HONOLULU (KHON2) – Founded in 2007, Kupu, Hawaiʻi’s leading environmental education non-profit organization, has managed the Net Shed in Kewalo Basin since 2010 for public use as well as use by Kupu’s Hawai‘i Youth Conservation Corps Community Program, which serves under-resourced youth in the community.
On Thursday, March 14 next week, Kupu celebrates the grand opening of the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Ho‘okupu Center at 1 p.m.
This first-of-its-kind facility offers under-resourced youth education and training in the growing green jobs sector, one of the fastest-growing sectors in Hawai‘i’s economy.
The new facility allows Kupu to expand its programs to better equip youth with the skills and heart to lead our state toward a more sustainable future, while benefiting the broader community through its services and engagement opportunities.
The community center is to be a place of pu‘uhonua (a place of refuge) that welcomes, cares for, and educates the students and broader community.
The facility was designed for multi-use purposes with flexible functionality at the forefront.
In addition to a place of learning for under-resourced youth, the center can seat up to 200 people for community events, complete with a 15-foot multi-media screen.
With construction beginning in June 2018, Kupu design partner G70 transformed the old Kewalo Basin net shed at the end of the road in Kewalo Basin Harbor.
This new facility establishes a piko (center) on O‘ahu with the first-of-its-kind facility for creating leadership in the growing green jobs sector, one of the fastest-growing areas in Hawai‘i’s economy.
In addition, it provides a vision and a resource for island and “global island” communities alike to come together to model solutions on how people can thrive while stewarding and positively impacting our natural resources, communities and neighbors for a better tomorrow.
The new facility allows Kupu to expand its programs to better equip youth with the skills and heart to lead our state toward a more sustainable future, while benefiting the broader community through its services and engagement opportunities.
Award-winning design firm G70 provided architecture, interior design, civil engineering, and sustainable design services for the new community center.
Kupuʻs Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Ho‘okupu Center includes a new commercial kitchen, laboratory facilities, classroom and meeting spaces to support Kupu’s community and culinary programs for youth and young adults.
It also provides new and innovative spaces for the community to gather for meetings, educational and volunteer events, exhibitions, and other opportunities to engage in conservation, sustainability, Hawaiian culture and service.
Kupu invites the public to visit and help celebrate the grand opening of the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Ho‘okupu Center at the Kewalo Basin Net Shed on Thursday, March 14 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Kupu alumni including Justine Espiritu, Grants and Programs Manager for Bikeshare Hawaii, and Maia Mayeshiro, 2017 Miss Hawaii’s Outstanding Teen, as well as culinary program graduates, will be on hand to talk story and lead walking tours of the new community center to explain how Kupu is transforming lives.