Native Voices Rising has awarded a $31,384 grant to Opportunity for Youth Action Hawaiʻi (OYAH), a collaboration of nonprofit agencies based at the Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center that works alongside State partners to advance youth-centered justice reform. The grant will support the OYAH Policy Initiative, which elevates Native Hawaiian leadership in public policy through hands-on legal advocacy and community engagement.
The OYAH Policy Initiative supports Native Hawaiian student interns and the pro bono attorneys who mentor, guide, and review their work. In partnership with the University of Hawaiʻi William S. Richardson School of Law, students—under the supervision of licensed attorneys—have successfully tracked and helped pass key legislative measures focused on youth justice reform. Interns also produce advocacy materials, lead community education events, and develop strategies that strengthen youth engagement across Hawaiʻi. Through this work, students contribute to broader systems change grounded in Indigenous values, equity, and self-determination.
“Every dollar invested in striving for a more equitable justice system—where Hawaiʻi’s youth and people are at the center of decision-making—is a step forward for the entire lāhui,” said Kapri Tulang-De Silva, a Native Hawaiian third-year law student and doctoral candidate. “By allowing Indigenous voices to lead conversations and projects alongside community and governmental leaders, we strengthen our kūlana as changemakers working toward a sustainable future with seven generations in mind.”
Attorney and mentor Melissa Pavlicek echoed this sentiment, noting, “Student advocates are emerging leaders who make a pivotal difference in shaping culturally grounded and responsive public policy.”
With support from Native Voices Rising, the OYAH Policy Initiative will continue to expand public engagement efforts, amplify youth and community voices, and build strategic partnerships with legal, legislative, and community allies. By empowering young leaders to shape statewide policy conversations, this partnership strengthens networks and fuels sustained, collective action.
Native Voices Rising is a Native-led intermediary fund that centers Indigenous communities as the experts in determining their own needs, using a trust-based, participatory grantmaking approach that places decision-making power directly in the hands of Native peoples and communities. In its 2025 grant cycle, Native Voices Rising awarded $4.3 million to 136 Indigenous- and Native-led advocacy and organizing groups nationwide. These grants support work across critical issue areas, including environmental and climate justice, water protection, birth justice, cultural and language revitalization, youth empowerment, and women- and two-spirit-led activism. Native Voices Rising addresses the longstanding underfunding of Native-led efforts by connecting funders and donors directly with organizations advancing solutions within their own communities.
In Hawaiʻi, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander youth are disproportionately represented in the juvenile justice system and face systemic barriers before, during, and after system involvement. These challenges are reflected in higher rates of foster care involvement, substance use, human trafficking, child welfare involvement, and poor educational outcomes.
The OYAH Policy Initiative is part of a broader movement to replace youth incarceration with healing-centered, restorative systems rooted in Native Hawaiian approaches—systems that empower communities, train youth leaders and healers, and redirect resources toward culturally grounded, community-driven solutions that improve long-term outcomes.
For more information about Opportunity for Youth Action Hawaiʻi, visit www.wearekawailoa.org.