Housing

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We stand for healthy communities that provide affordable, safe and comfortable housing for all; a community that is well maintained, energy efficient, diverse, child friendly and community-centric. We believe everyone in Hawai’i deserves to live in neighborhoods where their voices are heard and where they have a say. Public commons are a critical aspect of a healthy community.

Education

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We stand for healthy communities that ensure safe learning environments that are free from threats, fear, and violence where students and teachers have a voice. We believe that beginning with early childhood and throughout life, free, high quality public education should be accessible to all. Our education systems should unlock lifelong curiosity and love of learning, nurture critical thinking, build a sense of community and environmental responsibility, foster creativity, and establish a competent and confident generation that is willing and able to remain in Hawai’i and continue to build healthier communities.

Jobs / Economy

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We stand for healthy communities that are economically sustainable and put people before profit. A healthy community recognizes workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively. Workers earn a living wage under safe working conditions and have a collective voice in their workplaces in an environment free from threats, fear and violence. Mutual respect in the workplace fosters labor equity. Our unions empower workers, build generations of strong communities, sustain businesses, and strengthen local economies.

Equality

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We stand for healthy communities that celebrate the contributions of all people. Embracing differing backgrounds and experiences brings a richness to our lives. When people of all abilities, class, nationalities, races, ages, and the multiplicity of genders, faiths and sexualities forge strong alliances, everyone can thrive.

Land-Use / Environment

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We stand for healthy communities where thoughtful and well-planned development gives consideration to including open space, a clean environment and the careful stewardship of natural resources. In the Native Hawaiian culture, all oceans, lands, and waters are finite, precious and sacred. The kuleana of malama aina means that the people care for the land, and in return the land is bountiful and the people thrive. The over-representation of land ownership and occupation by the military, absentee landowners, and off-island corporations erode the reciprocal nature of this sustaining kuleana.

Health

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We stand for healthy communities that promote health as a basic, human right. Healthy communities recognize that giving and receiving care are fundamental aspects of living. While high quality and accessible medical infrastructure are essential to a healthy community, care giving does not only happen in hospitals or professional facilities. All caregivers should be supported, including those at foster homes and care homes and people looking after relatives, companions, neighbors, and friends. All who need care should have affordable, speedy, and reliable access to knowledgeable and respectful care providers who are sensitive to cultures’ and individuals’ histories and experiences. Language access and cultural competency are essential to quality universal health care.

Art & Culture

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We believe that Hawaii’s artists, musicians, and cultural practitioners are Hawaii’s pride, and an integral part of a healthy community. Support for the arts creates clean jobs, enhances quality of life for all, and keeps Hawaii’s dollars in Hawai’i. Rather than importing entertainment, we should export Hawaii’s cultural production to the world. Arts education expands intellect and creativity, the building blocks for a productive, life-affirming future. We call for a New Deal for the arts that will fund cultural production, provide arts jobs, and bring art and music curriculum back to the schools.

Hawaiian Self-Determination

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We affirm that the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Nation, and the displacement of Hawaiians from their ancestral lands, is a wound on Hawaii’s history that has not healed. While just resolution of Hawaiian sovereignty claims will require considerable struggle and reconciliation within and with the Kanaka Maoli community, we acknowledge Hawaiian claims in order to build a broad coalition for quality of life in Hawaii. We acknowledge and support the Hawaiian Right to Self-Determination and join with the Kanaka Maoli in the struggle to make Hawaiian values – including care of the land, and care of one another – the core of public policy in Hawai’i. A Hawai’i that respects Hawaiian claims is a better Hawai’i for all of us.