Social Impact

Meet the Women’s Personal Finance Group

February 6, 2019

Do you have a retirement plan? How do you manage your holiday spending? Does your budget and balance sheet align with your core values?

No doubt, these are really big questions, and something that many people – especially women – don’t talk about often enough. Our Women’s Personal Finance workgroup is a casual bi-monthly meetup for any woman that wants to learn more about finances, better understand their own financial habits and needs, and get more comfortable asking questions and learning about this big subject.

The group started in mid-2018 with a few financial professionals as an expert-led session, but has shifted into a workgroup format: using books and worksheets from popular finance books, apps, and blogs, the group together discusses ideas about and solutions to common finance issues. All are chosen to help attendees on their own financial learning journey, wherever they might be starting!

The group is facilitated by our Marketing Coordinator Andrea, who’s passionate about learning everything about finance. We are lucky to have Tania Fukuda as a member of the group. Tania is a professional financial planner who brings years of personal insight and passion to the group.

Some of the books, worksheets, and tools that we’ve used previously in workshops include:

The Art of Money: The Life-Changing Guide to Financial Happiness by Bari Tessler
You are a Bad** at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth by Jen Sincero
The Heart of Money: A Couple’s guide to Creating True Financial Intimacy by Deborah Price
Overcoming Underearning: A Five-Step Plan to a Richer Life by Barbara Stanny
The Compound Effect: Jumpstart your Income, your Life, Your Success by Darren Hardy
… along with various tools, videos, worksheets, and excerpts from these books and others.

We are always open to additional books, websites, apps, tools, and ideas for future groups.

And in case you’re wondering why this group is just for women, there are lots of good reasons! Women are traditionally excluded from many investment and finance opportunities, both as professionals and personally. Added to that, women historically (and currently) make much less money than men, and they take more time off caring for families– risking their jobs and losing out on income in vital growth years.

This means that women are in a very different financial situation than men at almost all stages of their lifetime, which means that women have very different financial needs. This necessitates a space where women can learn from their peers as they become more comfortable talking about finances – and we think our Personal Finance workgroup is the perfect place to start!

If you want to join the conversation, please join us on the second Tuesday, every-other month. The next event is February 12, from 12pm-1pm. Check out the Facebook group and join the conversation!

Indie Lens Pop-up Series: Join us for Free Films in January, March & April

January 10, 2019

On January 16 we are hosting our second film in the Indie Lens Pop-up series, which we’re hosting in partnership with Hawai’i Women in Filmmaking, Hawai’i People’s Fund and PBS Hawai’i.

The Indie Lens Pop-Up Series is an opportunity to share riveting, untold stories from around the US, from Maryland to New Mexico to Alabama. This is the seventh year HWF has been a partner for Indie Lens pop-up, and a first for us as a host space.

According to HWF, the Indie Lens Pop-Up series is, “a neighborhood screening series that brings people together for community-driven conversations around documentaries from the award-winning PBS series, Independent Lens on PBS Hawaiʻi. Over the past decade, nearly 6,500 Indie Lens Pop-Up events have brought an estimated 370,000 participants together to discuss issues that impact local communities.”

All films in the series are free and open to the public, and all screenings will be held at Impact Hub HNL from 5pm to 7pm on dates listed below.

Indie Lens Pop-Up 2018-2019 Films and Schedule

The Providers | By Laura Green and Anna Moot-Levin
Date & Time: Wednesday March 13, 2019 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm

Set against the backdrop of the physician shortage and opioid epidemic in rural America, The Providers follows three “country doctors” in New Mexico at clinics offering care to all, regardless of ability to pay. As their personal struggles at times reflect those of their patients, the providers work to reach rural Americans who would otherwise be left without healthcare.

Charm City | By Marilyn Ness
Date & Time: Wednesday April 10, 2019 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm

Filmed during three years of unparalleled violence in Baltimore, Charm City delivers a powerfully candid portrait of those on the frontlines. With grit, fury, and compassion, a group of police, citizens, community leaders, and government officials grapple with the consequences of violence and try to reclaim their city’s future.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Date & Time: Wednesday April 17, 2019 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm

For over thirty years, Fred Rogers, an unassuming minister, puppeteer, writer and producer was beamed daily into homes across America. In his beloved television program, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Fred and his cast of puppets and friends spoke directly to young children about some of life’s weightiest issues, in a simple, direct fashion. Though he may be best known today as a soft-spoken, cardigan-wearing children’s television host, in reality, Fred Rogers’ career represents a sustained attempt to present a coherent, beneficent view about how we should best speak to children about important matters and how television could be used as a positive force in our society.

In Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville (Twenty Feet from Stardom) looks back on the legacy of Fred Rogers, focusing on his radically kind ideas. While the nation changed around him, Fred Rogers stood firm in his beliefs about the importance of protecting childhood.

Wrestle | By Suzannah Herbert and Lauren Belfer
Date & Time: Wednesday May 8, 2019 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm

Wrestle is an intimate, inspiring coming of age portrait of the wrestling team at a struggling high school in Huntsville, Alabama. As they fight towards the State Championship, wrestlers Jailen, Jamario, Teague, and Jaquan face injustices and challenges on and off the mat, grappling with obstacles that jeopardize their success, while their coach wades into the complexities of class and race in the South.

Previous films:

Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World | By Catherine Bainbridge and Alfonso Maiorana
Date & Time: Wednesday January 16, 2019 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm

Rumble brings to light a profound and missing chapter in the history of American music: the Indigenous influence. Featuring music icons Charley Patton, Mildred Bailey, Link Wray, Jimi Hendrix, Jesse Ed Davis, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Robbie Robertson, Randy Castillo, and Taboo, Rumble shows how these pioneering Native musicians helped shape the soundtracks of our lives.

Our Keiki Marketplace is Coming Back this December!

December 3, 2018

This December we’re hosting our second annual Keiki Marketplace and pau hana potluck event. The event will be Thursday, December 13 from 5:30-7:30pm. We hosted another event of this sort earlier in the year and it was hugely successful, with dozens of kids running their own businesses from their own pop-up shops, selling everything from home goods to homemade foods.

For this event, we’re encouraging the student-preneurs to take the next step and prepare a business plan so that they can most effectively plan for their shops. The planning will help the students create a plan for cost and profits, which allows them to compete to win prizes for the highest grossing student!

If you have an enterprising keiki that wants to start a business, please sign them up here using our Google form. We’ll be offering a business planning session ahead of the event, with more details coming soon. Meeta Vu, one of the co-founders of Impact Hub HNL and mama to one of our student-preneurs, says, “Keiki Marketplace is a wonderful, low-stress way to tap into our children’s entrepreneurial skills. The kids learn so much from the process of brainstorming, developing their product ideas, purchasing materials, production, and marketing.The great thing is that it’s a modern day version of a lemonade stand, so it’s low pressure and a lot of fun. This will be our son’s second year doing the keiki marketplace and he can’t wait to fatten up his wallet again.”

On the same date, we will be hosting a free holiday pau hana and potluck. Please bring a potluck item to share with the community. Impact Hub HNL will provide some food and beverage items as well. ALL are welcome so please invite friends, family, and neighbors.

We are looking forward to seeing you and your creative kids at this event! For more information about the planning stages of the event, please see details here in the Facebook event invite, and be sure to share with friends, family, and loved ones as this event is open to the general public. We hope you can join us for this family-friendly evening!

We look forward to seeing you at Keiki Marketplace!

HNL SOUP Hosts a ‘Solutions Showcase’ for Local Businesses

September 19, 2018

HNL SOUP is a micro-granting dinner that supports local ideas, projects, organizations, and businesses via crowdfunding of community dollars. In mid-September, HNL SOUP and Impact Hub HNL hosted the HNL SOUP ‘Solutions Showcase’ to feature the progress of three previous HNL SOUP winners.

HNL Soup Solutions Showcase participants and Impact Hub HNL team.

What is HNL Soup?

HNL SOUP is a program brought to Honolulu by Samantha Ruiz, who was inspired after learning about the SOUP model in Detroit, Michigan. HNL SOUP is a part of a global network of community crowdfunding events. She says, “We hope that HNL SOUP changes the way people engage with the democratic process and increases our community’s creativity and collaboration.”

The premise is simple: each attendee donates $15 for a bowl of soup and bread from local chefs. The group then listens to the three project pitch about their organization and the work they do in the community. After listening to all three pitches, the audience votes on the winner: the project that receives the majority of votes wins the community chest.

HNL Soup Solutions Showcase

At the ‘Solutions Showcase’, community members learned how three former projects – HNL Tool Library, WerkArts, and WorkNet – utilized their community micro-grants to get their business off the ground, and how they could benefit from ongoing community support.

During the ‘Solutions Showcase’, HNL heard how community funds were instrumental for getting HNL Tool Library off the ground, and how the support from the community (both moral support and physical donations) inspired founder Elia Bruno.

WerkArts shared a similar story: learning that the community loved their bamboo bike idea helped them feel like they were on the right path with their company. Founders Krystle Marcellus and Barret Werk hope to get some of the parts fabricated outside of the U.S. to double their output over the next year. HNL also heard from Ruby Menon and Chas Williams of WorkNet, a non-profit that helps former inmates reintegrate into society with jobs, skills building, and housing.

The winner of the ‘Solutions Showcase’ was HNL Tool Library, which seeks to expand membership, build their inventory of available tools, continue to offer workshops, and expand into a self-sustaining non-profit.

We’ll be hosting another HNL SOUP in the future, so stay tuned for updates about when the next micro-granting dinner will be!