ALFH Class Success Stories

Scope of Training & Curriculum

Coordinator

Need of Leadership

Impact of Program

Current Class

Current Class Schedule

Alumni

Success Stories

Secure Alumni Site

Recruitment Information

Johanna Gomez Success Story

Johanna Gomez, a provisional graduate of ALFH's Class IX, is the Executive Director of the grassroots nonprofit, Hale Halawai ‘Ohana ‘O Hanalei, which manages the state’s first privately funded community center. Hale Halawai is dedicated to celebrating and increasing the resources of the Hanalei community. Johanna also consults with area non-profits and volunteers with Hanalei School’s Community Based Management Council.

Hanalei Valley grows more taro than anywhere else in the world, and pasture land still spans lengths of highway all along the North Shore. Most residents regularly enjoy and cherish our incredible natural surroundings and feel blessed that we can live here. Many of us also make extraordinary efforts in order to do so -- Kauai leads the state in workers who hold down more than one job.

But incremental changes have left their mark on our community over time. There are so-called improvements like widening or paving roads so more cars can cruise along faster or unintended results like loopholes in zoning laws that encourage an out of control speculative real estate market. New residents, many independently affluent and able to afford $600k median home prices, immigrate in while those from traditional families, many of them farm workers, leave in search of lower rents or mortgages elsewhere. These cumulative impacts slowly solidify our community’s path in an irreversible way.

Having found my niche doing work for community non-profits, I was selfishly intrigued by the insight and skills I might gain from ALFH and was delighted to find that ALFH leadership also recognized the imperative role that rural communities and their champions play in agriculture. The rural community is the staging ground and backbone of agriculture… and it is disappearing.

And while specific skills I gained or bettered during the ALFH program are very useful in my work, what I wish I could articulate better are the lessons. Every interaction with my class and program coordinator Donna Ching sparked provoking conversation on a wide range of issues. And as it turned out, we rarely saw things the same way.

I think the most valuable lessons I walked away with are... Constantly seek to broaden one’s own perspective because what is immediately obvious to one may not even be on the horizon to another…Building rapport with those who don’t share your opinions will go MUCH further than trying to convince them once the lines are drawn and always prepare, prepare, prepare. And that especially in community work, the secret to success is critical mass and without sufficient support, interest and investment, no effort, no matter how noble, will succeed.

These lessons served me very well during a recent transition at our community facility. While board and staff all felt strongly about issues concerning a farmers market at our facility, we realized the right thing to do was let the community guide us in our decision making. The final solutions involved compromise, which is not such a dirty word after all, as it turns out.

The amazing thing is that I’m pretty sure these lessons were actually part of the curriculum. The ALFH program understands that Hawaii agriculture needs not just industry-specific technical expertise, but also people skills. And while Donna Ching’s instruction is exhilarating and insightful, spending day and night squeezing in and out of cramped cars and condos with ten people you didn’t even know awhile ago, and meeting innovative small business owners and dedicated agricultural workers at all levels, also provides plenty of opportunities to hone your acumen in that regard too!