Brent Kakesako

14 Posts

Brent Kakesako is the executive director for the Hawai’i Alliance for Community-Based Economic Development (HACBED), a nonprofit intermediary that works to build the capacity of families and communities in Hawai’i and provide ongoing support so that they have choice and control to push for economic, environmental, and social justice.
Yellow sign reading 'Aloha.'
Financial System

Reflecting and Planning Using a Community Wealth Building Lens

Over an organization’s 25 years in existence, how do staff and volunteers measure impact and build off of lessons learned to guide their next steps forward?

Community Development Field

Indigenous Approaches to Succession and Mentoring

The American approach to work often values productivity in terms of outputs and deliverables, and generally, this prevails even in our social justice work. Many of us give of ourselves and sacrifice our time, energy, and other facets of our lives for the cause or to advance the movement; but without some sort of balance and planning on our end, we could face a harsh reality as we meet our advanced years in life.

Communities

Advocates, Have You Created A Judgment-Free Zone?

How did we get here? What’s to come? Should I be moving to another country??! The last question may seem a bit extreme (or maybe not, for some of you), […]

Financial System

True Financial Capability Requires Expanding the Definition of Wealth

What is productive agricultural land and clean water worth? What are strong communal relationships worth? What is a clear connection to heritage, to culture, to past, to future, and self, worth?

Housing Advocacy

How Did We Manage Stress, Media, and Technology in 2015?

As we near the end of the year, I find myself in reflective mode—is the work I'm doing having any impact? Are we truly shifting the needle? As I see […]

Housing Advocacy

The Role of Municipalities in Supporting Family Wealth-Building

How might a municipality leverage its resources and influence to better support its families? Hawai'i County, specifically the Office of Housing & Community Development, has leveraged its influence to bring […]

The Benefits of Having Everyone at the Table

How might we better engage the families we work with and provide them access to larger opportunities? Last month, CFED held their bi-annual Assets Learning Conference. It featured a range of topics that touched on an array of asset-building issues and included networking opportunities, mobilized conversations with policymakers, and celebrations of the progress of the […]

Communities

Getting Together–Using National Gatherings to Learn from Each Other

Given our national economic climate and the growing recognition of collaborative, place-based and culturally grounded approaches, it is only fitting then that the theme of the National CAPACD 14th Annual […]

Financial System

‘Ohana-Based Approach to Incentivized Youth Savings

How can we measure the impact of incentivized youth savings beyond just financial impacts? Hawai‘i Island ‘ohana participating in the Kids’ Saving Initiative This was one of the many questions […]

Health

From Food Pantries to Food Justice

Is it possible for a family to be truly self-sufficient and provide all of its own food? This is a question that the Office for Social Ministry is grappling with […]

Community Development Field

Weaving Together the Silos of Community Development

The New Year—both 2014 and the Lunar New Year—provides a time for reflection and visioning; a time to ask: “How do we properly weave our collective work to push forward?” […]

Communities

You Put One Seed in the Ground, You Get Many in Return

The passing of two annual events: Thanksgiving, a time to celebrate the harvest and by extension with family, and Black Friday, an event that encapsulates our consumer economy provided a […]