The LKOC/WCCC Partnership
On this page, click on the following links to find:
~ LKOC/WCCC Partnership Overview
~ Description of our Learning to Grow (LTG) Program
~ Description of the Community Service Workline
~ Description of our Goats in the Garden Program
~ The History of the LKOC/WCCC Partnership
~ LKOC/WCCC Partnership Overview
~ Description of our Learning to Grow (LTG) Program
~ Description of the Community Service Workline
~ Description of our Goats in the Garden Program
~ The History of the LKOC/WCCC Partnership
WHAT IS THE LKOC/WCCC PARTNERSHIP?
LKOC sponsors several wonderful programs at the Women’s Community Correctional Center (WCCC)
here in Kailua, as part of our LKOC/WCCC Partnership.
This unique partnership was formed in 1999, and called the Environmental Sciences Vocational Training Program. A curriculum was developed so that the women would get college credits for their classes given by college faculty and accompanied by work in a renovated nursery on the prison facility grounds. This enduring relationship between LKOC and WCCC has been maintained since then. Click <HERE> to read the history of how the partnership was formed.
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Here are the programs that LKOC currently sponsors at WCCC.
~ Learning to Grow (LTG), which teaches inmates horticultural skills, as well as small business, financial and life skills, they can use upon release. Also, hydroponic lettuce they grow at the facility is sold at Foodland stores across Oahu, where all proceeds go to support the program. Our LKOC volunteers have been mentoring the women in the program since 2008 (they volunteer 2-3 times a week at the facility), and we hire instructors from the community to teach a series of 6-week classes, throughout the year.
See below for more details on this life-changing program.
~ The Community Service Workline, which, since 1999, has been providing teams of inmates who maintain the landscaping at numerous public areas in Windward Oahu.
See below for more details on this program.
~ Goats in the Garden, wherein inmates take care of a small herd of goats that maintain the underbrush around the garden nursery.
See below for more details on this program.
~ Exceptional Trees - since 2002, LKOC has provided funds for the professional maintenance of three "Exceptional Tree" Monkeypod specimens on the exterior grounds of the facility. These magnificent trees are some of the oldest on the ET Registry and are clearly visible from Kalanianaole Highway, for all to enjoy.
In August 2024, LKOC installed a stone pohaku at the facility’s main entrance, in front of the large Exceptional Monkeypod there. It displays a plaque recognizing these exceptional specimens
that we are proud to protect and preserve. We are so grateful to Alika and Kainoa Peterson from A&K Landscaping, who generously donated their time and effort to transport and install the pohaku.
Here is a short video of the installation. Enjoy!
that we are proud to protect and preserve. We are so grateful to Alika and Kainoa Peterson from A&K Landscaping, who generously donated their time and effort to transport and install the pohaku.
Here is a short video of the installation. Enjoy!
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Our LKOC volunteers have done a wonderful job putting these programs together, which we support financially, as well as with dedicated volunteers. This unique partnership has provided valuable contributions to Windward O'ahu, and we are extremely grateful for the wonderful support and vision we have received over the years from the prison staff.
A big Mahalo to past Warden Eric G. Tanaka and current Warden Ione Guillonta!
SPECIAL RECOGNITION
In September, 2017, the Honorable Governor David Ige visited the WCCC facility and posted the following on his Facebook page. We were honored to have him visit the LTG nursery, as shown in the photo.
In September, 2017, the Honorable Governor David Ige visited the WCCC facility and posted the following on his Facebook page. We were honored to have him visit the LTG nursery, as shown in the photo.
THE COMMUNITY SERVICE WORKLINE (CSWL)
Since1999, LKOC has sponsored the Community Service Workline project, which provides teams of inmates to maintain landscaping in public areas in Windward O'ahu. Initially a Workline of inmates was set up for Kailua Beach. The warden wanted the women to be part of the community so the areas were extended in 2000. Today these areas include: Kailua Road median, from St. John Lutheran Church to Oneawa Street, Alala Point plantings at the entrance to Lanikai, Pohakapu Fountain landscape, Kawainui Marsh and Hamakua Marsh. They also maintain the LTG grounds around the hydroponic system and garden nursery.
LKOC provides training, equipment, equipment repairs, ongoing materials, and lunches. A Harold KL Castle Foundation Grant recently provided for repurchase of weed whackers that were stolen. The Lanikai Community Association also generously donates a portion of the women’s lunch expenses each month.
The Workline goes out with several crews of 10 for 4 hours, 3-4 times a month which comes to over 150-woman hours per month! They do such a great job!
COMMUNITY SERVICE WORKLINE IN THE MEDIA
Here’s a link to a video about our Community Service Workline and their efforts at Alala Point, at the entrance to Lanikai:
https://www.facebook.com/236992487007574/posts/370758200297668?s=100004594471471&v=e&sfns=mo
https://www.facebook.com/236992487007574/posts/370758200297668?s=100004594471471&v=e&sfns=mo
LKOC’S “LEARNING TO GROW” (LTG) PROGRAM
Since 2008 LKOC has sponsored the Learning to Grow project at WCCC, where inmates have built and now maintain a large hydroponic system and plant nursery where they grow organic vegetables for the prison cafeteria, saving the prison $40,000 a year. Since 2016, a portion of the hydroponic lettuce grown in the program has been available at five local Foodland grocery stores on O‘ahu. The lettuce is harvested and delivered fresh every Wednesday, and there are multiple varieties available from week to week. The proceeds from the sales go to support the program. The inmates are now in charge of the the entire planting cycle, from seed to harvest.
LKOC volunteers teach inmates in hydroponics, plant maintenance and management skills. Our volunteers work side by side with the women, three times a week, providing not only hands on guidance, but a mentoring sense of camraderie and friendship as well.
In 2015, a HECO grant provided funds to restore electricity to the hydroponic system and the garden classroom (lost due to a 2015 storm).
Additionally a Harold KL Castle Foundation grant provided funds for the inmates to build a fifth hydroponic line to grow lettuce (to sell locally to help the program become self-sustaining), as well as provided funds for horticultural instructors for two sets of classes, in which the women have earned three separate certificates in horticulture, hydroponics, and how to run a small business. The Small Business Association has provided in-kind donations towards course preparation, materials and instructor.
The students in these programs receive 50 cents an hour, which gives them some pocket money.
In 2019, LKOC was able to install a sixth hydroponics lettuce line, which the students built themselves. The program has now expanded to include a small herd of goats which will manage some of the underbrush maintenance around the nursery as well as provide a learning and nurturing experience for the students, who will take care of them on a daily basis.
All facets of our program within Learning to Grow provide these women with skill sets to help them succeed after release, as well as develop a sense of confidence and accomplishment. One former inmate received an additional stipend when she showed her Horticultural certificate to her new employer. Several inmates have been inspired to go back to school. Over 30 students have graduated from the newly instituted certified Hydroponics training programs, and similar numbers in the horticultural and business classes.
Today we are so thankful for our committed and enthusiastic LKOC volunteers, and the generous financial support from our community. In 2019, we were happy to receive a grant from St. Christopher's Church in Kailua, to help fund this life-changing program.
Our aim at “Learning to Grow" is to expose our students to the joys and responsibilities of working with plants (and now animals!) and provide them a supportive atmosphere where they learn to self –heal.
We are always looking for volunteers to participate in the LTG program at the WCCC facility. Click here to find out how you can help.
“LEARNING TO GROW” IN THE MEDIA
Here’s a link to an HPR radio segment about our tree propagation program that was aired on Arbor Day 2019, including wonderful interviews with two of the inmates. The trees that were given away on Arbor Day 2019 in Kailua were grown by the women at the facility, and 6 of them were on site at the tree giveaway (at Kailua Methodist Church), where the interview was held. You can hear the joy in their voices!
https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/post/conversation-inmates-flourish-garden-vocational-training-program
Here’s a link to a video about our hydroponics program, that appeared recently on Hawaii News Now. The inmates take such pride in their work, and it’s so apparent!
One lettuce head at a time, farming program rooted at women’s prison changes lives
https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/post/conversation-inmates-flourish-garden-vocational-training-program
Here’s a link to a video about our hydroponics program, that appeared recently on Hawaii News Now. The inmates take such pride in their work, and it’s so apparent!
One lettuce head at a time, farming program rooted at women’s prison changes lives
GOATS IN THE GARDEN
LKOC recently received a $5000 grant from the Women’s Fund of Hawai’i for an innovative project at WCCC called “Goats in the Garden”.
A herd of four small goats is now part of the program at the LTG Garden Nursery.
The goats were hand raised on the Island of Hawaii, specifically for this project.
Staff, inmates, and volunteers have worked together to transform an old shed into a goat home, and the goats will move around grazing and maintaining the invasive undergrowth around the garden nursery.
Training on goat care has been conducted, and everyone is enthusiastic and eager to be involved. The initial team managing the goats consists of 8-12 women, many of whom are approaching release. The team includes several women with longer sentences who will be consistent through implementation and manage the training of new participants. Over the course of 12 months, it is expected that more than 40 women will have direct exposure to working with the animals.
Opportunities for caring and nurturing are limited in an institutionalized setting, and we have seen a positive outcome already. For the first time, women will be allowed into the garden on weekends to care for the goats. The positive impact on relationships between staff and inmates is already evident. The opportunities are boundless and the benefits to the women, staff, and the community enormous
If you interested in volunteering for this enriching program, click here to get in touch with a coordinator.
Here’s a link to a KITV News story about our goats!
https://www.kitv.com/story/41296879/the-womens-community-correctional-center-has-four-new-helpers-goats
Below is a photo of our newly arrived goats, now part of our landscape maintenance team!
A herd of four small goats is now part of the program at the LTG Garden Nursery.
The goats were hand raised on the Island of Hawaii, specifically for this project.
Staff, inmates, and volunteers have worked together to transform an old shed into a goat home, and the goats will move around grazing and maintaining the invasive undergrowth around the garden nursery.
Training on goat care has been conducted, and everyone is enthusiastic and eager to be involved. The initial team managing the goats consists of 8-12 women, many of whom are approaching release. The team includes several women with longer sentences who will be consistent through implementation and manage the training of new participants. Over the course of 12 months, it is expected that more than 40 women will have direct exposure to working with the animals.
Opportunities for caring and nurturing are limited in an institutionalized setting, and we have seen a positive outcome already. For the first time, women will be allowed into the garden on weekends to care for the goats. The positive impact on relationships between staff and inmates is already evident. The opportunities are boundless and the benefits to the women, staff, and the community enormous
If you interested in volunteering for this enriching program, click here to get in touch with a coordinator.
Here’s a link to a KITV News story about our goats!
https://www.kitv.com/story/41296879/the-womens-community-correctional-center-has-four-new-helpers-goats
Below is a photo of our newly arrived goats, now part of our landscape maintenance team!
History of the Partnership between the Lani-Kailua Outdoor Circle and WCCC
by Margaret Brezel, past WCCC Committee Chair
by Margaret Brezel, past WCCC Committee Chair
In 1999, The Lani-Kailua Outdoor Circle (LKOC) received a call from John Kellam, then warden of the Windward Community Correctional Center (WCCC) who told us of an abandoned nursery on the facility grounds, and how he had wanted to give the offenders horticulture classes but hadn't been able to convince DPS (Dept. of Public Safety) to do it. Carol Ann Ellett, then chairperson of LKOC's beatification committee, went to meet with the warden and then wrote the head of DPS and their Education Program Manager for six months before getting a reply. This eventually resulted in the refurbishing of the abandoned nursery by LKOC volunteers and WCCC women, in 2001.
This was the start of the Environmental Sciences Vocational Training Program. A curriculum was developed so that the women would get college credits for their classes given by college faculty and accompanied by work in the renovated nursery. LKOC invested $2,000 initially and 2 grants provided the rest of the required equipment, library books, etc. The Garden Club of Honolulu provided an additional $13,000 grant. Thus began the enduring relationship of LKOC with WCCC that has been maintained for the past 18 years.
This was a 3 way partnership: LKOC would provide the tool and materials; The Department of Public Safety (DPS) through their Education Director, Maureen Tito, would pay the salary for the Teacher to teach Horticulture and Environmental Science; and WCCC would provide the Work Line to maintain LKOC's Public Plantings and the students to learn Environmental Science and Horticulture.
In addition to the faculty who would teach the women, we requested and got a staff nursery position, Juan who was a master at running a nursery.
In 2003, the WCCC class designed and landscaped the grounds of St. Christopher's Windward Senior Day Care Center. Then they went on to design and install a project at the Kailua library with a landscape artist volunteering his assistance. This was a way to give to their community and the women expended enormous energy on these projects. They also earned college credits.
This three way partnership thrived until August, 2008, when early State Budget Cuts took the funding for the Horticulture Teacher and DPS bowed out of the partnership.
Fortunately, WCCC and LKOC restructured the partnership with all volunteer LKOC teachers and WCCC gave us students from the Total Life Recovery (TLR) program, the cream of the crop.
LKOC recruited Chuck Glenn, who had been teaching Hydroponics at Windward Community College, who jumped in enthusiastically and taught our original 10 women how to build and run the Hydroponics system. Chuck was at the Garden every week for a year, volunteering his time A lifelong teacher and counselor, he said he had never had such committed and enthusiastic students. He continues as a consultant for the hydroponics system and classes today.
In those early years LKOC also started a tree planting project. Eventually a donated monkey pod tree, a half dozen shower trees and 400 hibiscus plants and irrigation system for the hibiscus were installed with assistance from the city parks department just outside the fences. The women planted the hibiscus and cared for the landscape.
Today the program consists of two very successful projects at WCCC, the Community Service Work-line and the Learning to Grow Program, with upwards of 300 inmates involved since inception. This unique partnership has provided valuable contributions to Windward O'ahu.
Click on the link below for a printable version of the History of the WCCC Partnership.
| history_of_the_wccc_partnership.pdf |
Below is an article published in the Honolulu Advertiser in 2000, regarding the program.
