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Wishing you and your ohana a Happy Thanksgiving week!
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Executive Director Corner
Remarks given by Legal Aid's Executive Director M. Nalani Fujimori Kaina at the 2019 Hawaii Justice Foundation Annual Meeting
Aloha kakou. I am honored today for the opportunity to speak with all of you at the Hawaii Justice Foundation's Annual Meeting. The support of the Hawaii Justice Foundation for so many access to justice efforts in the community cannot be understated. Our legal service providers are able to thrive and help those most in need because of your support.
I've been asked today to talk about two of the three navigator projects that we currently have in the state. It is interesting that a term so close to the na'au of our own community and linked to the wonders of our first native people who found their way here by the ocean, waves, and stars has come to be a term so intrinsically part of the way in which people all over the country have looked at helping people better understand their legal rights and responsibilities and ways to access this information.
The Community Navigator project is part of the Justice for All initiative aimed to raise the awareness of community partners and local volunteers to issue spot and make referrals. For this project, in collaboration with legal service providers across the state, an interactive curriculum was created to engage members of the community. Eight trainings were led by Legal Aid Community Engagement Managing Attorney Connie Liu with Rae Shiu and Wookie Kim from ACLU Hawaii, Katie Ranney from the Mediation Center of the Pacific, Charity Norem from Kuikahi Mediation Center, and Kathleen Algire from the JFA Roundtable Project assisting as co-trainers depending on the location. In additional, local mediation programs, public defenders, domestic violence community partners and other legal service providers participated in aspects of the training. Trainings were conducted on all of the major Hawaiian islands, including two trainings each on Oahu and Hawai'i Island. Maintaining ties with local communities, local organizations were asked to host these trainings by assisting in locating training sites, local food vendors and soliciting invitations to community leaders. Over 100 people were trained, far exceeding the goal of 50.
Participants came from a wide variety of backgrounds, with the non-profit sector being the most represented among the sectors. Based on the type of work, those in health and disability fields represented 42% of those trained. Some of the more interesting backgrounds of participants included a credit union employee, police officers, pastors, a community association president, and many nurses.
One of the unexpected positive developments related to the implementation efforts has been the positive outpouring of support and interest in this training. The recognition by health care workers, social service providers, and businesses to better understand how to spot civil legal needs and make appropriate referrals has been overwhelming. There has also been the creation of a community of providers through this training who better understand the role they each see that they play in the community and how their roles are interwoven and related.
While the Community Navigator project has aimed through a community building approach to engage the 80% who do not seek legal assistance by training and raising the awareness of legal solutions through trusted community partners, the Legal Navigator formerly known as the Microsoft Portal aims to utilize technology through a human-centered approach to improve access to legal information and processes.
Earlier this year, after over $3 million of development time, Microsoft turned the project over to the Legal Services Corporation to continue its development. At a national level, key partners on this project include the Pew Charitable Trusts, the National Center for State Courts, and Pro Bono Net. With Hawaii and Alaska as the state level partners. To continue the development of this project, we are grateful to the Hawaii Justice Foundation for its national support. We are hoping for a soft launch with key local partners for testing in the next month or so, followed by a more public launch sometime in the Spring.
As portals and other tools are being developed across the world to help people more easily access information, questions arise as to how and why is this different? There are four critical differences from my perspective.
Using Artificial Intelligence to assist people to identify what type of legal problem they are facing, the Legal Navigator portal aims to move beyond just a simple google search. Where google looks for information based on words that are on a particular page, the search feature of the Legal Navigator is being optimized to connect things like "I'm getting kicked out of my house" to "Eviction" or even "Divorce." As more and more people use this search feature, the artificial intelligence engine will begin to better learn what people are looking for based on the paths they take in the system. Training the AI isn't easy and Margaret Hagen from the Stanford Legal Design Lab and David Calaruso from Suffolk Law School's Legal and Technology Lab are leading the way by using a "game" called Learned Hands.
Legal Navigator is also embracing a Guided Assistant to curate content and legal information for users. These Guided Assistants will walk a user through questions on a divorce guided assistant like "do you have children?" to create a plan that may or may not include information on child custody depending on the response. The idea here is to breakdown areas of law to some of its simplest elements to help users understand the path that they may want to take in resolving their legal issue. In some cases, these solutions may lead a user to be able to complete an uncontested divorce. In other cases, it might be a referral to the Hawai'i State Bar Association for a private attorney. The hope in all of this, is to get people a little closer to legal solutions and to better understand their situations.
The project is also partnering with the Alaska United Way and the Aloha United Way, the courts and with legal case management systems to create APIs to more timely access information. What are APIs, you ask? An application program interface is a way in which different sites or processes can talk to each other. In our case, it is to get information from another system. Like getting the most up to date information from a local United Way on non-legal resources or finding out from a court whether a case has been filed or being able to apply directly for legal assistance from the portal.
Finally, the project at its core has focused on a human centered approach. In doing so, we have also embarked on our own journey in looking closely at the legal issues that impact the lives of everyday people and how the system interacts with them. Creating content and using technology to improve overall access has required critical thinking with an eye on the development of a taxonomy that can be replicated. Significant in our journey is seeing where processes are so complicated that it takes multiple attempts to break it down to its simplest form so that a person can understand. Or where the difference between court forms is so slight, yet the specificity of needing to a particular form in a particular place makes it even more difficult for a person to know what they need to do next.
At the heart of it all, are fundamental questions about whether the day to day problem that we are trying to solve for a family, a mother, a father, a child, a person who is houseless, a victim of domestic violence, need to be so complicated that it takes a genius to figure out where and when the person should show up at court or to get to the core of the facts for a court to make a decision behind all the multitude of forms? While technology can make access easier, a human centered approach requires that we start to look for ways to strip away and simplify where we can and to create a more intuitive path toward the solution.
Navigation is about wayfinding. In our context it is finding a way to that solution whether it be a win, a loss, or just closure. Our navigators in both these projects aim to make it easier for people to access the justice system, to have their day in court if they need it, to prevent having to go to court, or to solve their problems knowing their rights and responsibilities. They help to interpret a complicated system.
But at the end of the day as we utilize technology and empower our community to more easily help others, what if we looked more closely at our systems to focus on the humans who use it, so that finding the way did not require a Navigator who must know where the wind is coming from, the shape of the waves and depending on the month where the stars should be in the sky?
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#LegalAidhelps
Before I came to Legal Aid I felt helpless . . .
"Before I came to Legal Aid I felt helpless and did not understand how to proceed with obtaining legal assistance on behalf of my elderly, declining mom. Legal Aid helped me choose options with empathetic understanding of family/mom's situation. Assisted and supported me every step of the process with open and timely communication and clear explanations. I was able to obtain legal guardianship for my mom within a short period of time." -Lisa was helped by Hilo staff attorney Jaycee Yamashita in obtaining an adult guardianship
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2020 Marketplace Health Insurance Open Enrollment Period
Sign up for 2020 Marketplace health insurance during open enrollment period beginning November 1, 2019 and ending December 15, 2019. All applications must be completed and submitted by December 15. You can apply for insurance after December 15 only if you experience a Life Qualifying Event such as loss of healthcare insurance, change in household composition, new marriage, birth of a baby, or loss of income.
You may be eligible for discounts in your premiums and out-of-pocket costs on the Marketplace. Discounts are determined by income, household size, employment, and other factors.
If you have 2019 Marketplace insurance, you can renew your insurance during open enrollment. Check your renewal and update your information.
Navigators and Certified Application Counselors from the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii can help you apply or renew your insurance. Check out the outreach schedule at www.legalaidhawaii.org. For in-person help, you can call Legal Aid at (808) 536-4302 and press 2. You can also contact Healthcare.gov at 1-800-318-2596.
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Oahu
Public Interest Fair at the William S. Richardson School of Law
Leeyannah Santos and Tatjana Johnson from Legal Aid's Hawaii Immigrant Justice Center joined current law student volunteer John Clark in answering questions at the law school's public interest law fair.
Former Legal Aid AmeriCorps members, staff, volunteers, and summer law clerks join the Legal Aid table for an alumni picture. Legal Aid will be celebrating its 70th Anniversary in 2020. If you are an alumni of Legal Aid (staff, volunteer, law clerk, board member) please email sergio.alcubilla@legalaidhawaii.org.
Good Pitch Local Hawaii
Legal Aid staff members Jacky Moses, Noelle Kakimoto, and Sergio Alcubilla joined over 100 media makers, advocates, funders, and cultural leaders for the inaugural
Good Pitch Local Hawaii. Good Pitch Local Hawai'i is a new program aimed at generating support for projects that use media to raise awareness and propose solutions for challenging problems facing our islands. The curated pitches are done by both media makers and community advocates at an invitation-only event that is a model of dynamic collaboration for social good. Created by Doc Society, Ford Foundation, and Sundance Institute, Good Pitch events have raised more than $30 million for media impact campaigns in 15 countries since 2007.
Legal Aid was one of 12 pitches selected to share its hope in creating a short documentary confronting discrimination, promoting understanding, and addressing access to health care for Hawaii residents from Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands affected and displaced by military testing in their islands.
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Save the Date!
Give Big Hawaii: 12/03/19
On Tuesday, December 3 Give Big Hawai'i will raise money for Legal Aid and other local nonprofits through a single online donation platform, providing a simple way to connect donors to the charitable causes they care about most. This 24-hour online fundraising effort, is hosted by HONOLULU Magazine in conjunction with the Hawai'i Community Foundation and the CHANGE Framework. For more information on how you can be a part of making a Big Impact, visit the website at GiveBigHawaii.com.
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Open Enrollment Underway For Health Insurance Marketplace
By Ryan Finnerty
NOV. 8, 2019
Open Enrollment ends on December 15th.
SCREENSHOT FROM HEALTHCARE.GOV
Until December 15th, anyone without health insurance coverage can sign up to purchase an individual plan through the federal Affordable Care Act marketplace.
The 2010 Affordable Care Act established a healthcare marketplace, with the goal of allowing the uninsured to purchase individual health. The individual plans are meant to provide an option for Americans who do not get insurance through an employer, but also do not qualify for Medicare and Medicaid.
That's not a huge population in Hawaii, only around 20,000 people, according to the state Department of Human Services and the Kaiser Family Foundation.
But open enrollment only comes once a year, for just 45 days. Certain life events, like losing your job or having a new child, allow enrollment outside that window. Otherwise, open enrollment is the only chance to sign up.
Dale Goya, assistant vice president with Hawaii's largest health insurer, HMSA, says that anyone considering an individual plan should first determine his or her options through the marketplace.
"What we like to do is recommend that people go to the federal marketplace first, because you could possible qualify for a subsidy," Goya told HPR.
Those subsidies can offset the cost of premiums and co-payments. Prospective buyers can visit the website
Healthcare.gov to find out if they qualify for a tax credit or a cost-sharing subsidy. The marketplace will also display what plans are available to purchase in a customer's region.
Keolahou shelter officially opens in Hilo
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
Saturday, November 9, 2019, 12:05 a.m.
Dozens gathered Friday morning for the formal opening and blessing of Keolahou, an emergency homeless shelter recently established at the old Hilo Memorial Hospital.
Keolahou provides emergency shelter and services to men, who make up the greatest portion of those experiencing homelessness on Hawaii Island.
While Friday marked the shelter's official opening, it accepted its first seven residents last month.
Plans call for up to 50 emergency shelter beds by the end of the year and a daytime assessment and resource center.
Hawaii County was previously awarded $2.5 million in Ohana Zone funding from the state for Keolahou.
In 2018, state legislators appropriated $30 million to establish at least three Ohana Zone sites on Oahu, and one each on Hawaii Island, Maui and Kauai.
The law requires that Ohana Zones be placed on state and county land and that those spaces provide services to assist homeless individuals and families to access permanent housing.
Efforts to convert the former and aging hospital, located near Rainbow Falls, into a shelter began earlier this year.
Legislators, including state Rep. Joy San Buenaventura and state Sens. Russell Ruderman and Kai Kahele, were among those who attended Friday's blessing, along with a number of County Council members and Mayor Harry Kim.
Keolahou partners offer medical care, job training and placement, financial, legal, insurance enrollment, food supplies, clothing and hygiene services.
Partners include Hawaii Island HIV/AIDS Foundation, Arc of Hilo, The Food Basket, Hawaiian Community Assets, Project Vision and the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii.
Keolahou also is partnering with Bay Clinic to offer medical care through its mobile health unit on site one to two times per month. Additionally, the shelter is piloting a partnership with Hilo Medical Center that will set aside five beds for patients ready to be discharged but have no other resources and no home.
The county is planning two additional Ohana Zone sites in Kailua-Kona that will offer similar services.
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Interested in Joining the Legal Aid Team
Legal Aid Staff Positions Available
The Legal Aid Society of Hawaii, a non-profit law firm, endeavors to provide civil legal services throughout the State of Hawaii to those most in need. Our mission is to address critical legal needs through high quality legal advocacy, outreach and education in the pursuit of fairness and justice. Our team of dedicated advocates come to work every day with a purposeful desire to help and serve our community.
Our organization embraces work life balance by offering our team a structured work week designed to achieve work excellence and ample time off to recharge, refresh and pursue individual passions. We offer an extremely generous benefit package which includes 21 days of vacation, 12 days of sick leave and 14 holidays a year. We are also proud to be the industry leader in offering 8 weeks of fully paid parental leave for qualified employees.
If working in a meaningful and rewarding environment is what you're searching for, and if you have been desiring work life balance, please review the positions and requirements below by visiting www.legalaidhawaii.org.
To apply for a position: Please submit a cover letter, resume, and contact information for three professional references to jobs@legalaidhawaii.org. The Legal Aid Society of Hawaii is an Equal Opportunity Employer. No telephone calls please.
- Intake Paralegal- Honolulu, Part-time
- Managing Attorney - Kona, Hawaii
- Legal Content Developer - Honolulu
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Help ensure
justice
and
fairness
for the most vulnerable in our community.
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