From Vibrant Hawai‘i

KōCreate: Designing Homegrown Futures is the latest initiative from Vibrant Hawaiʻi, made possible through support from the Trust for Civic Life. “KōCreate” combines the Hawaiian word kō, meaning to fulfill or carry through, with “create”—reflecting a commitment to bringing community visions to life through collective effort. This place-based effort responds to the urgent need for more inclusive, imaginative, and community-led approaches to housing, economic development, renewable energy, and disaster preparedness.

Rooted in the belief that communities already hold the wisdom, relationships, and creativity to chart their own course, KōCreate shifts the focus of engagement from extracting input to cultivating leadership. It centers community members not as advisors to someone else’s agenda—but as the architects of their own solutions.

Launching this month with a dynamic cohort of KōCreators—residents from across Hawaiʻi Island will embark on a journey to build practical skills in organizing, storytelling, systems thinking, and civic trust. Together, they’ll strengthen their capacity to lead change grounded in local strengths, lived experience, and collective vision. The initiative is designed and led by a cross-sector team including Breeani Kobayashi-Kūaliʻi, Ashley Kierkiewicz, Misty Pacheco, Raynn Dangaran, and Omidyar Fellow Janice Ikeda.

“We believe that when community members are supported to organize and take action together, the solutions that emerge are relevant and rooted,” says Janice Ikeda, CEO of Vibrant Hawaiʻi. “This means investing directly in residents—not just to participate, but to become facilitators, data analysts, and storytellers of their own communities. We are thrilled to launch this initiative with an invitation to imagine and implement new models of leadership rooted in a deep sense of belonging to and responsibility to Hawaiʻi.” 

At the heart of KōCreate is a six-month learning journey grounded in seven core themes that prepare participants to lead with clarity, connection, and purpose. These include visionary communication, relational leadership, and strategic design—equipping participants to inspire action, hold inclusive spaces, and design community-rooted initiatives. Additional focus areas include resource mobilization, organizing and activation, and regenerative leadership practices that sustain long-term engagement. Finally, the theme of civic trust helps KōCreators navigate complex decisions with integrity, empathy, and a deep understanding of power and values.

In 2026, KōCreators will host island-wide gatherings intentionally designed to bring people together through community potlucks, vision board workshops, 3D mapping sessions, and hands-on training in emergency preparedness and energy resilience to generate tangible outcomes, including Community Emergency Action Plans (CEAPs) tailored to local needs and a synthesis of community priorities around housing, energy, and economic opportunity. KōCreate’s long-term goal is even more ambitious: to grow confident, connected leadership in every community—so residents are equipped to organize, make decisions, and take collective action for generations to come.

Vibrant Hawaiʻi is currently seeking leaders, partners, and subject matter experts who are eager to contribute to the learning journey of KōCreators. Whether you bring expertise in facilitation, organizing, civic engagement, data, or storytelling—we invite you to kōkua in equipping this next wave of community leaders.

KōCreate offers a blueprint for what real community-driven change can look like. It’s not always clean or linear—it’s relational, emergent, and grounded in trust. But when done with integrity, it becomes a force for transformation: Power is shared. Knowledge is honored. Change is created together.

Learn more by emailing contact@vibranthawaii.org or visiting www.vibranthawaii.org.