October 16, 2023 Meeting

In September, the Mālama ʻOhana Working Group (MOWG) had their first monthly zoom meeting that set the tone for the work ahead. Community comment and participation were welcomed and greatly appreciated in the discussion surrounding how the working group would engage and operate.  At the October meeting, the MOWG agreed that they would adopt a designed alliance process to facilitate the work. A designed alliance promotes clarity with how to engage with each other and how to communicate through tension and conflict. Pursuant to the designed alliance, the MOWG agreed to stay engaged in the following ways:

• Commit to achieving our Working Group’s goals;

• Live our values of honesty, respect, inclusion, aloha, empathy, equity of voice, value of lived experience, and ha‘aha‘a (humility), and kindness;

• Assume good intent, listen deeply, seek first to understand, focus on solutions, avoid blame, and take responsibility;

• Nurture a trauma-informed, growth mindset, and positive culture of safety, respect, confidentiality, boundary respect, hope, curiosity, learning, and transformation;

• Respect others’ experiences in how they are sharing, stay out of judgment, and look to ‘ike kupuna as a source of guidance;

• Support each other in being bold and courageous, vulnerable, honest, heard, mindful, intentional, empowered, comfortable and uncomfortable, stretched, and mākaukau (ready); and

• Cultivate aloha for one another and connectedness to each other and our communities.