At HDLS, we take being a productive member of our community very seriously. Our projects include:
Helping kids make cards to donate to Queens Hospital and other medical centers.
Cards made by the keiki on Lanai
Appearing at events to support and provide information to our community.
On the left, Diane at an event to help homeless in Hawaii. In the center, Diane and John at the West Hawaii Legislative Forum with Jay King, a friend and colleague who works with the legislators and non-profit community to end homelessness in Hawaii. On the right, helping keiki make cards.
Traveling to Washington DC to meet with the congressional offices for Hawaii and the Pacific Territories to ensure our legislators hear our people's voices and to make sure particularly the needs of our veterans and people with disabilities do not go unmet. We are also active in writing and testifying for legislation before the Hawaii State legislature and at the federal level.
Here, Diane is meeting with the legislative offices for Guam and Hawaii. In these meetings, she asked each of the Hawaii offices to support Guam's bill, which would give its people SSI benefits.
Supporting the Institute for Human Services (IHS), The Arc in Hawaii, Mental Health Kokua, Volunteer Legal Services of Hawaii, U.S. Vets, and other non-profits doing great work for our people.
Here Ashley and Diane are with Justin who does outreach for IHS and Jay who works with IHS at an IHS fundraising event.
Teaching people with disabilities their rights, educating attorneys on how to represent people with disabilities, and mentoring up-and-coming attorneys in a variety of areas, including how to leverage technology, build a better practice, and design their own private, public interest law firms.
Here Diane is lecturing at the annual Hawaii State Bar Conference on the left, and on the right, she is teaching a Veterans Disability Continuing Legal Education Course that she does every year with John Condello from the Hawaii Office of Veterans Services.
Handling pro bono cases, including the first Assisted Community Treatment case under the new law in 2014, multiple VA Disability proposed reduction cases, an appeal before the Hawaii Developmental Disabilities Division for benefits needed to get a developmentally disabled adult out of a homeless shelter, and many others.
