The Kūpuna Collective: A Public Health Coalition Advancing Digital Equity

The Kūpuna Collective is a health-centered coalition that brings together a network of partners across the state of Hawai’i. Co-coordinated by the Hawai’i Public Health Institute (HIPHI) and the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa Center on Aging, the Kūpuna Collective aims to build partnerships, promote information sharing, leverage funds to scale innovation, provide technical assistance and infrastructure for grant opportunities and administrative support, and gather data to demonstrate collective impact. All of these activities enable the Collective to sustainably highlight critical issues for aging individuals in Hawai’i, or kūpuna. Established as the Kūpuna Food Security Coalition, the Collective was originally rooted in helping reduce food insecurity for kūpuna following the disruption of food systems at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the coalition began to bring together community members, kūpuna-serving organizations, and all its partners to address food insecurity, it realized that older adults’ increased reliance on––and struggle to maintain––digital connection through the pandemic was a barrier to its work. Seeing a need for broader recognition of the intersectionality of older adults’ needs, the Kūpuna Collective was born. The Kūpuna Collective currently boasts more than 470 individual members and 274 participating organizations. The Collective’s work is flexible, and the topics it addresses encompass a wide variety of needs by kūpuna that relate to the health and well-being of this population in Hawai’i. According to Lindsey Ilagan, program manager of kūpuna initiatives at HIPHI, one of the Kūpuna Collective’s most powerful assets is its position as an information-sharing network that boosts collaboration among kūpuna-serving organizations.