Impact Giving

Committed to supporting healthy local communities, HPU’s College of Health and Society (CHS) leveraged two new grants to uplift and protect Hawaiʻi’s kūpuna who are most vulnerable to COVID-19.

A $50,000 grant from the Atherton Family Foundation will allow HPU to launch a pilot program to serve Hawaiʻi’s kūpuna. Using a community-based health care model, faculty and students will provide seniors in Papakōlea with preventive care, health check-ups and mental health services. Students – many of whom are local – can serve the community through this personal commitment while also fulfilling their practicum requirements with valuable hands-on experience.

Pfizer’s $15,000 grant will support HPU’s creation of a COVID-19 Vaccine Education program to address vaccine hesitancy among kūpuna and their families in the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community (NHPI). Students will create a series of four educational webinars with information on the COVID-19 vaccines, delivered by members of NHPI communities and in a variety of languages. HPU and other organizations will host the webinars online to ensure widespread public access to the resources. This program will increase knowledge about COVID-19 vaccines, improve attitudes and beliefs about COVID-19 vaccines, and increase total vaccinated NHPI kūpuna and families.

“We’re so excited to work alongside Hawaiʻi Pacific University to serve our community, especially this critical, underserved population,” said NAME, POSITION, Waiʻanae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. “These are the types of programs that our community needs to ensure the health and recovery of our people.”

To learn more about how CHS positively impacts the community and creates caring professionals, visit https://www.hpu.edu/chs/.