 Bingo, we're back. This is Aloha United. We stand. I'm Jay Fiedel and you're on Sync Tech and today we have a very interesting organization called Parents and Children Together, P-A-C-T, we'll be calling it that. And we have the president of P-A-C-T, Ryan Kuzumoto, he's president and CEO, welcome to the show. Brian. Thank you, T. And we have also the vice president of community building programs in P-A-C-T, that's Tina Perez, Boris Jones. Yeah. Thank you, Jay. Yes, correct. Welcome to the show, you guys. Thank you. We want to learn about you. So take a whack at it, Ryan. Tell us what does P-A-C-T do? Well, PAC has a very broad mission but a very focused delivery in terms of serving families in and around our communities here in Hawaii. We're a statewide organization that focuses on five broad areas, the first one being early childhood education, community building, domestic violence prevention intervention, child abuse prevention intervention, and then finally behavioral health services for children and adolescents. Okay. How's your life as president and CEO? Very exciting. Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah. We are, the work that we do really cuts into the fabric of the lives of almost everyone in this community and of all the different areas that we work in, someone somewhere has been touched by that particular issue. And so the issues we work with are very relevant to our families and they're happening on a regular basis and so keeps us busy trying to ensure that we are helping our families and get through these tough times. And you're 50 years old. I mean, not you. Not quite. CEOs are 50 years old. So tell me about the origins of the organization. You know, it's so interesting to look back down the road and see how a lot of these charitable organizations, the ones that are associated with the Loa United Way, how they got established in the first place. So tell us about this. So our genealogy kind of starts in and around the Kalihi area, specifically in Kuhio Park Terrace. We started a parent child center focusing on families and their various needs, kind of a two-generational structure, working on the youth as well as their parents and looking at the various needs that they have to kind of get out of poverty. We really then started to focus on early childhood education, early on in our heritage. And that was through a federal grant called the Head Start Grant. So we're working with three to five-year-olds and now we're also working with younger children as well to help them, provide them with the early education needs that they have. And that kind of is how we started. And then from there we kind of grew and started to provide additional services because we knew just focusing on that population, there were other needs that kind of emerged like for their families. And then we saw families dealing with domestic violence and we saw families dealing with needing jobs and then dealing with child abuse and then mental health services. So all those things kind of really just grew and we knew that throughout time we had some capabilities and we felt a responsibility to respond to some of these things. And even now, you know, even to today we're looking at new and emerging issues that come up and... Sure, you have to do that. You have to stay current on what's happening in the community. Stay relevant, yeah. Yeah. And it's not easy. It's a day-by-day thing to keep your finger on the pulse. Yeah, we're constantly kicking the tires on our services to ensure that we are being relevant. And the one thing we try not to do is do a cookie-cutter approach to anything because we know that when our clients come to us, they come to us with very individual needs and very specialized needs. So not one person is similar to another. And because of that, we take that individualized approach. In our agency, we call it Hanelike, work together with those individuals to accomplish their goals. But the importance of that is it also helps us look at any emerging types of issues. One of the more recent ones that have come up is sex trafficking. And so it's a new area. Actually, that's one of the areas that Tina's involved in to really focus on those young children or children that are being trafficked for sex here in Hawaii. Oh, gosh. It's painful to think about. Yeah. Well, Tina gave me this sheet. I don't know if I can get it on the screen. There it is. And it has... Yeah. It has a bunch of the functions that you guys are involved in, and I'll read them off. Early childhood education. You mentioned this, Ryan. Community building, domestic violence prevention and intervention, child abuse prevention and behavioral health. I guess the sex trafficking is under child abuse prevention. So you have your hands full, Tina. Community building. They're all connected, of course. And what I get, correct me if I'm wrong. What I get is that all of this is a function directly or indirectly of economic disadvantage of poverty. Because if you have poverty, these kinds of problems pop up as they will, right? Yes, yes. And the underlying factor with poverty is the feeling of hopelessness. And we really try to bring some goals, really like look at their strengths and work side by side with the family to bring hope to their lives again. Yeah. Well, that's important. Yeah, absolutely. How do you do that? How do you bring hope to the life of somebody who is impoverished when you met him or her or them, and then the day after, still impoverished? How do you change the way they look at things? Well, I think first and foremost, most importantly, is our staff and the quality of services that we can bring to them. If we say we're going to meet you tomorrow at two o'clock, we're there tomorrow at two o'clock. Structure. Structure. If it's just once a week that they can rely on to visit with them and their baby to help them fill out a job application, you know, just be in their lives with that consistency and someone they can look to support for. So you have... Did I get this 400? 400? Yes. Yes. Yes. How many of them are volunteers and how many of them are paid? I will kick that direction. Those are all paid individuals. We do have about another 1200 so that we use frequently or infrequently throughout the years for volunteers. 400 more? Yes. You guys are huge. For various events or it could be for a specific awareness campaign, we get folks involved because we know together we're much better off together and leveraging the strengths of the community is important for us. Yes. Oh, yes. And I would add one thing to the question that you asked, Tina, and we do work with the significant portion of our population, our folks who are economically disadvantaged, but there are some areas where, you know, no matter how much money you make or earn or have the issues that they're facing, it cuts across all economic lines. One as an example is domestic violence and so we have folks coming to us for services, both the... Well, it's the batterers, the survivors as well as the children who are needing services from us. Yeah, so they could be middle class and have no real money problems but still somehow engage in domestic violence. Right. I was telling you before the show I have trouble believing, you know, that people in our time, whatever their economic bracket, actually beat up their kids. I just can't imagine the motivations. What's the process? What makes kids... People do that. What makes kids engage, beat up their wives, beat up their kids? Or is it that makes that happen? Well, I think with one of our programs we serve island-wide when it's direct contract with Department of Human Services, the lowest level of child protection services. So we don't investigate, we don't, you know, confirm or anything. We just go in there to try to support the family, one, teach them about the laws. You know, what are the laws now? These are the laws. You can't do that. You can't do that, right? Because it's a very different time when I grew up to now. So teaching them, educating them, and then giving them the tools, showing them positive parent support systems, positive parenting, you know, really working with them one-on-one, doing parenting, going into the home and kind of guiding, coaching them, role modeling with them. Personal. Personal. Absolutely. Individualized. Absolutely. And I think for a lot of the families that we see tend to be from the co-foundations. So a lot of it maybe there's a cultural barrier. They just don't understand what the laws are here. And even for cultures that have been here for a while, you know, we're very ingrained in how we're born, I mean, in how we're raised with our traditions and how we perceive discipline to be, you know, and that's then how we parent our children. And so really kind of teaching them a different skill. You know, one of the things we talked about before the show, which I'd like to explain, I'm a historic historian guy. My wife thinks I'm more of a hysterical guy than I am. So, you know, when this all started, when somebody set up packed back when, there were problems in the community they wanted to address. And those problems have not gone away. Fifty years, let's see, fifty years ago that would be 1968, a few years after the statehood really, that's all. And you know, it seems to me that our society in Hawaii has gotten much more complex. The economic pressures, the pressures of living in an island community have gotten more complex. The things that used to warn people's hearts, like looking at the mountains and the ocean and the sky and doing recreation in the environment, you know, in the natural environment, those things have become less accessible in those years. You know, in just a sense of community, music, culture, all that, become more difficult somehow. So I would imagine that you have seen, you institutionally have seen these problems get worse in those years, and I'd like to know your thoughts about the, what do you call it, the social, the history of our social engagement in these islands, as far as you can see that from your band. So I agree with all that you just said, and you know, the economic landscape I think is really, the disparity has really grown exponentially, and I think that's a fundamental issue that all of our families are facing. You know, back, you know, when we were younger, you know, our parents told us, you know, if you work hard, you can achieve anything, but we've got folks working really hard, you know, working, you know, two to three jobs, you know, and then figuring out how to care for their family, even their elders and everything, and they're still not able to make a go. And then couple that with some of the other pressures that society is putting on us, or any other type of personal type of issues, and then the stress on the lack of resources, you then have a huge bubble that's continually waiting to burst, you know, and so, you know, we have to look at our systems and find more ways to support our families, because it's not simply saying, you know, I'm going to teach this individual how to fish so that they know how to be self-sustaining. It goes far beyond that, because they can learn, they might know how to fish, but they can't get to the pond because they don't have transportation or they don't have some of the... That's really wonderful the way you put that right. And so I think there are, you know, there are new stressors upon us, and maybe they're not new, but they're more accentuated now that make it more challenging for some more families. Yeah. Let's take a short break, okay? And when we come back, you know, I'd like to, you know, examine more about that, because you guys are doing, correct me if you feel otherwise, but like the first aid on a serious set of social problems. In a way, although you're doing it one-on-one, it's still kind of cosmetic, because there are social ills that we have that affect all groups and all disparate positions in the economy and so forth. And I wonder if we could, if you don't mind, if we could discuss those ills and what we can do to resolve these problems on a long-term basis, instead of seeing, you know, an increase in the problems and a decline of the family, a decline of the social compact, that's C-O-M-P-A-C-T, P-A-C-T is. There you go. There you go. Right after this break. We'll be right back. Aloha. I'm Carl Kampanyam, host of Think Tech Hawaii's Movers, Shakers, and Reformers. I hope you'll join us over the next several weeks as we take a deep dive into biofuels in Hawaii and explore the alternative fuels supply chain necessary for the local and global transition towards transportation fuel sustainability. Join us as we have good conversations with our farmers, our producers, our conversion technologies, our investors, and our legislators as we try to achieve our transportation sustainability goals. See you soon. Hello. I'm Crystal from QuokTalk. I've got a new show here. You've got to tune in, check out my topics on sensitive, provocative, female issues. So Tuesday mornings, 10 o'clock, don't miss it, is going to be fun and dangerous. Hi. I'm Chris Lethem with The Economy and You, and I'd like to invite you each week to come watch my show each Wednesday at 3 p.m. Well, we have this very valuable conversation going on with Ryan Kuzumoto. He's the president and CEO of PACT, which is the Parents and Teachers Together Organization, which is huge. Actually, if you didn't know, there are 400 employees. There are 1,200 volunteers on top of that, and it's been around for 50 years, and it's a major player in the social structure of our state. And next to him, we have Tina Parris-Jones. She's Vice President of Community Building Programs, which covers a lot of ground impact. So I'd like to attack that just because it seems like a natural flow of the conversation we've had. So you're addressing these problems. They're social problems. They're family problems. They're problems which aren't really actually getting better. You try to stop them from getting worse. But what do we need to do as a community, aside from giving you money, which we will do, but what should we do as a community to try to address the underlying social flaws that are creating the problems you're trying to solve? When I think about this particular topic, and conceptually, there's always some sort of stressor on a family or an individual. If you think about it from an individual standpoint, and that stressor causes some feeling of economic disparity, some emotional distress, all the things that cause that individual to either have to deal with that in a certain way, and that forces that individual to either act out. We have domestic violence situations. We have teens who are not guided, and then they fall into gangs, and that's where you're talking about when we come in, or when we come in and provide that first aid, as you mentioned, and we can continue to do that, but there are those underlying issues that exist, and if we don't try to solve those issues that cause these things, then we're going to continue to have to do that and expend money and resources to do so. So how do we get there? We always talk about prevention, and what does that look like? So I think one way prevention can happen is we should spend more time and effort and money around prevention, and it's a hard thing for a lot of organizations, or maybe funders, as well as state agencies, to put their hands around because it's hard to quantify the value of that. We all know that providing early education for a child can reap huge benefits. Huge benefits, right. Every dollar spent, you will gain back about $8.20 for that dollar you put in for that child because that child will grow. To be a lifelong learner, we'll stay out of the criminal justice system, this, this, and that. And the flip side of this, you don't do that. Right, the cost is huge. You're going to have a burden for the life of that child. Right, exactly. So, but it's hard to, it's sometimes hard to quantify that, right, and for folks to put, you know, they can put their hands around, how many people did you serve in a domestic violence shelter? I'll fund that. But how many people did we, how many people did you prevent from going into a domestic violence shelter because you did some community type of social response on the prevention side? We don't know, we don't know what that impact is because we don't know, it's hard to link it to that's how many people we save from getting into that situation. So I do think, though, that one area that prevention can be more part of the DNA of is in the school systems. I think we need to form stronger partnerships with DOE to help incorporate some of the social type services or educational type services for folks, for the kids in the DOE system, as young as kindergarten, all the way through to high school. The schools are the, you know, they're like the first identifiers for these things and oftentimes teachers provide that relationship with children and can bridge some of that information to them. And I think that's an important piece. It's hard right now in the educational system because there's a lot of focus on academics and test scores, but we need to create some space for that. I think it's important because when we're looking at our communities, we're not just looking at academics, we're looking at the success of the entire individual, which includes the arts, which includes health and all these other factors for success. You evoke a memory in me. One time, Think Tech went to Kealakahi, Kealakahi High School, in Upper Kona, Kona, Moka, there, huge high school. And oh, there were ethnic and racial contentions in that school. There was a lot of poverty in that school. You know, don't think that poverty is limited to Oahu. You know that, it's everywhere. And sometimes the neighbor islands, it's worse in some places. This is a complicated school. And they were having arguments in the school yard. And one of the things that happened is they closed the school for a while because there was so much contention. Imagine that. But one of the principal's name, as I recall, was Murakami. I can't remember more than that. But he had a really interesting idea. He thought, why don't we include the parents in the school programs? Why don't we teach them about how to shop in the store, about saving their money, about family, believe it or not. Teach the family about family. And I thought that was a really good idea. And it was a successful program. And it started to build kids. I met some of them. It started to build high school kids that all of a sudden had hope. And we're going to have decent lives. They now understood the relationship between education and success. And they began to hope for that. What do you think about that idea? What do you think about teaching families by DOE? What do you think? I think that's a fundamental stance that we all should be taking. Because when we look at an individual, say we're looking at that child or that student, that student is going to thrive with the support of that entire community, which includes their family. And when we think about our services and we provide services, mental health services for children or domestic violence or child abuse, we're not just trying to address that particular individual that's impacted. It's the entire family unit. Because if we're going to heal or if we're going to impact, we're going to do it together with everyone. And that is a concept because Tina runs a few programs that work with the immigrant population here in Hawaii. And part of it is helping to reduce certain factors that are impacting their educational success, like not going to school, attendance, or other things. And we bring in the families to help them understand as well that it's important for you to be a partner in your student. It's not just your child going to school and going there every day and coming back. You need to be a part of that experience as well. You need to look at their grades. You need to open their back up. You need to talk with them about what they've gone through. And it's super important. The difference between not doing that and not doing it is the difference between failure and success. Pretty simple. When you talk to people in your programs, are they responsive? I mean, are they saying, Tina, that's so great that you told me that. I'm so happy to know that. Because with that, I will change. My family will change. My kids will change. Do you find there's a receptivity to what you're trying to pass on to them? Well, for example, currently we have a Sundays project where we partner with DOE. And we teach parenting. And it's very tailored to the culture of Truckees, Marshallese, whatever it may be, to just really even teach them. And they're so grateful. They didn't know how to read a report card. They didn't know that they should be opening up their child's backpack every day and going over the calendar with them or looking for activities. They didn't know they were even invited to a field trip and that they could go on field trips or come and volunteer at the school and really be involved. And I think once we get that information out, then they gravitate towards that. And it sounds so cliche, but knowledge is power. I mean, knowledge is power for our families. The more they know and the better informed they are, they can be better parents for their children and then be a better family altogether as a unit. Do you see families actually taking this message and then succeeding with it? Do you have examples and success stories of families that really got it and became cohesive, became productive and effective and skipped all the bad stuff? Do you have examples of that? Yeah, actually we have tons of examples of that. But one that comes to mind would be, actually it was through our home visiting program and really just, and through our home visiting program, you don't have to be a really, the risk factors that are involved in our program could just be a stressor as financial stress is, no housing. So we had a mom who came to us and really was trying to get off of heroin, has a newborn baby, doesn't have a partner, just her and baby. It's a recipe for disaster, right? A recipe for disaster. So what we did is taking that holistic approach. We also take it holistically on the service side. We put a therapist in place, we put a home visitor in place. We also had a child development specialist because baby may have been exposed in utero to drugs to monitor that child development, to monitor the milestones for the child. And she's kept in touch with us. So it's a three-year program. So she's eligible for zero to three. So it's not just one conversation that's followed through for years? Three years she had home visiting. And with the help of the team and other community partners, she currently has her master's in social work. No kidding. She is a very successful parent. She often sees us. If she comes to visit, she'll come and visit her therapist. And she's always willing to speak to other parents who might need that extra help or even to just be living testimony that it works with help you can do it. You alluded, and I guess so many agencies are involved. You alluded to homelessness. You cover that on a preventative basis or on a curative basis. Where do you get involved in the homelessness issue? So we have a number of programs that kind of touch the homeless families in different ways. We don't provide specifically the direct, we don't provide housing except for in our domestic violence shelters. So a lot of folks exiting their situations, we do have shelters for folks that are dealing with domestic violence. And domestic violence is a top fact issue for the cause of homelessness. But in- Was that right? Yeah, it's one of the- It creates the homelessness? Yeah, so for various reasons. I mean, it could be as simple as the victim or the survivor is on a mortgage with their batterer and can't afford to pay anywhere else. And so then becomes homeless when they're fleeing the situation. Or they rely on two incomes. And when they leave that situation, then now they're in a place where they don't have anywhere else to go and they have to resort to being homeless. Various other things that can be involved in that capacity. But so we do help folks in that capacity. But our other programs touch, from our mental health services to our child abuse prevention programs and the other ones that we mentioned there, a lot of our families are homeless. And so we're providing those specific services to them. Tina runs a program, that home visiting program where we're trying to support the families. And sometimes it's home visiting, but their home is, they don't have one. Their home is Kakaako Park. We'll visit them at the park. Good, somebody's gotta do that. Somebody's gotta have a relationship. You know, it's like, you have to know who they are. Unless you know who they are, you can't help them. So one question that comes to mind, we only have a minute or two left here. You mentioned, and this is chilling, the whole thing about sex trafficking. This is kind of an extension of what we've been talking about, isn't it? When you lost hope, when you have no money, when your family is coming apart, whether it's abuse and neglect and what have you and homelessness, it seems like a natural progression to be a vulnerable, to be a victim of sex trafficking. Isn't that the way it works? That is absolutely correct. And it's coming to the attention of the state with our children that are in state custody through the Child Protective Services. And so... Young children. Young children. 10, 12, 9. There's some 9. 9, oh, that's really disturbing. But there's older, yeah, sorry. But, you know, there are predators out there that are preying upon vulnerability of children. And they're using that to their advantage to make some money. And that's the sick part about this whole thing. And then there's these kids who are, you know, being taken advantage of and are being told that they have to use or sell their bodies in this capacity. And it's such a sad thing. It's, you know, for these folks who are preying upon them, it's the evil of all evils in my mind. And, you know, we have folks, Tina's team is mobilized when we have a partnership with Susanna Wesley Community Center as well as Holly Keepa to provide a statewide response to this particular matter. And... Good, you're addressing it. Yeah, but there's more need than there is support out there. Sure. Yeah. And there's other agencies supporting this as well. I think it's a good example of staying in touch with developments in society here and addressing the ones that needed to be addressed. So I promised you a little time at the end here. Take a minute each, if you don't mind. Beginning with you, Tina, why don't you tell them what you want them to remember from this discussion, from what you do. There's your camera. I just want everyone to remember that parents and children together are... We are exactly what it is. Parents and children together. We are there for the community. We will walk in partnership with you to help you realize and see all the potentials in life that may be in store for you. Thank you. And I leave it on a positive note. Absolutely. Tina Peres-Chones, Vice President of Community Building Programs. And the CEO, Ryan Cusumara, what do you have? Just to add to what Tina said is that, there's so many stressors in this community and I just urge all families, every individual, to seek the support of services they need and it's okay to do so. And to seek peace over any type of violence that ever comes to your mind. And if you're struggling with that, if you have issues, seek help within your family. But if it's not there, there's agencies like us, parents and children together, but a lot of other good agencies in this community, that AEW supports and that can really help our families become stronger and therefore strengthen our communities. Yeah, at the end of the day, you guys must have great gratification doing what you do and contributing to the community in a way you contribute to the community. It's wonderful and we appreciate what you do. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks, Jay.