian cultural experiences.
The partnership was born during conversations between Enos and Melissa Ross, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters, at executive director gatherings. Enos said they learned that there had been a partnership between the two nonprofit agencies long ago.
Hui Malama has been running an after-school program for middle and high school students on Main Street on the block between Central and Market streets for about three years, said Alli Waters, youth services director for Hui Malama. Thirty students have registered, and 10 to 15 youths show up daily, she said.
Big Brothers Big Sisters has been running its after-school mentoring program weekdays at the mentoring center with about 20 youths from elementary to high school, said Tomas.
By joining forces, Hui Malama's program will save about $35,000 annually in rental expenses - effectively one staff position - said Enos. The commercial space in Wailuku "was getting expensive," and their vision of the downtown Wailuku site becoming a "crossroads" never materialized, said Enos.
"We didn't get to see the parents," she said in noting the lower rental payments they will make to Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Enos sees benefits in the new site in the vicinity of neighborhoods from Waikapu to Wailuku Heights and the surrounding Kehalani development. The mentoring center is also near Ka Hale A Ke Ola Homeless Resource Center and the subsidized rental housing development of Hale Makana O Wai'ale.
By being in a more residential setting, Enos believes the after-school program will be able to double its numbers. She also hopes more parents will come to pick up their children because the facility is near their homes and away from traffic.
"It's a nice homey setting," said Enos. "It doesn't have a center feel . . . very much more residential."
She envisions youths walking to Ka Pilina or taking the Maui Bus, which stops near the mentoring center. Waters said staff members currently are showing the youths how to take the Maui Bus to the new site.
Partnerships among nonprofit organizations are very important in these tough economic times, Tomas and Enos agreed.
"None of us has the goal of becoming the empire," said Enos. "We want to support each other where we can. . . . It's nice because it feels like an equal thing."
Big Brothers Big Sisters Wailuku Mentoring Center Office can be reached at 242-9754. Hui Malama can be contacted at 244-5911.
* Lee Imada can be reached at leeimada@mauinews.com.
