Day 2: Frontline Support of the Most Vulnerable Through Grassroots Leadership After Megafires
“We are making a change and we are making a difference, and it all starts with culture.” —Kukui Keahi
“[The silver lining] is neighbors helping neighbors.” —Melissa Baurer
“Our mission is simple: provide beautiful, healthful, love-filled food so that those experiencing crisis can have the strength to do the next hard thing. Food is just the first step.” —Amber Ferguson
“I was tired of cash being the most valuable thing, and what really drove decisions. And I started to dive into experiments on how we re-evaluate caring and bring it up as a currency.” —Nicole Huguenin
“If you don’t have the most vulnerable at the round table, invite them in, because if they’re not there, we’re going to continuously design programs that fail. And if we catch the most vulnerable, we will catch everyone else.” —Rebekah Uccellini-Kuby
2024 WILDFIRE LEADERSHIP SUMMIT
Disasters often hit vulnerable communities the hardest, but grassroots leaders are stepping up to meet their unique needs. From providing essential resources to fostering community resilience, these frontline responders are redefining disaster recovery.
Moderating the discussion is Lorez Bailey, who shares her own experience supporting youth in the aftermath of the Sonoma County fires. Joining her on the panel are Nicole Huguenin of Maui Rapid Response, Amber Ferguson of Rogue Food Unites, Melissa Baurer of Santiam Hospital, Kukui Keahi of Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, and Rebekah Uccellini-Kuby of Makai Foundation.
Tune in as these inspiring leaders delve into the challenges of identifying vulnerable populations, overcoming systemic obstacles, practicing self-care, and finding silver linings in the midst of crisis.
Highlights:
- 00:22 Be Careful of Mission Drift
- 03:54 Meet Rebekah, Kukui, Nicole, Amber, and Melissa
- 16:13 How to Identify the Vulnerable and Their Needs
- 30:59 Self-Care for the Helpers
- 35:13 Silver Linings
Twitter:
Disaster may bring out the worst, but these leaders prove it can also bring out the best in a community. Hear how vulnerable populations overcame systemic obstacles and found silver linings as Lorez Bailey as she sits with Maui Rapid Response Nicole Huguenin, Rogue Food Unites’ Amber Ferguson, Santiam Hospital’s Melissa Baurer, Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement Kukui Keahi, and Makai Foundation Rebekah Uccellini-Kuby. #Recover #Rebuild #Reimagine #podcast #wildfire #DisasterRecovery #AfterTheFire #2024WildfireLeadershipSummit #GrassrootsLeadership #VulnerablePopulations #SelfCare #EmergingLeaders #RelationshipBuilding #SystemChange #FoodInsecurity #NeighborHelpingNeighbor
Quotes:
01:19 “Be careful of mission drift, be careful of trying to be everything.” —Lorez Bailey
09:18 “I was tired of cash being the most valuable thing, and what really drove decisions. And I started to dive into experiments on how we re-evaluate caring and bring it up as a currency.” —Nicole Huguenin
11:54 “Our mission is simple: provide beautiful, healthful, love-filled food so that those experiencing crisis can have the strength to do the next hard thing. Food is just the first step.” —Amber Ferguson
18:17 “It’s not very common of us in our culture to ask. So that was something for us to give and not make it uncomfortable.” —Kukui Keahi
23:15 “The most challenging thing has been the system. This is not our way. It’s up to us to be able to ask for these system changes, to know that it’s flawed.” —Rebekah Uccellini-Kuby
24:05 “If you don’t have the most vulnerable at the round table, invite them in, because if they’re not there, we’re going to continuously design programs that fail. And if we catch the most vulnerable, we will catch everyone else.” —Rebekah Uccellini-Kuby
31:43 “We focused so much on being there and listening to the stories and being there for survivors… That day, our team needed to heal.” —Melissa Baurer
36:48 “I needed to see how care could actually be more valuable than cash.” —Rebekah Uccellini-Kuby
38:24 “We are making a change and we are making a difference, and it all starts with culture.” —Kukui Keahi
39:41 “[The silver lining] is neighbors helping neighbors.” —Melissa Baurer
Meet the Moderator:
Lorez Bailey, Community Leader
Lorez Bailey is an Executive Officer at Chop’s Teen Club. Her charm is in being charismatic, analytical, problem-solver, and effective communicator who has a successful 10-year track record of effectively leading organizations and teams, and a history of developing and operationalized strategies that have taken organizations to the next stage of growth, while building a culture of high expectations, inclusivity, collaboration, and a little fun never hurts.
Connect with Chops Teen Club:
- Website: https://www.chopsteenclub.org/
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/341599776289226
- X: https://x.com/chopsteenclub
Meet the Panel:
Melissa Baurer, Integrated Health and Outreach Director, Santiam Hospital & Clinics
Melissa Baurer is the executive director of the disaster case management program at Santiam Hospital and Clinics in Oregon. With a background in social services, Melissa has dedicated her career to addressing the social needs of individuals as part of healthcare. She was instrumental in establishing the Service Integration program, which brings together faith-based organizations, nonprofits, government agencies, and businesses to collaboratively meet the needs of the community.
When the Beachie Creek and Lionshead fires impacted the region in 2020, Melissa’s team was able to quickly mobilize and provide support to survivors, leveraging the existing relationships and resources of the Service Integration program. Melissa is committed to ensuring that all community members have access to the resources and support they need, especially during times of crisis.
Connect with Santiam Hospital:
- Website: https://santiamhospital.org/
Amber Ferguson, Executive Director/CEO, Rogue Food Unites
Amber Ferguson is the executive director of Rogue Food Unites, an organization she founded in response to the 2020 wildfires in Oregon. With a background in the hospitality and food and beverage industries, Amber was driven to provide immediate support to those displaced by the fires. Rogue Food Unites initially set out to provide hot meals three times a day to thousands of people, creating relationships with existing food businesses to both support the local economy and care for the community.
Over the past four years, Rogue Food Unites’ programs have evolved to address the ongoing needs of the region, fostering new community connections and building trust. Amber is committed to providing “beautiful, healthful, love-filled food” to those experiencing crisis, recognizing that food is just the first step in supporting community resilience. Her work has had a lasting impact on the physical and mental health of those affected by the wildfires, and she continues to advocate for innovative, community-driven approaches to disaster response.
Connect with Rogue Foods:
- Website: https://www.roguefoodunites.org/
Nicole Huguenin, Co-Director and Founder, Maui Rapid Response
Nicole Huguenin is a generous entrepreneur with a diverse background in nonprofits and teaching. Her professional journey took a turn in 2012 when she became dissatisfied with the role of cash as the primary driver of decision-making, and she began exploring ways to revalue caring and aloha as currencies. This led to her involvement in many different projects, including her current role as the executive director of My Rapid Response, a disaster relief organization.
Nicole’s personal experiences as a survivor of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and the 2013 Boulder, Colorado floods have deeply shaped her approach to disaster response. She is committed to building trust and deepening community connections, often choosing to stay out of traditional systems in order to better support the most vulnerable populations. Nicole’s work has focused on fostering new and robust community relationships, with the belief that community-led efforts are essential for effective disaster recovery and resilience.
Connect with Maui Rapid Response:
- Website: https://mauirapidresponse.org/
Kukui Keahi, Community Care Navigator Lead, Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (CNHA)
Kukui Keahi is a nine-generation survivor from Lahaina, Maui, with deep roots in the community. Her family background has instilled in her a strong sense of responsibility to give back to the place that raised her. Kukui currently oversees the Maui operations for the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (CNHA), where she has been instrumental in the organization’s disaster recovery efforts.
After the devastating fires that impacted Lahaina, Kukui was able to leverage her existing relationships and community knowledge to quickly identify the needs of the most vulnerable populations, including the elderly and multi-generational families. Under her leadership, CNHA established innovative programs to provide rental assistance, host families, and fill gaps in support that were not being met by other organizations.
Kukui’s commitment to her community and her ability to mobilize resources and foster collaboration have been invaluable in Maui’s disaster recovery process. She continues to work tirelessly to ensure that the voices and needs of Native Hawaiians are centered in the rebuilding and reimagining of Lahaina.
Connect with Hawaiian Council:
- Website: https://www.hawaiiancouncil.org/
Rebekah Uccellini-Kuby, Executive Director, Makai Foundation
Rebekah Uccellini-Kuby has a background in regenerative system design and a deep commitment to addressing issues of access and equity. Growing up with parents who were a spiritual anthropologist, Rebekah’s upbringing instilled in her a global perspective and a passion for supporting marginalized communities.
Rebekah’s work has taken her to various disaster-affected regions, including Sonoma County, the Santa Cruz Mountains, and Maui. She has witnessed firsthand the challenges that vulnerable populations face in the aftermath of crises and has dedicated herself to finding innovative, community-driven solutions.
Whether it was supporting the creation of mutual aid organizations, establishing land-based disaster recovery centers, or advocating for systemic changes to better support the most vulnerable, Rebekah has consistently prioritized the needs of those who are often overlooked. Her holistic approach to disaster response, grounded in regenerative principles and a deep respect for local knowledge, has made her a valuable asset to the communities she serves.
Rebekah’s commitment to empowering local leaders and centering the voices of the marginalized has been a driving force in her work, as she believes that true resilience can only be achieved through community-led efforts.
Connect with Makai Foundation:
- Website: https://makai.org/
Transcription:
Lorez Bailey: In this panel, we’re going to be talking about leading from the front line, supporting the most vulnerable through Grassroots Leadership after megafires. I’m glad you came back Alfy because I don’t know if I look too good because I crawled up my makeup off, and I had used the crayons on the table to put my makeup back on. It’s amazing. As Jennifer said, I ran a place called CHOPS-TEEN Club. We were impacted, of course, by the fires in Sonoma County. And we had a facility that focused on tea. So an amazing place. It has a tech lounge and a cafe, and a gym, all these amazing things. And when fire came, six years later, I was crying like a baby just to hear you Alfy, because it all comes back. Years later, it all still comes back. And thanks to all the youth serving people. But I do want to say, when you think about how you did it, when we had CHOPS and this happened in our community, when everyone was leaving, we stayed. And what I say also is be careful of mission drift, be careful of trying to be everything. Because people told me that I should collect food. People told me that I should collect clothes. People told me that I should do all these things, and I had come back to the mission. What is the mission of Chops? It’s a safe, fun place for teens to thrive, and it goes on from there.
And so what was our mission? To provide a safe, fun place. Did I want to chase fire art grants and all these grants? We’re already doing art. But you know what the kids told us? We don’t want to talk about fire. We see our families. We lost our homes. We have to talk about it at school. They just said, can we just have a place that’s fun and then we don’t talk about it? And then I also want to say because that youth panel touched me so much. Another thing is we thought, okay, these kids are going to be so upset that they lost their Xbox, their PS4, their bikes, so we’re going to have to get money together to replace all that stuff. They didn’t care. They weren’t worried about it. They were actually very resilient. What affected those kids the most was what their families were going through, what their parents were going through. Their dad was restoring a car that was his dad’s car. Now that car is burned. My mom lost jewelry that my great grandmother gave her. The kids were much more upset about that than their own stuff and their home. So there’s trauma, but they’re also sometimes more resilient than we give them credit for. So I just want to thank the youth centered people for that, because that really touched me. And I hadn’t planned to say all that, but I found myself in deep tears seven years later, still remembering what those feelings were like for those kids and those families. Enough about me.
So as I said, our panel today is really talking about the most vulnerable. I’m going to ask a couple of you to answer the question. I thought about it when I asked the question, the assumption that vulnerability is the same in every community. And after today, I thought about like, vulnerable might look different in different communities. For example, in Sonoma County, we have a very high senior population. It’s kind of off the charts. That’s a whole economic thing, but we’ll talk about that another time. So when I asked the question, you may even say to me, you know what? My vulnerable population was a little different. But first, we’re going to start with introductions. Why don’t we start on this end with you Rebecca, grab a microphone and give a little introduction. Talk about, well, you’ve got an extensive fire journey, but if you could talk a little bit about yourself and some of the work you’ve done, and the fires that you were involved in supporting the community.
Rebekah Uccellini-Kuby: Aloha. My name is Rebekah Uccellini-Kuby. My background is in regenerative system design. I grew up with parents that moved around all the time. My father was a spiritual anthropologist. My mother worked for doctors without borders, and so it was in my blood in some way. My mama had a hanai family in Hana, Maui. East side of Maui, and so that became the place for me that was the best home in the world, where I lived the longest. And in 2010, I started working on a grant that was aimed at reducing health disparities for Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders and low income community members. It was by reconnecting them to the land, planting the food forests and community gardens in places that did not have access. And for those of you who don’t know, Native Hawaiians have the highest rate of health disparities. And I truly believe a lot of that is because of the disconnection from the land. And what has happened, really, over the last 150 years. And so that became my heart and soul. And in 2015, I had my own disaster. I was paralyzed and lost the ability to speak. I had to leave Maui and follow the medicine. And strangely, as I went to follow the medicine, fires began following me. At first I thought it was something serendipitous. And then I realized that those maps you saw earlier today are the fires across the whole Pacific Northwest in California. But in my community, I was living in Sonoma County during 2017, and a number of my community members lost their homes in the fire.
I was on Maui for about two to three months of the year. Every year, I would leave and would do work abroad. I would do work with refugees, climate refugees, war refugees. A lot of work in Africa and places that really didn’t have access to food, clean water and basic needs of survival. So my focus is really on access equality. And then I moved to Santa Cruz Mountains. The CZU fire where we spoke about a thousand homes was lost. That fire came right up to our home. And then in 2023, we actually lost our home. We had cyclone eight in a row. 64 of our community members had giant trees that came right through. We had mudslides come through, and we had eight trees down on our home. Everything was filled with water and flooding. And so then I now had to walk my own community through it, and myself along the way for the CZU fire because it was a fire that happened during a pandemic. It was a double disaster, and there was this huge opening because of that. We couldn’t follow the status quo. We couldn’t even have everyone come to an evacuation center. And so because everyone was having to wear masks and not be around each other, what ended up happening was there was a huge opening for, what do we do? How do we do this more effectively?
And so I was able to support starting something called Santa Cruz Relief. A really effective mutual aid organization. We were able to support 700 fire survivors through that process. And so when the fires happened in Maui, I think 10 to 2013, I was working in Lahaina. Started a garden at Lahainaluna School, which was once one of the most effective agricultural programs that they had. We were revitalizing that program, and worked at Kamehameha lll Elementary School. And so those kids, they called me Auntie Rebekah, and that was something so deep. That community was so deep in my bones and my blood. And so as soon as the fires happened, I was back on Maui. I’ve been honored to work with a number of these incredible women, Nicole and Kukui. My focus has just been catching the most vulnerable and unmet needs in the community as best as I can. So Aloha.
Kukui Keahi: My name is Kukui Keahi. I am a nine generation survivor from Lahaina. Both sides of my family are deeply rooted in Lahaina. That’s all I’ve known. I was lucky to end up working for CNHA, Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement. For a pop up, they did after hearing the call (inaudible) Resource Center. Since then, we’ve expanded to another Recovery Center, and we’ve also started a distribution center. I oversee the Maui operations for all of our recovery efforts. I’m blessed to know that I’m from Lahaina. I’m from a community in my community. And more than anything, I’m very blessed to be in a position to give back to the community, and honored to give back to those that raised me.
Nicole Huguenin: My name is Nicole. Responding to disasters started early for me. I was a survivor of the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. We were rescued by the National Guard, and it’s just been in my blood. Since then, I’ve also been evacuated as a visitor in Boulder, Colorado during the thousand year flood. And been through many fires. My professional background is in nonprofits and mostly teaching. And in 2012, I left all of that because I was tired of cash being the most valuable thing, and what really drove decisions. I started to really dive into experiments to how we reevaluate caring and bring it up as a currency, aloha and that sort of thing. And so that evolved into many different projects. People call me a generous entrepreneur here right now. Most people in this room know me as the Executive Director of Rapid Response, but you’ll probably meet me in three months and I’ll be something else. Whatever is called from that day.
Amber Ferguson: My name is Amber Ferguson. I’m the Executive Director at Rogue Food Unites. We came about after the 2020 wildfires, specifically the Almeda fire. I’m really honored to be up here with these badass women leaders, and that is such a privilege. I would really like to read what I wrote so I don’t miss anything. Originally, we set out with the immediate goal to provide hot meals three times a day to those thousands of people that were displaced. We did this by creating relationships with existing food businesses. This had both an economic benefit to support our hospitality industry that was shuttered because of covid, and to provide care for our neighbors who lost everything. Our programs have shifted and changed over the last four years, depending on who and what we are in service to. We are now contracted to respond in all 36 Oregon counties. The impact of these programs have had lasting effects on physical and mental health. We have been able to foster new and robust community connections, and I believe we are a more resilient community because of this. We have built trust that is lasting.
Our team is growing and moves with deep integrity. My wish is to sit with you all around a table overflowing with the bounty of laughter, tears, beautiful food, flowers and music as we mark the four year anniversary of the 2020 wildfires and the birth of Rogue Food Unites. I’m overwhelmed by the gratitude I feel for this journey. The incredible people that I’ve met, and the work we continue to do in service of our communities. Despite the challenges, there’s profound beauty and resilience we’ve shown, and the joy we’ve created together. I’m committed now more than ever to building spaces where everyone feels seen, loved and celebrated in this season of change. I hold tightly to hope. A hope that requires our constant nurturing, and I extend that to all of you, along with my deepest thanks for walking this path with me. We have a grand opportunity to do things differently to get into the river and divert the stream. Our mission is simple, provide beautiful, healthful, love filled food so that those experiencing crisis have the strength to do the next hard thing. Food is just the first step.
Melissa Baurer: My name is Melissa Baurer, and I work at Santiam Hospital and Clinics in Oregon. Part of what I do is oversee our disaster case management program. But just a little back history on how I got involved in social services and just meeting the needs of our community. I grew up with a mom and dad who was always encouraging us to go out and serve. I heard my mom shared her story with us where she grew up without food on the table. Her sisters didn’t have everything that they needed, and they often slept in cars. And had a father with a dual diagnosis. And when she was 8 years old, they had a house fire, and she ended up being at the San Francisco Burn Center for 11 months. And then when she recovered and was able to leave, she was discharged to their van at the time. So growing up and hearing that story, seeing my mom and how resilient she’s been is what really drove me into this field and landed myself at a hospital where we really believe that addressing the social needs of an individual is health care. And that healthcare is a right for everyone. And so I started a program in 2017 called Service Integration, and we have four different teams in different school district catchment areas. The teams are made up of faith based organizations, non profit, state, federal and county government, as well as businesses and private citizens. And each team has a pot of funds that the hospital provides, and the school district provides.
The team members build relationships. They integrate and collaborate together to meet the needs that pop up in the community. There’s over 300 team members, and it’s just a remarkable program. And when the Beachie Creek fire in 2020 hit our community, we were just naturally in a place where we had that relationship with the community. We knew exactly who we needed to call, and we just quickly mobilized. We had a wonderful business, Freres Lumber, who contacted us the day after the fire and said, we want Service Integration to be the hub of the community and take on the Donation Center, as well as a private fund. And that fund raised about $5 million that our disaster case managers were able to connect survivors to. So our program, a lot of times you hear of a DCM program coming in. FEMA has done all their declaration and has deployed a program, and our disaster case managers started a month after our fire. Our team started two days after the fire and met immediate needs. And so our program has continued without any interruption. Proud to say that in October, we’ll have just about 19 families that we will continue to work with on the rebuild process. But the rest of those, we have been able to obey, the survivors have been able to close and meet their unmet needs.
Lorez Bailey: I’m glad that you brought up relationships. That has been a theme that we’ve heard today, and we’ll come back to it. But for the first question, I want to have Amber and Kukui answer this question first. And if anybody wants to add anything to it, please do. Each of you has been on the front lines of responding to megafires in your communities. How did you identify the needs of the most vulnerable populations? And if you even want to mention who you identified as some of those vulnerable populations, because I think that’s important to actually call out specifically.
Kukui Keahi: I was lucky enough. CNHA had already started a disaster type situation back in covid, so they already had the ability and the capacity to reach out a lot quicker than some other organizations. Being a part of the community, we were able to report back. So the staff that was initially hired is from Lahaina. We all got thrown in not knowing that we were all being put together in this organization. We all come from different backgrounds. When we met in the center, we kind of looked at each other. It was like, oh, we’re working together. And long story short, we’re related so it made it that much easier. We weren’t as close as we are today because of where we work, but it was each of us being in the community in different capacities. The different organizations we worked for, the companies we worked for prior to the fire, we had a lot of outreach to figure out what is needed. We were able to bring that back to our executives and our directors to say, hey, this is what’s needed. We created programs instantly off the bat to help with rental assistance, to help homeowners. We even created a program with FEMA where they allowed us to fill what is called a gap in rental assistance. Some of us know that usually after a disaster, rent gets extremely out of control. And on Maui, a five bedroom was standard at 5,000. The max that you could get from FEMA was 2,900. There was still a $2,100 gap that these families had to try to fill if they found housing on their own.
So our executives were able to meet with FEMA and say, hey, why don’t we create this program? So it was something that was just very innovative. Our host program, it’s very common in Hawaii to live with your ohana. Live with 10 generations. A lot of family and friends. It’s normal to say, hey, come stay with me. And so we were able to build a host program where if you took in any of your friends or family that were impacted, you were able to pay for each person $500. We maxed out at 2000, and that’s just to alleviate the families that are taking them in on their increased bills or food. Because it’s not very common for us, either in our culture, to ask. So that was something for us to give and not make it uncomfortable. So vulnerable communities, I’m going to just say the multi generational for me would be who I would reach out as my vulnerable, especially the Kupuna’s who are in their 80s who had these family homes. And now, we don’t know what’s next.
Lorez Bailey: Real quick before Amber speaks. It also reminds me that we talk in general, communities, cities, places. But they have their own special cultures that’s really important to recognize and appreciate. And Amber, food insecurity is not new, right? And even years later, you’re still doing that work. But if you could talk about how you got started in supporting the food needs of the community.
Amber Ferguson: My background is in hospitality, food and beverage. And similarly, it’s in my genetics. My father is in his 58th fire season right now, and it’s always been running towards it. But specifically, our fire discriminated and took apart so many marginalized community members, family homes and farm workers in our Latino communities and everybody that already didn’t need that to happen. Many families living in smaller homes and homes that were under insured and can’t necessarily be replaced at all because they are now deemed in flood zones or the prices have gone up. And as we know, similarly to the Kukui experience.
Lorez Bailey: Before we move on, I want to see if Rebekah, Nicole or Melissa wanted to add anything about supporting vulnerable populations before we move to the next question. Challenges are often inevitable as any part of any crisis response. Could you share a particular decision or obstacle that you faced during your work, and what you learned from that experience?
Rebekah Uccellini-Kuby: An obstacle? To be honest, the obstacle I’ve faced is the system itself. The way it’s designed. Coming from a regenerative system design background, I see patterns and systems really clearly. After the fire happened, what we got to see that was so powerful was the community helping the community. It was self organized. It was something no one will ever forget that was there. Nobody had to tell us how to do it. People showed up. People got in their assembly lines. Gas, needed, food, needed whatever it was. And there was this deep remembering that is in all of our bones that we actually know how to take care of each other really well. And we’ve gotten away from that. And then all of a sudden, I feel like it was almost like this whistle got blown. We interrupt this programming, run over here. Money, money, money, money. It was like, oh, what? And everyone just was like, I guess this is what you’re supposed to do. Run, Red Cross fund is ending. My people’s fund is ending. FEMA fund, run. And people just are traumatized completely and they’re just like, I guess this is what we have to do. We’ll just start going that way. It’s so dehumanizing. I watched people stand in line for over an hour for a $15 gift card. We rip people away from that deeper knowing when we do that. And then the next section of the disaster recovery begins, which I like to call the FEMA obstacle course. And all of a sudden, you’re now racing, and you’re having to jump over hoops. Go under this other one, and go through this thing, and this other thing. You’re so distracted by all these steps that you have to do. Oh, you forgot this one thing. Your landlords didn’t sign the date so you start back at the beginning again.
I’ve got people waiting nine months for FEMA reimbursement that have cancer. They have 26 people in their family that lost their home. Cancer came back the third time. I don’t have anything. I don’t know what to tell them because it’s the system. The system is set up in this way, and I’ve tried everything I can to work within the system. And the CZU fire was easier for me in some ways because there was this opening. They had never done it before with covid, and so they were so open to listening and to doing system design changes. And while Maui’s been really successful in some of those in terms of the cultural piece, we’re still stuck with the same kind of roadblocks. And in terms of the most vulnerable people, it’s those people you think that can’t run a race in an obstacle course. I’ve got elderly kupuna cancer cases, autistic people. I’ve got so many multi generational families, those who are deeply traumatized, those who lost family members. I had people that went to a funeral for their family member, and they came back and were kicked out of the hotel, which is I would say the most challenging thing has been the system. And I want to also encourage that, especially my Maui community here.
You guys have the opportunity to actually change that system and to say, nope, this is not our way. And to encourage every leader here that it’s up to us to be able to ask for these system changes, to know that it’s flawed. We humans make up all these crazy, flawed systems that we just accept. Oh, it’s just the way it is, not the way it needs to be because we’re living in the time of disasters. And if we don’t get it right now, we’re never going to. Community is the most effective way at ensuring that you guys are going to be okay for future disasters. So supporting those communities, supporting those that are on the ground and the grassroots. And when we create programs that catch the most vulnerable, if you don’t have the most vulnerable at the round table, invite them in. Because if they’re not there, we’re going to continuously design programs that fail. And if we catch the most vulnerable, we will catch everyone else.
Lorez Bailey: Nicole, you may have another story you want to share, but I remember the story about your auntie and the tree. I don’t know if that’s the story you want to share or something else.
Nicole Huguenin: I have a different story. But a challenge that I had to sit with is, for us, we were already in the community in a different way taking care of people that were disenfranchised from their ohanas. I’m trying to think of the vulnerable populations. One of the growing vulnerable populations right now are a lot of older women who are stay at home moms, and so they get the lowest amount of social security because they don’t have the hours. Or they’re divorced, that’s actually one of the highest growing numbers of people in one of our shelters. At the moment, I just keep thinking about the Rural Health Study that just came out, and it clearly said that the most vulnerable are Native Hawaiians. And for me, the hardest decision was in our organization to actually stay out of those systems. And I think it became really easy to do that. When CNHA stood up fully and then we knew that we could get a center to get people through, and Rebekah was there. We just got out of our offices and just went out on the street. We have not stopped. And so when our data goes from 42% post covid of people that are near or below the poverty level to 68%, over half of this room. Over half of this room. 68% of people in Maui right now based off of the Rural Health Study are in poverty or below. And what does that mean? I’ll tell the story of this one woman we had, and had a baby in January. They were in the rental assistance program. They had gotten in early in their rent. You have to front the money for FEMA several months, so it’s a big lift.
So if your rent is $4,000, a three month chunk of that. Big lift. She had a baby. We got them diapers. I had to have this conversation with her. It wasn’t me, it was somebody else. It was me and somebody else. And the conversation was, you actually can’t tell some people that we gave you diapers because it will disqualify you for diapers later. That’s hard. That’s really hard. If you were really building systems to trust people, we would allow them to choose what they need at that moment. And so that was the first time. I think that in her mind and already in a culture that doesn’t ask, when the baby had a little growth spurt, also their electricity bill shot through the roof. Because they have a new person in and they’re also in a new home. It was a totally different electrical structure. It is double what they had ever paid before. She needed cash. So what did she do? She sold the preemie diapers that she had as extra that her child didn’t fit in anymore on Facebook marketplace. And there was a big uproar. She got slammed in the community for it. It’s like, wow, she’s slamming some of the things that we gave her. She’s selling them. And I said, hold on, go talk to her. So they went. The person who last talked to her went to talk to her and she said, I needed 80 more dollars. Our electricity would get shut off. She didn’t realize nobody had said that electricity wasn’t going to get shut up for a year, or whatever it is now. And my baby grew, and I didn’t know that I could ask for a different size.
We just engaged in a conversation with her and built a relationship and trust. And that woman now, with her baby, a six month old baby drives diapers to any woman. She will drive to Haiku, pick up diapers from Pacific Birth Collective and take it to any woman. I don’t ever have to find a driver ever again because we deepened our relationship. We did that outside of the system. That was the challenging choice. Do we stay in, or do we stay out so that we can be the stop gap for people that are having a hard time asking for help that don’t trust systems? I have another gentleman. One of the things that I do is tell the most recent story. Most recent story is the night that I flew here. I got a call, that young man was suicidal. It’s a common call that our team gets. And so we called the crisis line. We pulled in the system, his lights had gone out, and he lost his legs. I think the surgery was in March, and he had both of his legs amputated. And FEMA has had a really hard time finding him an ADA unit for him to be in. And right now, he’s on the fourth floor, and the electricity went out and he felt very trapped. The crisis worker took four hours to get there, and we ended up having to call the fire department. 8 firemen carried him down four levels of stairs, and we sat with him for six hours. This person will not call anything. For him, the systems have failed. He was very close, and there are many people that are making that choice because they feel so disenfranchised. And so for us, that decision was, we’re going to stay out of the system. I’ve taken a lot of heat for it. But on the flip side of that is it actually also deepened our connection to the community and helped build a platform for those people that want to give back after they are ready.
Lorez Bailey: Thank you for that story. I think the stories helped to really remind us and bring it to life. And when you talk about connection to community, I want you all to remember that, because that was a very strong theme and takeaways of the work. You just did what needed to be done. You just got in because you saw something, an emergency in your community needed you. But many of you along with your loved ones. And Melissa, I’m gonna have that story about not showing your own self care, and then what that reflects to your staff. But many of you along with your loved ones and friends experienced personal loss during the fires, including the loss of your own homes. How did you take care of yourself while managing the overwhelming work of helping others? And if you’re looking back, what’s the best self advice you could give yourself now that you look back and you go, the best self advice about care for yourself.
Melissa Baurer: I think my story when we were talking about this earlier is that we didn’t care for ourselves initially. And as a leader, I wanted to come to work and to be strong for the team. I didn’t want to show my emotions, and everything was fine. That’s what we always said. Everything’s great. And it’s almost embarrassing to say this, because I feel like I should have had more of a closer eye on the team. But it was about a year and a half when one of my colleagues came to me and said, Melissa, the team isn’t fine. And I said, are you sure? Because what we say to each other is, everything’s fine. And she said, no, they’re really not fine. And so I think that we focused so much on being there and listening to the stories. Being there for survivors,because that’s part of the healing process. And that day, it dawned on me that our team needed to heal. We got together and talked, just listened to each other, and we closed the office for the rest of the afternoon. We had a lot of loss.
We have had survivors who have taken their lives. We’ve had physical health conditions that took people’s lives. And so what our team needed at that time is that your first thought as a healthcare provider will give you a workshop. And that’s not what they needed. The LTRG, they requested that and funded it. And the team said, I know I’m supposed to breathe. I was supposed to go home and put different socks on, like someone mentioned yesterday. But what they needed was just to stand in a circle and request some pastors of ours. We talked about the people that we’ve lost, and planted a tree for them. We were just in that moment and let our emotions be real. Release the trauma that we’ve been carrying for over a year. I think now and moving forward, we’re a team of emotions. Our team is constantly checking in with each other. It’s okay to not be okay, and I think we’ve recognized that. Talking to Devin with McKinsey Valley LTRG, he’s here somewhere. Our team is in a challenging spot with the OHCS and CDBG Dollars, and they are not okay right now, all the time. And so we’re gonna meet up with Devin, and we’re gonna take a self care day to just be able to collaborate with another group that’s doing recovery. It’s just important to feel the feelings.
Lorez Bailey: We have a few minutes left. I would have loved all of you to answer that, especially Amber, because you’ve been in it longer. We have our family here who’s newer to this, but I have limited time so I hope that you share that so that our sisters here stay fortified as they need to be fortified because it’s still very rare, new and recent. But I want to end without such a life changing experience. Are there any positive outcomes or silver linings that emerged? And one of the things that stuck with me, I don’t know what the quote was and who said it, but disaster starts local, and ends local. Was that the quote? I circled that multiple times. It starts local, and ends local. We’ve talked about relationships, how important relationships are in a community. But if you could quickly, a couple of minutes, I’d like to give you each a chance, and maybe we start in the end with Rebekah since she hasn’t spoke of just, what is out of something that is traumatic and horrible, and has a lot of trauma to it, but there’s always something. There’s always a silver lining or a takeaway. Or at least we try to find one to keep us going. Do you have anything that you would like to share? And hopefully, we have a chance, if it’s just a couple of words for each of you to share something. We’re talking about some heavy stuff, and you have to leave with something that keeps you motivated, energized to pick it up and do it again.
Rebekah Uccellini-Kuby: I saw so many local leaders emerge sitting right here on this seat, right here in this room, so many Hawaiian leaders finding their purpose being awoken in them. You could witness. You could watch it happen. A really big shift for all of the islands seeing all these young emerging leaders. I’ve always wanted to do this, and I was able to do it during this fire by creating our own disaster recovery center that was land based, and was able to do it at the Maui Nui Botanical Gardens, right across from the War Memorial. Surrounded by native plants and trees, and providing a different approach to disaster recovery outside. Fresh air, getting Lomi Lomi, being able to get acupuncture, music therapy, all the things, having your children play right there in a safe space, and something I hope can get carried into future disasters.
Nicole Huguenin: That was a beautiful event. I think that if the local community is the first and last responder, then I think on the flip side the disasters are the best and the very worst of us. And I think Noelani said it yesterday too, there was a moment in time when the 37 community hubs were operating. For me in my life that I mentioned earlier, I needed to see how care could actually be more valuable than cash. And that is exactly what happened. There were 42 hubs of which 37 were community led, and there’s still some standing today. For me, experiencing that and having a lot of other people experience and remember the village. I said, not go home for dinner or eat together. You’re standing in line for the diapers, the medicine or the acupuncture, and you’re talking with each other and knowing, instead of hiding what you need in the moment, respond and care for each other. That, for me, still fuels me to this day.
Lorez Bailey: What I can say when we all met, the biggest theme of the silver linings was community. Community. They flick their communities closer, more connected. They see each other. They know each other. Deeper relations have been there. And even relationships. We talked about relationships. Government agencies do not have them, have them. For me, it’s been such an honor to meet each of you and hear your stories. I wish we could be here so much longer. I want to thank Miss Jennifer Gray Thompson for letting me do this for the third year in a row. I appreciate you.
Kukui Keahi: So the silver lining for me was emergent leaders. So much of my family stood up. I have some in the audience, and I’m super proud. A lot of us don’t come from the best background. So to be able to stand up and be these leaders for our family, to hear the older generations thank us is huge for me. Also, the community that was built, the relationships that were built after everything, some people I didn’t talk to, I actually flew on a plane with people here I didn’t know. And now, we’re laughing at a table. But also, there were policies and things that we were able to change to allow the federal government into a community based center that was never heard of before. So things like that where we are making a change and a difference. And it all starts with culture.
Amber Ferguson: I think our silver linings are many more resilient and connected communities of leaders. That happened because our elders in our community passed on that knowledge and the power to have young leaders rise. I’m very, very proud of that, as well as we have been able to create a very wonderful relationship with the Office of resilience and emergency management in Oregon. They really do support what the community wants. I’m very grateful for that.
Melissa Baurer: Mine would be neighbors helping neighbors. Let’s see one quick example in under a minute. But we had a survivor who needed a medical bed, and another survivor donated the medical bed to that person not knowing who they were. It was through our DCM. And then the person that received the medical bed ended up donating firewood to the individual that donated the medical bed. And they were delivering the firewood when they realized in that conversation that they had received the bed, and she was getting the firewood. It was just a beautiful story. So neighbors help the neighbors.
Lorez Bailey: I love that. Thank you.
