We Do

…advance the success of Pacific Islanders everywhere while educating others about Pacific Island values, cultures, and people.

Point of Views

Featured Projects

Project Overview

This is a partial list of our ongoing projects to improve the lives of Pacific Islanders throughout the United States and elsewhere.

Emerging Leaders Support

We consult with other social change movements to support the leadership development of emerging Pacific Islander leaders.

Case Study: The Obama Foundation leads the world in developing global leadership in social change movements. Dr. Vid Raatior was contracted by the Obama Foundation to engage in the selection process for the Asia-Pacific Obama Leaders cohort for 2023. This consulting work entailed reading and scoring applications for the 2nd Asia Pacific cohort. Website: https://www.obama.org/asia-pacific-22/

Leadership Network

We maintain a network of Pacific Island leaders and experts who can influence policies, practice, and strategies to improve the lives of Pacific Islanders in the diaspora.

Case Study: The Pacific Leadership Assistance Network (PLAN) is an initiative to create a network of Pacific Islander leaders championing Pacific-relevant, culturally-appropriate, Pacific-focused leadership development programs for organizations, schools, agencies, businesses, service providers that support the diaspora in the United States. Website: www.pacificleaders.org

Research

We engage in action research aimed at validating the assets of the Micronesian diaspora to invalidate stereotypes and other sources of misinformation in Hawaii and throughout the Pacific region.

Case Study: Feasibility Study for a Micronesian Culture Based Charter School and Other Educational Programs: This study was sponsored by four Micronesian-serving organizations in Hawaii to investigate the feasibility of establishing a Micronesian Culture Based charter school in Hawaiʻi to address the growing concerns about improvement of student success, loss of languages and cultures among the Micronesian children growing up in Hawaii, and the racial tensions. The final report will be published in December 2015. Report: Download Now>>

Technical Assistance

We engage in technical assistance in education, health, social services, technology and other fields to organizations that advance the success of Pacific Islanders locally and globally.

Case Study: Micronesians United – Big Island (MU-BI) and We Are Oceania (WAO) are two organizations on Hawaii Island and Oahu which promote self-reliance among the Micronesian diaspora in the State of Hawaii. We provide technical assistance for these organizations to help build their capacity to meet their goals and fulfill their mission in education, community development, healthcare, and economic empowerment.

Websites: www.mu-bi.org | www.weareoceania.org

Student Success

We advocate for the success of Pacific Islander students in Hawaii’s public school systems by engaging them with college students from their regions for mutual support and inspiration.

Case Study: The “Navigating Success” website was launched in 2014 to support the needs of Micronesian college and high school students in Hawaii. It is a statewide movement to bring awareness to and empower the Pacific Islander college students in Hawaii to engage in community activities to support each other and inspire high school students to choose higher education as a viable path to successful careers. Website: www.navigatingsuccess.org

Cultural Preservation

We value the preservation of Pacific Island cultural practices, viewpoints, beliefs, histories, and languages for future generations especially the youth in the diaspora.

Case Study 1: The Celebrate Micronesia project is a community-based efforts hosted at the Bishop Museum aimed at celebrating the art and cultures of the Micronesian region. It involved a number of community organizations, churches, schools, and businesses that support the success of Micronesians in Hawaii. Website: www.celebratemicronesia.org

Case Study 2: Inspired by the success of Guampedia, we are in the process of founding Chuukpedia as a pilot project to share and preserve the Chuukese history, cultures, language, and stories. We are calling on all Chuukese scholars, cultural and linguistic experts, researchers, writers to join our effort. Please contact Vid@raatior.com if interested. Website: www.chuukpedia.org (coming soon)

Youth Media

We train Pacific Islander youth to become storytellers, change-makers, citizen journalists utilizing social media to combat negative stereotypes from the mainstream media.

Case Study: The Pacific Students Media (PSM) is a student-run digital storytelling project for Pacific Islander students at the University of Hawaii at Hilo aimed at combating misinformation and stereotypes about Pacific Islanders in Hawaii by telling the real stories of our people through videos, print, and website. The motto, “Uniting Our Voices, Sharing Our Stories!” speaks to the goal of bringing together the uniqueness of our various Pacific Islander languages, cultures, traditions into one united voice. Website: www.youtube.com/user/PacificStudentsMedia

Health Care

We aspire to make affordable health care accessible to Pacific Islanders in the diaspora and those still living on small and remote islands in the Pacific.

Case Study: The Fanapi CARE (Clinics for All in Remote Environments) project is the health and wellness initiative for the remote outer islands (fanapi) in Micronesia. Through our CARE initiative, we focus particularly on the health care needs of women and children with preventative health education while providing health services through global partnerships and local advocacy. Website: www.care.fanapi.org

Humanitarian

We help connect Pacific-focused experts in education, health, social services, technology and other fields to organizations that advance the success of Pacific Islanders locally and globally.

Case Study: Fanapi Foundation promotes self-reliance among the under-served population from the geographically remote outer islands in Micronesia living abroad and at home. The Fanapi Foundation’s mission and vision is grounded on the core belief that our role is to empower the local indigenous solutions of the Fanapi islanders with global resources. We focus our efforts in the areas identified by the local leaders as the top priorities for their people; namely, educational reform, community development, preventative healthcare, and economic empowerment.

Website: www.fanapi.org

Civic Engagement

We believe that civic engagement through political activism and voter registration advances self advocacy for our Micronesian diaspora.

Case Study: Chuuk Reform Movement provides an avenue for the Chuukese youth living abroad to be engaged in political, social, and educational reform efforts in Chuuk State, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). We believe that improving the state of our Chuuk fiscally, politically, educationally, socially, culturally and spiritually should be our top priority and focus to prepare for 2023 when the economic provision of the Compact is scheduled to expire. Only when we have reformed our Chuuk to a healthy, ethical, and vibrant state can we even begin to think about becoming a nation. We truly believe that citizens can positively influence our political leaders if we combine our individual breaths to form strong typhoons that will blow the winds of change for a better and more prosperous Chuuk..

Website: www.chuukstate.org