Ninety-five middle and high school students have completed the Vibrant Hawaiʻi Resilience Academy so far this summer, with three of eight scheduled academies finished across Hawaiʻi Island. Over three days, students build skills intended for immediate, practical use — household emergency preparedness, Hands-Only CPR, situational awareness, communication under pressure, and emergency response fundamentals. Organizers say the academy is designed to do more than transfer technic

Ten teams of licensed plumbers and apprentices spent a day earlier this month installing water catchment diverters for 30 households in the Volcano community, where ongoing ash and tephra fallout from Kīlauea has raised concerns about the safety of residents' primary water source. For many families in Volcano, rainwater catchment systems are not a backup supply — they are the only one. The diverters installed by volunteers are designed to temporarily redirect rainwater away f

Across two days in June, nearly 300 people from all four of Hawaiʻi's counties convened in Hilo for a statewide resilience conference: bringing together emergency management officials and grassroots community volunteers into the same training rooms. The Resilience Conference reflects a broader shift underway in disaster preparedness across Hawaiʻi: a growing recognition that formal emergency response systems function more effectively when paired with trained networks of commu

Vibrant Hawaiʻi is convening the 2026 Resilience Conference on June 12–13 at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. This two-day, in-person training is designed to strengthen local capacity for disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. Community first aid, triage, patient support, and coordination with medical systems. Psychological first aid, stress response, and community-based emotional support. Volunteer coordination, spontaneous volunteer management, and donations flow.