HCAP WEEKLY February 21, 2022

Hā Initiative Students Experiment with Chemistry and Engineering

This week, Hā Initiative: Creative STEM After-School Program students built their own structures out of toothpicks and marshmallows. Students built shapes, houses, towers, and bridges using mini marshmallows as the “glue” to hold together their toothpick foundations. The activity demonstrated simple engineering concepts that have real-world construction applications.

Hā Initiative participants also experimented with the power of bleach this week. The common household cleaner is known to remove color and stains from clothes, furniture, and other materials. Students learned that the “bleaching” effect happens when oxygen molecules in the bleach come into contact with different materials and break up their chemical bonds. The resulting broken bonds cannot reflect color. To test this process, students added food coloring to small amounts of water to create a highly pigmented liquid. Using a dropper, they added drops of bleach to the colored water and observed as the shades of dark blue, purple, and orange turned clearer with each added drop until no color remained.

Click Here for more information about the Hā Initiative.

Central District Client Returns to Self-Sufficiency Following COVID Hardships

Lauren was referred to HCAP’s Central District Service Center through Aloha United Way in April 2021. She was seeking assistance with past-due water and electricity bills after being laid off from her job of fifteen years at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many local residents, Lauren’s unemployment benefits were delayed and she was unable to look for other work with her children at home doing distance learning.

Central District Service Center staff helped Lauren complete an application for the CARES Act-funded Hale Kākou Program to assist with her past-due utility bills. Lauren also enrolled in the Nā Lima Hana Employment Core Services Program to begin preparing for her job search. 

By September 2021, Lauren’s unemployment benefits were ending and her children had returned to school in person. She had struggled to keep up with electricity bills during the summer and received assistance from the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to keep the power on while searching for full-time employment. 

With the assistance she received from Nā Lima Hana Employment Core Services, Lauren secured a remote work position as a recruiter for Marriott Vacations Worldwide in November 2021. 

Click Here for more information about Nā Lima Hana Employment Core Services.

On a Nature Walk with HCAP Head Start ʻAiea I

This week, the HCAP Head Start keiki of ʻAiea I kicked off their study of nature investigation with a nature walk around the campus. During the walk, students collected and observed a variety of seeds with a magnifying glass. After placing the collected seeds in the classroom’s science center, the children assisted in soil preparation for their next gardening project.

HCAP Head Start & Early Head Start applications for the 2022-2023 school year are open now! Click Here for more information and how to enroll your keiki.