Nancy Ooki
Associate Extension Agent
College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
As the 4-H and Youth Development Associate Extension Agent in Maui County, Nancy Ooki developed the PONO (Preparing Our Neighbors and ‘Ohana) project to strengthen community-based disaster preparedness by focusing on middle and high school youth and grown it to be recognized as the Maui County Federal Management Agency’s Teen Community Emergency Response Team (Teen CERT) program. The 30-hour training program covers fire suppression, first aid and triage, light search-and-rescue, CPR, weather awareness, disaster psychology, and other topics. More than 500 youth from every island in the state have been trained to date. Impact of the program includes an average increase of 73% in disaster preparedness and response knowledge and successful skill demonstration through disaster simulation exercises. Youth responded with a nearly 3% higher confidence on questions related to their ability to help their community. To extend the program, youth participate in a community disaster council to continue training and provide educational opportunities for the community and state.
Demonstrated High Impact
Issue and Situation
The state of Hawai‘i is susceptible to many significant hazards, such as tsunami, hurricanes, windstorms, flash flooding, mud slides, wildfires, and earthquakes. Community-based disaster preparedness, especially for youths in middle and high school, is inadequate to meet the need. In addition, the 2023 wildfire disasters on Maui have left the immediate community with a sense of loss of control, decision-making ability, and uncertainty about the future. These impacts have focused renewed attention on disaster preparedness throughout the state.
Stakeholders and Input
County of Maui residents, All County, Hawai‘i State, and Federal Emergency Management Agencies, CERT Trainers, Emergency Responders, Teachers and Other Educators. Planning discussions as well as reflection and debrief after programming have provided guided in program development.
Impact Assessment
More than 500 teen youth have been trained with more than 100 receiving a certification for the Teen CERT program. Students averaged a 73% increase in knowledge about disaster preparedness and response from pre-test to post-test with 32% of youth receiving a score of 80% or higher. All youth participants competently demonstrated skills in fire suppression, damage assessment, first aid, and triage in simulation exercises. Youth who completed the community service project worked with six families to develop emergency plans and kits, leading to 1,617 families and an average of 4,851 informed community members reached. Youth responded with a nearly 3% higher confidence after the program on questions related to their ability to help their community.
Innovative Approaches
The key to the success of the program lies in the delivery methodology. The traditional presentation-based format used in the adult CERT training program has been adapted to incorporate a multitude of hands-on learning experiences that allow the youth to practice the theory they have learned in a non-formal education setting that supports opportunities to learn through trial-reflection-refinement process. Additionally, the 4-day format gives youth time to connect as a team.
Recognized Excellence
- CTAHR Dean’s Award for Excellence in Extension 2024
- Recognition of Program as Official Teen CERT program for Maui County 2024
- Selected as programmatic feature in Healing Lahaina film
https://www.healinglahainafilm.com/
Extension Focus and Research Base
In 2019, just before COVID-19 spread worldwide, the World Health Organization reported that suicide had become the third leading cause of death in teens 15 to 19. The Center for Disease Center for Disease Control, (2022) reported an increase in suicide rates of 15.9% amongst kānaka maoli (Native Hawaiians) and Pacific Islanders from 2021 – 2022. This was followed shortly after the onset of the pandemic in May 2020 by a National 4-H Council commissioned mental health survey of more than 1,500 youth ages 13-19, which showed that “[m]ore than half of those surveyed shared that the pandemic has increased their feelings of loneliness, with 64 percent believing it will have a lasting impact on their mental health”. Additional stressors identified through surveys included a lack of adequate information (Brooks et al., 2020) and uncertainty about the future (National 4-H Council, 2020), which contribute to survey respondents feeling “no longer living their lives the way they want to” and “less able to exert control and make their own choices freely” (GENYOUth, 2020).
Similar takeaways are emerging in the aftermath of the wildfire disasters, with the additional impacts of having been a large loss of life in a small community, physical destruction, direct trauma from fleeing the fire, and losses of both house and sense of home. Economic challenges on Maui are exacerbating the situation through job loss and income within the greater community, including the closure of businesses in West Maui, the decrease in visitor arrivals, and the shortage of labor (Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, 2023).
The combination of forced disruptions in activity, limited information about the future, and the economic instability have placed the whole community, including its youth, in a position of feeling a sense of loss of control, decision-making ability, and uncertainty of the future. To combat the after-effects of the disaster it is critical to supply education, information, and resources that may be lacking and to provide opportunities for empowerment and choice so those impacted can gain back some of the “mastery over their own lives” (Collin-Vézina, et.al., 2020) they feel they have lost. Recent disaster programs that have focused on youth education have been shown to increase “students’ risk reduction measures” and the “perception of risk” and improve the level of child resilience (Mishra & Suar, 2012).
Demonstrated Scholarly Impact
Ooki, N. (2024, June) Preparing Youth for Disasters. University of Hawaii at Manoa. Honolulu, HI.
Available at: https://gms.ctahr.hawaii.edu/gs/handler/getmedia.ashx?moid=73303&dt=3&g=12 [Impact Statement]
Ooki, N. (2020, June) Disaster Preparedness. University of Hawaii at Manoa. Honolulu, HI. Available
at: https://gms.ctahr.hawaii.edu/gs/handler/getmedia.ashx?moid=67123&dt=3&g=12 [Impact Statement]
Multidisciplinary and Collaborative Components
The PONO Teen CERT program incorporates a variety of knowledge and skill requirements and elements through its practice applications. Youth receive training and practice in communication, leadership, and decision-making as well as STEM and language art understanding. The Teen CERT program is built around the concept of team-building and teamwork, which requires members to work collaboratively to resolve issues and solve problems stemming from disasters.
Strategic Alliances
Since the beginning of the program, it has been modeled on the FEMA CERT program, which is a nationally recognized volunteer program. As part of that alliance communication has been ongoing with local emergency management agencies and organizations.
Expanding Reach Through Partnerships
Through the partnership with the Maui County Emergency Management Agency and continued discussions with the Hawai‘i State Emergency Management Agency and representatives of FEMA, based in Honolulu, the PONO program has been recognized as the official Teen CERT training program for Maui County in 2024.
Focus on Agritourism and Specialty Education
Agrotourism is not a part of this program but the content and knowledge provided to the participants is specialized and focused on assisting the local community after a disaster.
Diversity
The program is open to all teens in the state ages 13-19, and has been graduated students of races and genders on par with the state population.
References
Brooks, S., Webster, R., Smith, L. E., Woodland, L., Wessely, S., Greenberg, N. (2020). The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. The Lancet, 395 (10227), 912-920. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30460-8
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). COVID-10 Parental resources kit – Adolescence: Social, emotional, and mental well-being of adolescents during COVID-19. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/parental-resource-kit/adolescence.html
Collin-Vézina, D., Brend, D., Beeman, I. (2020). When it counts the most: Trauma-informed care and the COVID-19 global pandemic. Sagepub, 2(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2516103220942530.
Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism. (2023, September 6). Maui wildfire impacts economic recovery. https://dbedt.hawaii.gov/blog/23-47/
GENYOUth. (2020). Life disrupted: The impact of COVID-19 on teens. GENYOUth Insights. https://genyouthnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GENYOUth-Thursday-June-11-2020-Youth-Insights-Survey-Final-Report-Life-Disrupted-The-Impact-of-C.pdf
Mishra, S. & Suar, D. (2012). Effects of anxiety, disaster education, and resources on disaster preparedness behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 42(1069-1087). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2011.00853.x
National 4-H Council. (2020). New survey finds 7 in 10 teens are struggling with mental health. http://www.4-h.org/about/youth-development-research/positive-youth-development-study/
