News & Updates
“We Don’t Feel ‘Poor’”: How Vibrant Hawaii’s Lived Experience Data Is Shaping Community Understanding and Decisions
Following a deep study of the Hawaii ALICE report, community members across the Big Island were initially struck by what the data showed about Hawaii County: a staggering 61 percent of the county’s households were categorized as struggling to meet basic needs. In some county districts, more than three-fourths of households were labeled as struggling.
Through a series of listening sessions across the island, Vibrant Hawaii’s leadership council met with more than 30 cross-sector leaders and 90 stakeholders, both to share the report’s findings, and to learn about people’s experiences living within ALICE communities. What they heard surprised them. Many community members in attendance expressed that they didn’t, in fact, feel “poor,” despite the ALICE reports findings. In particular, three key conditions countered residents’ perceptions of being poor or struggling…
The Power and Potential of Disaggregated Data
One of the most relevant applications of data disaggregation in Hawaii is regarding race/ethnicity. Asians, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders are at times grouped together under the labels “Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI)” or “Asian and Pacific Islander (API).” These umbrella terms can be useful for analysis—for instance, when survey data doesn’t yield enough subgroup respondents to generate unique analytic categories. However, with the highest percentage of Asians in the country, as well as the largest Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander population in the U.S., Hawaii is better positioned than many states to dig into possible disparities among AAPI subgroups.