Kauai Federal Credit Union (Kauai FCU) announced that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has secured $650,000 in funding for a coalition of community partners convened through Kalukalu at 1624, the credit union’s economic resilience center. The grant supports a slate of social-impact and community-driven projects rooted in wai (water), cultural stewardship, and economic resilience for Kauai.

 

The funding spans two coordinated proposals, the Wellbeing Ecosystem and the Kauai Commons Indigenous Incubator, and formally designates the Kauai Economic Development Board (KEDB) as fiscal sponsor of the combined initiative.

 

A Wellbeing Ecosystem Centered on Wai

 

At the center of the award is The Wellbeing Ecosystem, an initiative led by Mason Chock that uses wai as the connective thread between community, land, and economic resilience. The proposal bundles four sub-projects under one umbrella at Kalukalu at 1624:

 

 

• • Mapping Wellbeing (I Ola Wailuanui), Indigenous-led cultural and water-systems mapping in Wailuanuiahoano, including restoring water access to Malaehaakoa Heiau and training Native Hawaiian youth in LiDAR and drone mapping.

 

• • Weaving Wellbeing, Lei and Livelihoods (Kauai FCU), a lei-making livelihood and financial education program offering lei garden stewardship, workshops, and market and financial coaching support for local lei makers.

 

• • Nourishing Wellbeing (Aina Abundance), a monthly Aina Ola Potluck and Growers event at Kalukalu at 1624 aimed at raising East Kauai’s home-grown food share from 20% to 30% within two years.

 

• • Kilo i Ke Kai (Reef Guardians), a two-year water quality monitoring study of Kapaa and Waipouli streams and nearshore waters, building local citizen-science testing capacity.

 

 

Each project is connected through wai. Together, the four partners are exploring opportunities for collaborative watershed stewardship across East Kauaʻi, with One World One Water (OWOW) helping identify shared data needs, opportunities, and connections across projects.

 

Kauai Commons Incubator to Launch Entrepreneur Cohorts

 

Alongside the Wellbeing Ecosystem, RWJF funding also supports the Kauai Commons Indigenous Incubator, a program based at Kalukalu at 1624 that pairs Native Hawaiian cultural knowledge with biomimicry practice to help aina-based entrepreneurs build land-rooted livelihoods on Kauai. The incubator is led by Mason Chock alongside biomimicry co-lead Jamie Miller, PhD, with guidance from the Kauai Commons Mastermind, a group of Founding Members who piloted the program in 2025.

 

Kauai Commons will hold three cohort workshops over the program’s 18-month span: two cohorts running in October and November 2026, and a third in February 2027. Each cohort engages 7 to 10 entrepreneurs in building business plans, connecting with cultural mentors, and accessing capital and investor networks. The program’s five-year goal is to incubate 20 or more aina-based businesses on Kauai.

 

Kauai Economic Development Board Named Fiscal Sponsor

 

The Kauai Economic Development Board (KEDB) has been designated fiscal sponsor for the combined RWJF-funded initiative.

 

“Kalukalu at 1624 is more than a gathering space; it is a living demonstration of resilience in action,” the coalition’s partners noted in their proposal materials, describing a hub where community partners create change through partnerships, pop-ups, and cultural experiences that uplift local businesses and foster wellbeing across Kauai.

 

Additional RWJF grant funds will support a year-long student internship led and supervised by the Indigenous Data Hub at Kauai Community College. This internship is designed as a high-impact educational and workforce development opportunity that builds a pathway for a local student, particularly one interested in conservation, Indigenous data science, public health, and community planning, to gain hands-on experience in applied research and community-engaged scholarship. The student intern will support each project’s work on mapping waterways, water access systems, and the cultural and ecological relationships that shape community decision-making around water resources.