Funding Opportunities

Background
The Office of Native Hawaiian Relations’ (ONHR) Heritage (Tourism) Opportunities in Hawaiʻi (HŌʻIHI) Grant Program serves to implement the Native Hawaiian Organization NATIVE Act Grants under CFDA 15.068 and the provisions of the Native American Tourism and Improving Visitor Experience Act (NATIVE Act), 25 U.S.C. 4351 et seq. The purposes of the NATIVE Act include establishing a more inclusive national travel and tourism strategy and providing opportunities, including funding, for Native Hawaiian organizations (NHO) as distinctly defined in the NATIVE Act, with the potential to deliver significant benefits, including job creation, elevated living standards, and expanded economic opportunities, for the Native Hawaiian Community.Tourism in Hawaiʻi has grown over the last century as visitor arrivals surpassed 10 million in 2020 and has seen a recovery since the drop in arrivals during the pandemic, with 9.4 million visitor arrivals in 2022 in a state whose population is less than 1.5 million people. This volume of visitors has led to excessive pressure on Hawaiʻi’s natural and cultural resources, including many long held sacred by members of the Native Hawaiian Community. Tourism in Hawaiʻi relies heavily on the Native Hawaiian culture as its overarching theme and draw and has operated as an extractive industry, depleting resources and often displacing Native Hawaiian Community members from their traditional lands, homes, and places of worship. Frustration amongst Native Hawaiian Community members has resulted in urgent calls to reevaluate priorities and to transform tourism into a regenerative industry, one that invests back into restoring and sustaining resources, including human resources, in Hawaiʻi. Given that tourism will remain a major economic driver for many states, including Hawaiʻi, the NATIVE Act plays an important role in promoting heritage and cultural tourism opportunities through the self-determining participation of Native American communities, including the Native Hawaiian Community, in the visitor industry.The Hawaiian value of hōʻihi (to treat with reverence or respect), as reflected in the ʻōlelo noʻeau (Hawaiian proverb) “E hōʻihi aku, e hōʻihi mai,” meaning “show respect, get respect”, represents the core principle of ONHR’s HŌʻIHI Grant Program. Through showing respect, visitors (tourists) can then be welcomed as guests with a shared kuleana (responsibility) in perpetuating the values and importance of Native Hawaiian traditional knowledge and cultural practices. This ʻōlelo noʻeau serves as a foundational guide for ONHR’s HŌʻIHI Grant Program to aide in actions that:Showcase the heritage, places, arts, foods, traditions, history and continuing vitality of the Native Hawaiian Community;Identify, enhance, revive, or maintain loea (cultural traditions and practices), wahi kūpuna (ancestral spaces) and wahi pana (sacred spaces) that are important to sustain the distinctiveness of the Native Hawaiian Community; andProvide for authentic and respectful visitor experiences in Hawaiʻi.These grants and subsequent actions by NHOs are also expected to facilitate job creation, stimulate economic activity, and contribute to elevating the living standards in the Native Hawaiian Community. Program Priorities for 2024For fiscal year 2024, ONHR will fulfill the core principles of the HŌʻIHI Grant Program by providing grant funding to successful NHO applicants who meet the criteria for one or more of the following priorities:Uplift, perpetuate, and in some cases revive, traditional Native Hawaiian practices (e.g., ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, kapa making, lauhala and kaula weaving, hula, amongst many others including lesser known practices) by creating opportunities for demonstrations, visitor education on history, usage, and protocols, or hands-on visitor participation experiences in the cultural practice;Support the maintenance, enhancement, and protection of Hawaiʻi’s natural resources, wahi kūpuna, and wahi pana at areas impacted by tourism;Enhance the entrepreneurial capacity for the Native Hawaiian Community by helping create business opportunities in the visitor industry, offering business development training, or stimulating economic activity; AND/ORUndertake related activities with visitors that convey respect and reaffirm the principle of reciprocation to the place, resources, and traditional knowledge holders and practitioners.For the purposes of this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO), Native Hawaiian cultural practices may include, but are not limited to, traditional: farming practices, food preparation, material gathering and production of implements, products, and adornments, and cultural activities such as moʻolelo, dance, chant, song, arts, construction, and recreation.

On April 10, 2024, the Office of Hawaii Affairs (OHA) will launch the OHA Kanaaho Grant for Lahaina and Kula to provide direct financial assistance to impacted Native Hawaiian homeowners and renters in the wildfire impact zones of Lahaina and Kula. The grant funds will support the empowerment of impacted Native Hawaiians to determine their own greatest needs, to meet those needs in the face of disaster, and improve the economic stability of Native Hawaiians.

ELIGIBILITY
The OHA Kanaaho Grants will provide critical support to Native Hawaiian homeowners and renters in the wildfire impact zones of Lahaina and Kula.

It is the first disbursement of the $5 million in disaster aid funding that the OHA Board of Trustees approved to support wildfire survivors.
A $9,000 grant will be awarded to eligible homeowners who experienced hardship; while a $4,000 grant will be awarded to eligible renters who experienced hardship.

Pohala Mai- ʻOhana Experiencing Financial Hardship Grant Purpose: Support a project that provides social services, including direct financial assistance, case management, and referral services, to Native Hawaiians to immediately address an unexpected crisis and improve resource stability during the emergency financial situation. The intent of the emergency funds is to assist Native Hawaiians to achieve and/or reestablish economic stability and prevent a reoccurring cycle of debt. Program services shall include:
1. Establishing an OHA Emergency Financial Assistance Fund to provide temporary financial assistance for individuals and families who are facing hardships due to loss of income, loss of employment, debilitating illness or injury, death of household member, or other unanticipated circumstances. OHA Emergency Financial Assistance shall be used for rent or mortgage payments to prevent an impending eviction; utility payments to prevent impending termination of services; car repair; funeral expenses; out-of-pocket medical expenses; and other similar exigent time-sensitive expenses.
2. Case management.
3. Referrals and information to link Native Hawaiians to other services and activities.
4. Financial literacy services.
5. Collaboration with OHA on outreach, project marketing, and public relations.

This program is designed to assist Native Hawaiian libraries in improving core library services for their communities. Reflecting IMLS’s agency-level goals of championing lifelong learning, strengthening community engagement, and advancing collections stewardship and access, the goals for this program are to:

Improve digital services to support needs for education, workforce development, economic and business development, health information, critical thinking skills, and digital literacy skills.
Improve educational programs related to specific topics and content areas of interest to library patrons and community-based users.
Enhance the preservation and revitalization of Native Hawaiian culture and language.
Projects may involve, but are not limited to, activities such as educational programming for all ages; oral history collection and documentation; digital media and technology enhancements; institutional planning and policy development; professional training, internships, and mentorships; supporting and engaging with cultural practitioners and scholars; research and development of language and cultural material and tools; digitization and digital asset management, and refitting of library spaces for staff and public.

To encourage a commitment to breast cancer research, Breast Cancer Alliance invites clinical doctors and research scientists who are in the early stages of their careers, including post docs, whose current proposal is focused on breast cancer, to apply for funding for the Young Investigator Grant. This grant is open to applicants at institutions in the contiguous United States. This is a two-year grant for a total of $125,000, with half the grant award being paid out each year.

Breast Cancer Alliance invites clinical doctors and research scientists at any stage of their careers, including post docs, whose current proposal is focused on breast cancer, to apply for an Exceptional Project Grant. This award recognizes creative, unique and innovative research and is open to applicants at institutions in the contiguous United States. This is a one year grant for a total of $100,000.

Priority funding considerations include projects to meet Hawaiian Homestead communities' basic needs (e.g., home repair, handrails, guardrails, ramps, internet access, transportation, aids—walkers, canes, transfer benches, eyeglasses, hearing aids, protective footwear, dental services); programs in Hawaiian Homestead communities’ youth, kupuna, or community centers, including purchase of program or activity supports (e.g., appliances, computers, internet access, safety patrol activities, after school programming); and/or education, advocacy or support services to enable Hawaiian Homestead communities to advocate for ʻohana and community needs (e.g., in areas of education, health, housing, pa‘ahao, subsistence living, natural resources).

Support programs and practices that strengthen ‘economic development in and for Hawaiian communities, including projects that support successful, community-strengthening Native Hawaiian-owned businesses; projects that support the establishment of new markets for Native Hawaiian products (kalo, loko i‘a grown fish, etc.) that can provide Native Hawaiian producers a livable wage; and/or projects that support the establishment and operationalization of indigenous economic system consistent with Native Hawaiian knowledge, culture, values and practices.

Support programs and practices that strengthen Native Hawaiian resource management knowledge and skills to meet the housing needs of their ʻohana, increasing safety, stability, social support networks, and cultural connection in Native Hawaiian communities. Projects include those that support Native Hawaiians to rent or own housing that meets their ʻohana financial and wellbeing needs.

Support programs and practices that strengthen the health of the ʻāina, including increasing community stewardship of Hawai‘i’s natural and cultural resources that foster connection to ‘āina,‘ohana, and communities; and/or increasing restoration of Native Hawaiian cultural sites, landscapes, kulāiwi and traditional food systems.