Hanalei Initiative

Community Led, Community Supported.

The Hanalei Initiative is a collective group of caring citizens working for the betterment of Hanalei and the North Shore. We identify needs and develop and implement community-led solutions that are supported by a broad variety of public/private partnerships.

We recognize the importance of community engagement combined with strong governmental relationships and will work together to seek solutions, strategize implementation, and follow our projects through to completion.

Our three main areas of focus are as follows:

●  Economic Development - While we support a healthy tourism industry, our mission is to help diversify Kauai’s economy and create sustainable business opportunities through community-based economic developments.

●  Environmental Stewardship - We are committed to preserving the north shore's natural environment. For the last several years, we have focused on increasing opportunities for north shore parks to contribute to the wellbeing of our community through a strong focus on better management of park visitors, fundraising and partnerships to contribute resources to our local parks, and important science based solutions to enhance water quality.

●  Transportation - Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, residential quality of life and visitor experience were compromised and we all recognized that things were out of balance. So we developed and currently manage the North Shore Shuttle; in 2022 we transported well over 140,000 people on shuttles in and out of the Haena State Park, reducing vehicle traffic by over 50 thousand cars. We were then able to re-invest funds generated by the successful shuttle system back into the community through over 30 full time jobs with 401k benefits.