PROGRAM AREA - SEJ
Social & Economic Justice
HAPA was founded to protect our communities from the effects of toxic pesticide drift.
Yet through our work, we learned we couldn’t take on environmental and food systems issues without addressing the underlying and intersecting social and economic justice issues.
Communities struggling economically in Hawaiʻi are often those who are also living on the frontlines of environmental and public health injustices.
Most residents in Hawaiʻi struggle to keep up with the exorbitant cost of living, often working second and third jobs just to make ends meet. And yet, environmental, social, and economic justice movements too often function entirely separately from each other, despite many commonalities they might share.
At HAPA, we seek the interconnections between these struggles and find great opportunities there. From these interconnections, we build solidarity through forming coalitions, and holding convenings and trainings.
HAPA Partnerships:
HAPA partners with other social and economic justice organizations to support policies that provide:
A living wage for all workers in Hawaiʻi
Tax Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
Protect and increase affordable housing
Regulate vacation rentals
Support Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) in receiving their fair share of the Public Lands Trust
Increase funding for public schools and teacher salaries, promote tax fairness, automatic voter registration
Criminal-justice reform, such as bail reform, and moving toward restorative-justice models
LGBTQ+ equity, and more.
CHAMBER OF SUSTAINABLE COMMERCE
We can strengthen our economy without hurting workers, communities, or the environment.
LIVING WAGE HAWAIʻI
Securing a future where all Hawaiʻi workers can afford their basic needs
HAPA Coalitions:
Coalition Partnerships
OLA I KA WAI
Ola i ka Wai (Water is Life) is an enduring affirmation of the sacred value of water in Hawaiian culture. It is a rallying cry across the pae ‘āina to safeguard these resources for future generations, and a unifying thread with Indigenous and local communities across the world.
Many of the organizations and community members in this group are some of the frontline leaders and supporters of the movement to Ho‘i ka Wai (Return the Water), so that “justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream”!
Mahalo to the many community organizations working to restore streams and the ways of life that depend on them.
STOP MAUI LAND GRABS HUI
This is a hui comprised of community members of Maui, local pro-ono lawyers, organizations of the Hawaiian Kingdom, and abroad. We are dedicated in seeing a just recovery for the community and people of Maui.
To protect yourself and your loved ones please read, “Stop Maui Land Grabs Info” blog up now!
MAUI MEDIC HEALERS HUI
In sisterhood with the Mauna Medic Healers HUI, we are a Kānaka Maoli led team that provides grassroots community driven services and empowers the people. We provide a variety of services as we strive to create spaces for healing in times of struggle, disaster and trauma. Learn more here
Learn how to protect yourself from, “Soot And Burnt Structures Left Behind In Lāhainā Are Extremely Toxic” blog up now by HAPA’s community organizer & scientist Fern Holland.
HAWAIʻI FARMERS UNION UNITED
HFUU is composed of 16 Chapters across the Hawaiian Islands. We are represented with a seat on the Hawaiʻi Board of Agriculture.
Our Members are Farmers Union made up of farmers, gardeners, and folks that purchase and consume locally produced products!
We are a grassroots producer-driven organization with leadership demonstrating support for family agriculture as the basis for thriving rural communities. Those communities, in turn, are vital to the health and economic well-being of the entire U.S. economy.
The key to our success and credibility has been Farmers Union’s grassroots structure in which policy positions are initiated locally. Whether the issue is food safety, dairy, specialty crops, trade or any other item facing America’s family farmers – Farmers Union listens to its members.
Our membership includes family farmers, fisherman, ranchers and consumers across of America including the Hawaiian Kingdom. Farmers Union has 25 state/regional organizations but even in states where there is no formal state organization, you’re likely to find Farmers has a presence. If you are from one of these states, join as a member of the national organization.
Register now and become a member today to support fair and sustainable food systems of Hawaiʻi!
HAWAIʻI WORKERS ASSOCIATION
Spearheaded by Hawaiʻi Workers Center this association is for workers who are interested in building collective power, we want to build workers associations – a group that meets, plans, discusses actions and campaigns, and fights for better working conditions. For example, a workers association can be made up of people in a particular workplace who are interested in increasing their wages, fighting wage theft like unpaid overtime, or even for policies that value human dignity.
In our outreach, we have found cases of:
Wage Theft (receiving below minimum wage, unpaid hours, or unpaid overtime)
Disrespect (being yelled at by supervisor, food thrown away, etc)
Low Wages (the minimum wage is not a living wage in Hawaiʻi)
Lack of access to UI benefits
Loss of hours, benefits
Dangerous working conditions (hot oil with no safety equipment, etc)
Together, we can fight for change. Contact us if you and your colleagues are interested in organizing your workplace. Learn more here.
PAID LEAVE HAWAIʻI COALITION
Paid Leave Hawaiʻi is a broad coalition of organizations and individuals working to win paid family and medical leave for ALL families in Hawaiʻi. We're building on previous efforts to secure guaranteed paid leave by advocating with legislators. We know families are strongest when we have time to heal from serious illness or injury, welcome a new child, or help a loved one recover or ease their passing. It's time for legislators to put 'OHANA FIRST and pass paid family and medical leave.
RAISE UP HAWAIʻI COALITION
The Raise Up Hawaiʻi coalition grew out of existing efforts to raise the minimum wage in Hawaiʻi to a level that will sustain all of the islands' working families, which form the heartbeat of our state's economy. Advocacy organizations, community organizers, policy researchers, business owners, and everyday workers, from young to old, longtime residents and new arrivals, urban and rural, have come together to build our collective power in the fight for economic justice.
Today, Raise Up Hawai'i champions policies that deliver financial security for the working class and sustainability for our planet, including paid sick and family leave, tax justice, truly affordable housing, universal healthcare, the creation of good paying green jobs, and more. The coalition is guided by a foundational principle: when workers succeed, everyone prospers.
CLEAN ELECTIONS HAWAIʻI
Clean Elections Hawai‘i is a coalition of local advocates and organizations pushing for full publicly financed elections in Hawai‘i.
For too long, special interests and wealthy donors have wielded significant power over our legislative system. This power has stifled progress on dozens of issues to help build a Hawai‘i that works for all of us. It’s well past time we get money out of politics and we can do that by ensuring candidates have an opportunity to win elections without the support of big money donations.
We can give power back to the people by adopting full publicly financed elections. This will lead to a more diverse group of candidates and empower legislators to act in the best interests of their constituents rather than worrying about what their donors want.
When our representatives finally represent us, not big money, that’s when we’ll have a shot of preserving our way of life on these islands and building a better future for generations to come.
Clean Elections News:
HAWAIʻI TAX FAIRNESS COALITION
The Hawaiʻi Tax Fairness coalition believes in caring for our families and in leaving things better for our keiki. Investing resources into our schools, hospitals, parks, and programs for working families is how we build a better future for them.
To do that, the state needs tax revenue. We believe the state should collect this revenue from those who can afford to pay more—wealthy taxpayers who have been doing better than ever in recent years thanks, in part, to tax policies that favor the rich.
These policies exacerbate wealth inequality, trap resources at the top where they do no good for the overall economy, and reinforce racial barriers to economic opportunity for people of color.
With your help, we can make our tax code more fair and just while helping the state to better fund our collective future.
HAWAIʻI BLUE ZONES PROJECT
HAPA is a proud participant of the Blue Zones Project. The Blue Zones Project’s vision is a happy and healthy Hawai‘i where people are empowered to care for each other and their community. Ultimately, we want you to live longer, better. Brought to Hawai‘i by HMSA, Blue Zones Project is a community-led, well-being improvement initiative designed to make healthy choices easier through permanent changes to lifestyle, environment, policy, and social networks.
COMMON GOOD COALITION
The People’s Congress ultimately resulted in a dynamic network of partnerships and coalitions. One of the networks to emerge was the Common Good Coalition, a potent partnership between HAPA, Sierra Club, and Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice. The Common Good Coalition has rallied dozens of organizations to participate in regular strategy meetings throughout the 2017, 2018 and 2019 legislative sessions. We find opportunities for solidarity across a range of social, environmental and economic-justice issues. We examine how we can work together to address change on a systemic level.
Policy issues have included affordable housing, climate justice, criminal-justice reform, paid family leave, mitigating houselessness, graduate students’ unionization, minimum wage, pesticide regulation, education, kupuna care, LGBT equality, single-payer health care, tax fairness, food & water security, bail reform, clean energy, oxybenzone (sunscreen) ban, and campaign-finance reform.
HAPA is a 501(c)3 non-profit, so your donation is tax-deductible.
Keeping it O.G. or just prefer to send us some paper?
Checks can be mailed to:
Hawaiʻi Alliance for Progressive Action - HAPA
PO Box 1534
Kapaʻa, Hawai`i 96746
Mahalo nui, we thank you for sponsoring grassroots initiatives and activism across Hawaiʻi. All questions can be directed to action@HAPAhi.org
Check out our Social & Economic Justice Work!
