 Hi, I'm Rusty Komori and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou Boys Varsity Tennis Team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. This show is based on my books, Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game, and it's about leadership, character, and creating a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today is the president and CEO of Helping Hands Hawaii. She is Susan Furuta, and today we are going beyond social services. Hey, Susan, welcome to Beyond the Lines. Hi, welcome. Thank you. Susan, it was so great meeting you and really touring your facility fairly recently, and I'm so happy to have you on the show. Can you share a bit about your background growing up? Absolutely. Thank you very much for having me. I'm very happy to be here. I grew up in historical Eva plantation. That community was very close-knit. Everybody knew everybody. That was during a day when a lot of people in the community worked at that one large company. Naturally, families got together. Families did things together in the neighborhood. When people needed help, then families were there for each other. I basically was born and raised there and went to Campbell High School. I'm a prodigy of the public school system, which I had so much fun in, and went off to the University of Hawaii at Manoa. After graduating from there, I moved over to Los Angeles, where I worked basically in a business community. Susan, what type of positions, when you moved to the mainland, did you have before joining Helping Hands Hawaii? I worked for a subsidiary of Alexander and Alexander and did a lot of work with clients who had business personal property taxes or real estate taxes in Los Angeles. There you get taxed for your business property. I did a lot of valuations, assessment appeals, and that sort of thing. I had a portfolio of about $4 million at the time that I was managing, but then life there in Los Angeles is a lot different for a very homegrown country girl. I really missed home a lot, and we weren't married at the time, but we decided to come home, and then we landed on Kauai. That's where my human resources career actually began, since I knew I wanted to work with people. That was what my degree was in as well. I have been in human resources for over two decades before being in operations. Susan, when you joined Helping Hands Hawaii, what positions did you have leading up to becoming their president and CEO? Helping Hands Hawaii is a very old company in the community. They've been serving for probably close to 50 years since it's in corporation, but when I first started, the human resources department was probably about a year and a half old, so I joined the team as an HR director, then moved my way up to vice president of human resources and second income command following the lead of their CEO. In 2018, I was promoted to operations officer, and so I was embedded in all of the different departments and programming and learned quite a bit about what the organization was doing and what kinds of changes we could affect to be able to serve more in the community. Susan, tell me now all about Helping Hands Hawaii and the social services that you guys provide. Helping Hands started off in the 1940s after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and its story is really about volunteering and embracing the needs of the community with the needs of the people who can give the help. So we started off as Volunteer Placement Bureau, and we did that for a number of years until it incorporated in 1974. At that time, there were a lot of programs that were attached to it, and so the community clearinghouse is one of our programs that a lot of people know us by. The clearinghouse accepts donations from the community and then turns around and gives it to people that are in need, so mattresses and furniture and things like that that are on its way to being recycled basically. So they need to be in good condition in order to pass it to a family in need. The warehouse also operates two programs during the year. One is the Ready to Learn program, which is a Senator Inoue initiative that he initiated and then passed it over to us, and that program does a lot of collections of school supplies. We campaign very hard for monetary donations so that we can buy things in bulk and serve as many public school children as possible. So that program has the capacity to serve probably upwards to 8,000 to 9,000 children each year depending on the need. So Susan, when these families in need that you said, do they just come and they're able to select what you have available for free? Yeah, so the families that we provide service to are all at a particular median, the area median income. They're mainly homeless, they're struggling with poverty. They come to us by walk-in process or they come to us by referral network. We work with over 150 non-profit providers, partners, programs, and things like that in the community. The families that they also help us to identify are those that come to get these items for free. Now Susan, I also know that your organization is one of the most cost efficient and effective non-profit organizations in the state of Hawaii. Why is that? We work with a lot of different partners in the community that align with our mission to serve people in need. I would say about 30% of our funding comes from community contributions, businesses, and individuals that really want to help our mission. And so we do the best that we can with all of the dollars that we do have. A lot of the programming also are supported by the government. If, say for example, the SNAP Outreach Program, which is Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, we comb all across Oahu to homeless encampments, shelters, senior living centers, where we know that consistent access to food may be a struggle with some of the folks. Our outreach team will go to them where they are in the community and help to inform them and help to apply for food stamps, so that way they can have a consistent meal. Susan, when I came to visit you at your office and take a tour of the warehouse, I was able to meet some of your team members. And that was so great. I mean, you have such a great team there. You speak so highly of them. And how can people volunteer and how can people help helping hands? Well, as I had said, there's 150 plus providers that we partner with. We also partner with over 300 businesses, of course, give or take. Some will have other focuses on one year and change focus another year. But how people can volunteer is by going to our website and just signing up to be a volunteer. They can volunteer for themselves individually, or they can invite their business group to come in and do some work within our warehouse. We do have people that do follow our outreach workers as well if they want to be part of that initiative. That takes a little bit of training, but that is something that we're always looking to broaden, which is the way that we interact with our community members. That's so great to hear, Susan. And tell me about your connection with the KITV4 news team. They're great. KITV and Jason and his gang, they've been wonderful supporters over the last couple of decades. We partner on different things, particularly like the Adopt a Family program at Christmas time, and then are ready to learn. They come in full force and help to campaign and raise funds to purchase school supplies for kids who are in need and that need that to be ready to get ready to learn. Well, Susan, speaking of that Adopt a Family, Ryan Tanaka did an Adopt a Family program through Helping Hands Hawaii, and I was a small part of that. He helped Ashley and her entire family, and we got together for a dinner with the family at Giovanni Pastrami at his restaurant. The great thing was his employees at his various companies, Kai Hawaii, Underground Services, Giovanni Pastrami, and his two new restaurants, CJs and Roundtable, they were all helping to donate to his Adopt a Family, and he was going to match whatever the donations was. Now, I thought that was so amazing because he was able to, along with his employees, to really help with a new refrigerator, a new oven and range, new laptop, I mean printer, I mean all of these things. What are your thoughts about how great that Adopt a Family program is? You know, the Adopt a Family program celebrated its 50th year, that Christmas clearing house, and that program connects individual donors in the community with families directly. And so the beauty of that program really is to make sure that, you know, we as a village, take care of our own. And so it's wonderful to hear when a donor and a donor group does it in such a big way to make a deeper impact in that family's needs, to be able to show them that they care and that they can get out of the situation and move forward from the situation that they're in. It really gives them hope and it inspires them, you know, to have a brighter future. And that's the goal of our organization. You know, it's really providing these critical support social services to the community so that they can have, you know, a better tomorrow. But it's really the philosophy of Helping Hands has always been to cultivate and steward really our entire community to help people. And so that way we can be a stronger community as a result. Susan, I saw it firsthand and it is powerful. I mean it is so meaningful. And I want to ask you, I mean you've seen the impact that this, you know, that you're having on the families and what is the impact that it's having on the kids? You know, from what we gather when we receive like their thank you notes and we hear about their stories beyond like what happens today is that, you know, these kids have then the potential to do such great things for their own community, for their families and, you know, become the leaders of tomorrow. And so when we help them, you know, through the collective group of our community, you know, it's, there's so many possibilities that we can look forward to in our future. I completely agree with you. When I interacted with Ashley's kids, I mean they are so smart, they're so brilliant. And, you know, so many people, they need help at some point in their lives and, you know, help comes from a variety of different ways. And Susan, you have both of my books and I was so happy to be able to donate books to your entire leadership team. And I want to ask you, did you like the books and what stood out to you in it? Everything that I read, I felt that I was still learning about, you know, there's so many wonderful stories. And, you know, in the first book, it talks about the four Ps and then the eight P points. You know, I feel like that's a wonderful framework to sort of what I was using already in my own leadership style here at the organization. And to put it in something that's very tangible and something that I could share with our leadership team, to me is extremely powerful. I was very motivated and inspired after reading it. And I think everybody will be, it'll be taken to the next level. So I can't wait for them to continue to share with me all of the things that they feel resonated with them and that they're applying. Now, Susan, did you cry a couple of times? I did. You know, I didn't expect it. And I think that those are the moments that you remember, you know, there's a lot of things that we go through in life that are adverse. And, you know, the thing that I took away from that is that when you go through adversity or something that's really, really tough, you learn a lot more than you would have ordinarily. And so in your book where you talk about how you should hope or strive for that type of, you know, experience where you have a tougher situation to have to go through, you know, and that makes you grow even to a stronger person, stronger leader. I think that that really resonates with me, you know, as a cancer survivor. So, you know, there were many of those moments there that I felt your book just kind of hit it, you know, on the head. And so it's like really, there are just so many. I just can't tell you. You have to read it. Well, I know when people read the books because they'll tell me about when they cried in the books. And I'm like, no, I know. And Susan, tell me more about, I mean, because it's so, I mean, you're so inspiration. You are a cancer survivor, like you said. Can you share about what happened and how you overcame that? After I gave birth to my second son, not long after that, you know, I discovered that, you know, I was told that I had breast cancer. And, you know, I was very fortunate to have been here at Helping Hands. While I was going through my treatment, you know, I worked with Brian Schatz in the past, and he was a very supportive supervisor. But, you know, I think part of having that sort of medical or healthcare happen to you really puts a different perspective on what you do with your life and how you look at life in general. And I think, you know, this organization has been just truly wonderful. I often wondered on those days that I was feeling really bad, or if people can see or people can tell, you know, that I was really struggling. We had a dinner that I was coordinating. This was a fundraiser dinner during Brian's time. And, you know, things were not well that evening. And I just sort of had to put my strongest mind towards the dinner and see it through. But it was something that I always remember that the people around me were so super loving and supportive throughout my entire time. Now, thank you for sharing that, Susan. And, you know, you're, I mean, you're an extraordinary leader. You know, you know the ins and outs of the entire Helping Hands organization. And Susan, how would you describe your leadership style? Well, I think it's probably best characterized when you ask, like, my team. But I personally feel like my leadership style is one that is heavy team oriented. And you really need to be part of a very open and transparent trust culture when you work with me. That is something that I expect out of all of the people that I supervise, which is then a way for me to understand what their needs are and to be able to help them grow in various ways to become successful. You know, everybody's at different intervals in life and at learning levels in life. And so being able to be flexible and patient with people and to really see the best in the people. That's sort of the style that I have. But, you know, it takes a while to get to that point. And I think when you have a team culture, you know, everyone on the team has a part that they have to play. And, you know, it does take a little bit of time. But I feel that that is one of the best ways to be able to address things, to move through change effectively, and, you know, be able to celebrate the winds and to also be together when there are areas that we need to work on. So, you know, it's really nice to be able to have people that support you throughout the process. No, I love hearing those insights from you there, Susan. And what's a big challenge that you are dealing with as the leader? You know, I think that all leaders are challenged every day. You know, just some have big challenges and some have little ones. I think for us in our organization, it's always about doing the things that the community needs for us to do and finding the funding that is going to be able to support that. So, you know, having the financial sustainability is always something that I'm challenged with and my team is challenged with. Somehow, you know, we managed to provide the best service that we can. You know, it's not perfect, but, you know, we always try and strive for the best. Now, Susan, earlier you mentioned about the so many non-profit organizations in the state of Hawaii. Do you see that as helpful or hurtful? I mean, does it help to have a lot of nonprofits? There is a stigma sometimes out in the community about, oh, you know, how one nonprofit is doing one thing and then you've got two or three others that are doing similar things and so, you know, it's not really needed. But, you know, when I met you, I told you that in the Ready to Learn programming, you know, we have the capacity of serving through our warehouse, you know, up to 8,000 or 9,000 children each year. It depends on funding, depends on volunteers and the hands that we have. You know, we have very limited hands. But when you think about how many children are in our state that are eligible for free or discounted meals at school, that's like 10 times more than what we serve. So, you need to have these nonprofit organizations or groups, whether they're business groups or nonprofit groups, it doesn't matter. You need to have these groups in the community that's going to be able to help these children and their families because there's so many of them. You know, one nonprofit alone is not going to be able to provide the service for all. Yeah, no, that's a really good point that you bring up there. And like you said earlier, I mean, how important funding is. And Susan, when you reflect back on your life so far, what's a valuable lesson you learned? Oh, gosh, there's so many that I've learned. I think, you know, the biggest lesson I've learned is that you need to have good moral character. That is one of the basic things that will allow you to feel free and live a good life. Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, it's that's what I talked about in the books, too, about the, you know, the most important character is moral character. And people want to feel like they're helping a purpose, like they serve a purpose. People want to feel like they provide meaning to their own lives, but meaning to other people's lives. They want to feel like they play a role in helping others. What are your thoughts about that? Well, you know, as I said, right, I've grown up in a community that was just so close knit. And that had resonated throughout, I think, the things that I've done through life, whether I was in high school, then be part of an organization like Key Club. And I worked a little bit as a volunteer with the Hawaii State Youth Volunteer Board, Susie Chan, and Dexter Suzuki. I mean, these are some of my early sort of coaches in life and gave me a start in the leadership continuum. And I think that being able to help others was always something that I've wanted to do. So when I went to LA, went to Kauai, and then came back home to Honolulu, I think being here at Helping Cancer Hawaii for over 20 years has pretty much said it all, you know, as to why I'm here and why I've chosen to be here. Well, you are definitely an expert at nonprofit organization, Susan. And I really want to thank you for taking time to be on the show today to really share about all of the great things and the big positive impact that Helping Cancer Hawaii is having and also through the Adopt a Family program. And how do we get more Susan Fruits as in the world? Oh my goodness, I don't know that you want as many Susan Fruits as in the world. But, you know, I've had to learn a lot of things, you know, through mistakes or, you know, challenges for my own self. And, you know, this is a culmination of a lot of people helping me get to where I'm at. So that I think reading, applying what you've read, you know, being a good person, having good moral character is really important. And I think everybody can find success wherever they go. So long as they do these things and work hard. So, you know, we I've really appreciated the books. And I'm definitely sure that our leadership team is going to enjoy them as well. Awesome. Thank you, Susan. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit RustyKamori.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I hope that Susan and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha. Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and donate to us at thinktechawaii.com. Mahalo.