Hawaiʻi Business Magazine: Hawai‘i’s Women of Influence
10 wāhine who have stepped up to lead, from corporate executives to organizers of grassroots relief efforts on Maui.
The Maui Rapid Response team is integrated, localized and community-driven – a lot like an ahupua‘a. “What’s cool about Maui Rapid Response is that it’s all run by our neighbors. That’s it. It’s run by aloha,” says Nicole Huguenin, who with her fellow co-facilitators, Kamiki Carter and Kainoa Horcajo, leads the organization.
Professionally, Huguenin is a former teacher and the founder/director of Share Circle, which diverts items away from landfills via upcycling and sharing. She explains that the roots of Maui Rapid Response took hold in 2019, when a collective formed to address the needs of the island’s unsheltered residents. The group further coalesced when helping those affected by the Covid pandemic and two floods in Ha‘ikū.
“Working on these responses, it became clear that we have to do things like have tool libraries,” she says. “We needed ways to practice trusting and interacting with our neighbors in a different way.”
With these insights, Maui Rapid Response was well positioned to quickly act after the devastating August fires. The group has been creating a web of partnerships, linking together citizen brigades and a number of nonprofit and direct-aid organizations. One team might be making DIY air filters, for example, while another is offering legal services or hot daily meals. The group is focusing especially on Native Hawaiian fire survivors and vulnerable populations such as immigrants, kūpuna and keiki.
“We let the community leaders know about the resources that they can have behind them, if and when they want to call them in,” says Huguenin. “And it’s place-based: What’s needed in Lahaina is not the same thing as what’s needed in Upcountry.”
One example of the group’s web of partnerships was evident at the Kīpuka Maui event at Maui Nui Botanical Gar- dens. For four days, the gardens were closed to the public and open to fire survivors. Relaxing live music played while people received supportive services on housing, information on water-quality safety, access to mental health support, and even haircuts.
Maui Rapid Response has also been instrumental in spearheading donations, publicizing lists of what is needed – and not needed – as the community’s situation evolves. And it’s advocating for long-term housing solutions.
Huguenin describes her leadership style with Maui Rapid Response as “heart-first.”
“We want to make sure it’s done right, and to ensure that those who have been oppressed are put at the front and center.”
–Kathryn Drury Wagner
