Friends of Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge

1. There is a great opportunity to use the Hawaiian Islands NWR as a base to develop curriculum for primary education. We will achieve our goal by creating curriculum that educators can use as a supplement to their own lessons. Teachers will request curriculum classroom visits from FoHI volunteer educators. Lesson plans will satisfy common core standards, while also exposing students to the Hawaiian Islands NWR. This will provide another layer of hands-on-learning and give supporters of FoHI a chance to get involved in the community. 2. We plan to develop content that shares evidence-based knowledge with the public and to facilitate discussion as well as action from the public. We will make advocacy an approachable task for citizens of all educational backgrounds.

The idea to form the Friends of HINWR began in 2012 when wildlife volunteers noticed the need for community outreach to raise awareness about the Refuge, its unique significance and the need for its preservation. The stronger and more effective the Friends group becomes, the greater the benefit to the Refuge such as additional funds and public awareness to support federal conservation efforts, benefiting the entire ecosystem within the Northwest Hawaiian Islands as well as across our neighboring Pacific Refuges that are so intricately linked through shared ocean currents, migratory patterns, and related species. With a young and enthusiastic Board of Directors, FoHI has secured grants and in-kind donations to help work with other Pacific refuges to increase public awareness of the importance of their interconnectedness throughout the region, as well as build partnerships among ecological and cultural stakeholders throughout the Papahānaumokuā Marine National Monument.

1. For our education goals, we will measure success by the number of teachers that request and use our curriculum in their classroom, as well as by the number of classroom visits made annually by Friends of HINWR volunteer educators. Establishing successful long term partnerships with schools, museums and educational institutions will be another benchmark for our organization to measure its progress in the number of people we reaches with our education and outreach program. 2. For our Public Advocacy goals, we will measure success by the number of Members that join and donate to the Friends of HINWR, as well as the number of participants in future awareness campaigns. We are designing promotional items such as stickers, postcards and informational materials to hand out at local events and plan to partner with US Fish and Wildlife Service and Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument volunteer booths at local outreach events to spread awareness of Refuge issues to a broader audience. The number of events attended by Friends of HINWR volunteers and the amount of promotional items handed out with be another benchmark for success.

January 2018 – Several FOHI Board Members attended the Māhuahua pū Conference in Kauai, Hawai’i, hosted by USFWS and NWRA to discuss challenges shared by Hawaiian and Alaskan Refuge Friends groups and to develop partnerships within the Northeast Pacific region June 2018 – Several FOHI Board Members participated in a panel discussion at the premier of “Albatross the Film” at the Honolulu Academy, to celebrate this documentary and education the public on the environmental impact marine debris is having on the albatross population at Midway Atoll July 2018 – Several FOHI Board Members attended the Hawai‘i Conservation Conference on Honolulu, Hawai’i. September 2018 – FOHI Board Member joined a research team of anthropologists and archeologists traveling to the island of Nihoa, within the NWHI, to study the ceremonial structures and burial sites, left behind by Hawaiians centuries ago. November 2018 – FOHI Board Member attended the Symposium on Science in Support of Archipelagic Management, hosted by USWFS, in Honolulu, Hawai’i. December 2018 – FOHI received a peer-to-peer grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) to attend the next annual Pacific Region Friends Group Conference in Homer, Alaska in September 2019 December 2018 – FOHI began distributing its newly created swag items (made possible through the NFWF capacity building grant) to its donors and volunteers for their continued support January 2019 – FOHI completed its final report for the NFWF capacity building grant and is close to launching its organizational website and along with a short promotional video introducing the NWHI and the Friends of HINWR to the general public February 2019 - FOHI Board Member attended the Pacific Seabird Group Annual Meeting in Kaua‘i, Hawai’I, at which she hosted a booth to hand out FoHI swag and educate booth visitors about the NW Hawaiian Islands. April 2019 - FOHI Board Members hosted informational outreach booths at the Waikiki Aquarium Earth Day event in Honolulu, HI and the UH Hilo Earth Day celebration in Hilo, HI July 2019 - FOHI Board Members and USFWS Honolulu Liaison hosted an informational outreach booth at the Hawaii Conservation Conference in Honolulu, HI July 2019 – FOHI and FOMA Board Members met to discuss the development of a regional Friends partnership September 2019 – FOHI Board Members attended the USFWS Peer-to-Peer Workshop in Homer, Alaska to discuss challenges shared by Hawaiian, Northwest Pacific and Alaskan Refuge Friends groups to share ideas and to develop partnerships within Regions 1 and 7.