2011 Founder's Day marks 33rd Year for IHS

Author: Rachel King

Every year around IHS founder Fr. Claude du Teil's birthday, The Institute for Human Services puts on a volunteer project to celebrate Founder's Day with fun and good ol' hard work. This year, the projects were centered around our two shelters, namely the blossoming garden outside the Women/Family's shelter.

The day started off with about sixty volunteers signing up for various projects depending on their interest and skills. Projects included: retrieving and distributing mulch, planting new seedlings, building a new garden fence, harvesting vegetables and herbs, working on our wall garden, staking hibiscus near our Men's shelter, repainting handrails, and bringing up a new staircase for better roof access. The volunteers came together and worked efficiently with the guidance of project team leaders.


During the projects, volunteers shared stories about previous IHS projects they have participated in, mothers and daughters spent quality time together, and people that were once strangers became friends. There was a prevalent feeling of teamwork and accomplishment throughout the day. Though they were working hard, it was hard not to notice the smiles on their faces as small talk and stories were shared.

After a rewarding day, volunteers and staff sat down together to enjoy a lunch of enchiladas, tossed salad, watermelon, and homemade ginger iced tea. As the day drew to a close, IHS dedicated a rock memorial to the late John Sousa, former clinical director of IHS. The memorial was surrounded by native Hawaiian plants and adorned with a maile lei as Executive Director Connie Mitchell said a few words.

We were also lucky to have Fr. du Teil's widow, Roberta "Tutu" du Teil, in attendance this Founder's Day. She made the trip from Texas for the occasion.

The work done during Founder's Day helps our garden and shelters continue to move forward. The seedlings, surrounded by new mulch, will continue to be a part of our growing garden. Everything we harvest will be put to use in our kitchens, making the meals IHS serves more nutritious. The new staircase will help us as we continue to expand our gardens and aquaponics system onto the roof.

Through our Founder's Day projects we were able to honor the legacy of Fr. Du Teil while continuing to look towards IHS' future. Good work to all our volunteers who helped out!

Urban Agriculture Job Skills Training - more than just a garden

Author: Kate Record

If you've been at either IHS shelter recently, you may have noticed some MAJOR changes in the exterior of the buildings.

What was once just a set of buildings is now a set of gorgeous urban farms, and it's all thanks to our dedicated staff, volunteers, and shelter guests. 

Earlier this year, IHS received a grant from Kaiser to start a pilot Urban Agriculture Job Skills Training Program for our guests - and the program was instantly popular with our guests. The pilot program finished this past April, but lives on thanks to another grant from the state. 

What exactly is the program? Well, it's a series of classes that focus on job skills training, and uses gardening as an avenue to demonstrate topics. The focus isn't as much on the gardening piece as it is on career and job development - but the knowledge that one gains from learning about composting, cultivating soil, and how to care for edible plants is nothing to sneer at. While living in Hawaii is indeed expensive, our year-round sunshine leads to a plant-friendly environment - perfect for growing fresh herbs, veggies, and fruit. Don't have money for food? Grow your own!

Our gardens yield about 50 lbs of fresh produce each month, all of which are added into our guests' meals at the shelter. The additions of more fresh produce have really transformed our meals' nutritional value - which translates to healthier shelter guests. And that's always a good thing!

A tale from craigslist...

Author: Kate Record

Earlier this morning, someone posted the following:

“People on craigslist do not donate anything to IHS it doesn’t' t go to the homeless it goes to the STAFF first they take the nice ones than goes to the homeless if you want to donate to a church or a other program ALL staff are getting paid a federal pay 10 plus an hour. SO donate to the volunteers not IHS. They say its a nonprofit program yes it is and it help the homeless. But it the STAFF is the ones that is taking it first not the homeless. plus its our FEDERAL tax money going to this program”

IHS, The Institute for Human Services, would like to respond to this misinformation.

IHS is a comprehensive social services agency that is dedicated to ending the cycle of homelessness AND preventing homelessness in Hawaii.

We have a wide variety of programs that work together to accomplish these goals. Please feel free to visit www.ihshawaii.org to learn more about them. We strongly believe in transparency and publish an annual report each year and post it publicly on our website. AND we pride ourselves in being good stewards of gifts given to us and leverage almost every dollar with others to make them go a long way.

To ensure that IHS has dedicated staff to end and prevent homelessness, we pay employees a decent competitive wage. We all know how expensive it is to live in Hawaii – and we take pride in the fact that we do NOT pay any employee minimum wage – but neither are any of our salaries at the top of the scale compared to comparable positions in other non-profits.

We have well over 2,000 volunteers (from individuals and groups) that help IHS each year – and we cherish these volunteers, for without them, we wouldn’t be able to serve 635+ meals each day or the 3700 people each year.

IHS staff members do NOT have first access to donations of goods – however, in the event that a staff member is in need OR when we have an excess amount of donations that the guests cannot use and we can find no other agency to with whom to share them, we do offer them to staff occasionally. We’ve all heard that many people in Hawaii are just one or two paychecks away from being homeless – and unfortunately some IHS staff could fall into that category as well. In those cases, IHS absolutely assists our staff in the same way (nothing more, nothing less) that we assist the 1,200+ homeless individuals that walk through our doors each year.

While IHS receives a generous amount of federal funding –(almost 40% of our annual expenditures), the majority of it goes directly to rental subsidies for chronically homeless individuals through our Shelter + Care program. Those federal funds don’t cover the remaining 60% of our budget – much of which we need the community’s help with to keep our doors open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

IHS welcomes questions from the community – please feel free to post questions or comments to our Facebook fan page (http://www.facebook.com/Instituteforhumanservices?v=wall&ref=ts), or email info@ihs-hawaii.org.

Homelessness - A Community Response

Author: Kate Record

Last night, FACE (Faith Action for Community Equity) and St. John Vianney Parish in Kailua co-sponsored a panel discussion on homelessness and the community’s response.

Present were a variety of City Council members, Representatives and Senators from windward districts, developers, the Governor’s appointed State Homeless Coordinator, and two representatives from various homeless services providers (including IHS).

The conversations were robust and relevant, although there were a small number of conflicting ideas. One City Council member is suggesting retrofitting shipping containers to serve as temporary (max 5 years) homes for those currently homeless, and several individuals that were present were proponents of 'tent cities' - establishing 'safe' zones where people that are homeless and camping can do so legally. 

Other (more popular) ideas centered around TOD, or Transit-Oriented Development, as well as Housing First, which follows the idea that by first housing someone who is chronically homeless, and then wrapping them with services, the likelihood that they will be successful is increased dramatically. And of course, subsidy programs such as TANF and Shelter + Care were discussed and praised for their effectiveness. In the words of Marc Alexander, the state's appointed Homeless Coordinator, "Renter/landlord subsidy programs integrate people in the right way - they don't create ghettos, whether you call them tent cities or other structures."

(For a complete run down of the conversation last night, visit IHS' twitter account here) 

How does IHS, a homeless services provider feel about these ideas? For the record, IHS is very supportive of both TOD and Housing First. We are not supportive of tent cities, as they are not best practice and research shows that they are not successful. Never mind the fact that a tent city would attract more homeless individuals and families to the island and therefore defeat one of the purposes of establishing them in the first place. 


IHS really believes that Hawaii as a whole needs more affordable housing - and not just for the poorest of the poor, but for the whole spectrum of individuals, couples and families. We already have emergency and transitional shelters. There's also public housing and a small scattering of affordable rentals (though the supply is diminishing each year). We need more affordable rentals, as well as workforce housing - for those making minimum wage and are currently having to work 70+ hours a week just to afford a modest studio rental. 


We could talk about this all day, but we'll close with this call to action - in the words of Jun Yang, FACE's housing organizer, "Talk to your Representatives, your Senators, your City Council members - about what affordable housing means to YOU." It's true - it means something different to each of us. And every one of us can spare 5 minutes to pick up the phone and make a call. 

Don't know how to get in touch with them? Here's a link to their numbers - don't waste another minute; call today! Your comments DO make a difference.

Hearts for Service

Author: Kate Record

IHS started out over 32 years ago as a volunteer-run ministry centered around peanut butter sandwiches and the love that one man had (Fr. Claude DuTeil) for those in need. Over the years, IHS grew from a small mission set up in a storefront to the largest and most comprehensive emergency shelter and social services provider on the island. We still serve peanut butter sandwiches, but we also do a lot more - we help with housing, employment, counseling, even job skills training.

However, we wouldn't be able to serve between 300 and 400 individuals each and every day without the help the hundreds of dedicated volunteers. Today, Roosevelt High School is volunteering at the IHS Women's and Family shelter, and later on, a group from Levi Strauss will also be spending some time helping out at the IHS Men's shelter.

We are so grateful for our volunteers, and always welcome individuals and groups to help out - there are dozens of different ways to get involved, from working with our keiki during the summer to cooking and sorting meals at the shelter.  What can YOU do?