A Commitment to Collaborate
for the
Youth and Young Adults of West Hawai΄i
The health of any community depends on the success of its youth and young adults. We come together as collaborators, intent on working together to help our young people thrive. We hope that our collective efforts can serve as Hōkūpa΄a, or Pole Star, to guide our youth to strong, healthy, productive lives.
By signing this Agreement, we signify our commitment to collaborate for the success of the youth and young adults emerging from the Hawai΄i State Department of Education’s West Hawai΄i Complex Area.
By this commitment, we signify to each other that we share the following:
- We believe the success of the community’s children is critically important;
- We believe that strengthening the education, health, and community environments of youth and young adults will contribute to their success in post-secondary education and career attainment;
- We believe that the value of our combined assets has the potential to be far greater than our existing challenges;
- We believe that working collectively will provide better outcomes than working individually;
- We believe that the process of working collaboratively is equally as important as the outcomes we strive to achieve;
- We believe that improving community outcomes requires commitment to a long-term strategy that is sustainable for future generations; and
- We believe in building a community culture of continuous improvement, which values mutual respect for our individual strengths and protects collective trust.
We commit ourselves:
- To engage in ongoing dialogue, especially that which includes the viewpoints of all stakeholders;
- To improve our evidence-based decision-making by exploring both the data we collect and the knowledge we seek from it;
- To remain open to the emergence of new ideas and mind shifts that may be necessary in order to create system-level innovations;
- To keep our work dynamic by engaging in mutually reinforcing activities that contribute towards measureable outcomes; and
- To contribute to the asset building of Hōkūpa΄a with support that is within the scope of our individual missions and organizational boundaries.
Dated February 2015