Strengthening Resilience Across Koʻolau

Throughout 2025, the Koʻolau Resilience Hub Network continued to expand its capacity, deepen relationships, and advance place-based resilience efforts across the region. Building on the momentum of the Koʻolau Resilience Hub Network Symposium held in December 2024, residents, partners, and local leaders aligned around shared priorities and a coordinated approach to preparedness and response.

Over the course of the year, the network delivered a series of workshops and hands-on trainings focused on readiness and local leadership. These included quarterly ʻāina days, First Aid and CPR training, and Hands-Only CPR Train-the-Trainer courses. Together, these activities strengthened practical response skills while reinforcing connections to place, culture, and collective responsibility.

Koʻolau coordinators also participated in the inaugural IAEM Region 9 Conference, gaining insight into adaptive leadership, complex planning, youth preparedness, and public communication. Reflecting on the experience, Koʻolauloa Coordinator Olivia Wallace shared that it reframed resilience as “a continuous practice that includes equity, cultural grounding, and long-term community well-being.”

In November, more than 120 residents, partners, and hub leaders gathered for the network’s annual symposium to reflect on progress and begin shaping the 2026 action plan. The convening underscored how pilina, consistent practice, and shared responsibility have guided the network’s growth and strengthened coordination across Koʻolau.

With these systems and relationships in place, the Koʻolau Resilience Hub Network enters 2026 with increased readiness, clearer alignment, and a strong foundation for continued collaboration—supporting a region prepared to care for one another in every season.

To learn more about the Koʻolau Resilience Hub Network or to get involved, visit vibranthawaii.org/koolauhubs.