What Will It Take for Young People to Thrive in Koʻolau Oʻahu?

By Alex Harris, President, Harold K.L. Castle Foundation

What will it take for young people to live, work and thrive in Koʻolau Oʻahu? As students head back to school, this question weighs heavily on me. Our foundation’s Windward Workforce Analysis puts hard numbers behind what many of us have long suspected: roughly 80% of Windward residents commute outside the region for work. In Kahuku and Lāʻie, wages often fall below the $39,384 ALICE survival budget for a single adult, even as rent increases higher and higher. Unemployment for residents without a high school diploma sits upwards of 15%. And our local job base leans heavily on tourism and retail, two sectors that offer few of the work-based learning experiences that help students see a hopeful future in their own backyard. With nearly a quarter of our population under 18, the stakes of getting this right could not be higher.

Challenges like these are why we believe so strongly in convening people who don’t always sit at the same table. The past two years, our partner Hawaii Workforce Pipeline brought together employers, K-12 educators, and higher education partners across Koʻolauloa and Koʻolaupoko. Thirty employer partnerships were established or strengthened. Businesses from Bank of Hawaiʻi to Adventist Health Castle to the Polynesian Cultural Center committed to guest speaking, mock interviews, career fairs, workplace tours, and internships for students at Kahuku, Castle, Kalāheo, and Kailua High Schools, Olomana School, Windward Community College, and BYU–Hawaiʻi.

These commitments produced real impact. A Castle High School job shadowing day reached 180 juniors. Career-awareness videos featuring Kualoa Ranch, Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi, and Waimānalo Health Center now show students, many for the first time, the range of meaningful careers that exist in their own backyard. Driven by employer demand, Windward Community College launched new training that helps first responders and others navigate challenging mental health situations. Nearly 2000 students benefited in full.

None of this closes the gap overnight. But every conversation between a school principal and a hiring manager, every student who job-shadows instead of just imagining, chips away at the forces that pull our young people away from home. Students shouldn’t have to leave Windward Oʻahu to build a good life. Our job, as a community, is to make sure that they aren’t forced into this choice.