Integrating Compassion and Science: Community-led prevention in Windward O'ahu
Kelsie H. Okamura, PhD, ABPP
Integrating compassion and science requires moving beyond top-down implementation paradigms to empower communities as co-architects of evidence-based collective action. This presentation details Mohala Na Pua (“the youth thrive, being nourished by the waters of the mountain range”), an innovative substance use prevention initiative in Windward Oʻahu. Funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, this project bridges rigorous behavioral science with Native Hawaiian cultural values (ʻike Hawaiʻi) through a robust partnership between university researchers, the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education, and Compassionate Koʻolau—a community-led coalition advancing trauma-informed, restorative practices grounded in ancestral wisdom (ʻike kupuna).
We present a triadic, ecological model of community-led innovation. First, Team School partners with regional intermediate schools to systematically redesign and implement Hoʻouna Pono, an evidence-based, culturally grounded substance use prevention curriculum. Second, Team Curriculum centers regional youth and community voices to dynamically adapt the intervention to the distinct historical and environmental contexts of the Koʻolaupoko and Koʻolauloa moku (districts). Third, Team Systems utilizes digital infrastructure to capture real-time implementation and adaptation data. By utilizing ecological momentary assessment tools, we monitor curriculum fidelity and organic modifications. This presentation demonstrates how structural compassion—operationalized through deep community pilina (relationship)—can be blended with cutting-edge methodology to build responsive, sustainable public health infrastructure. Attendees will gain actionable frameworks for executing rigorous, evidence-based prevention while sharing scientific power with Indigenous communities.
Online:
Zoom link Meeting ID: 982 9461 2996/Passcode: 611979
