INPEACE’S Ka Lama Education Academy Receives $40,000 from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs

The Institute for Native Pacific Education and Culture (INPEACE) is pleased to announce that its teacher recruitment program, Ka Lama Education Academy (KLEA), received a grant of $40,000 from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.  

“Funding from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs will allow us to continue our work in the Wai‘anae community and expand to the Kapolei area,” said Dr. Kanoe Nāone, INPEACE’s Chief Executive Officer.  “INPEACE recruits community members to become teachers in schools on the Wai‘anae coast in order to stabilize the teacher turnover in schools in the area and act as an economic engine for that community,” she explained.

The award will be used to support the KLEA program on the Wai‘anae coast and for expansion to the Kapolei area.

“With the critical shortage of licensed teachers on the Wai‘anae Coast, and with a growing Native Hawaiian population in Kapolei, KLEA is helping to provide stability in the Wai‘anae and Kapolei community, thereby leading to higher rates of school success,” Nāone concluded.

KLEA addresses three unique goals: to empower residents of the Leeward Coast to become teachers in their own community by supporting them to become college graduates; to develop a stable core of teachers; and to increase teacher retention.