Better Together: A Shared Parenting Experience

Better Together is an experiential 2-day workshop that aims to bridge the gap between birth parents, young people, resource caregivers, child welfare staff, and service providers. Through various activities and courageous eye-opening conversations, the overall goal is to understand & respect different perspectives, and to create authentic connection. If you are ready to open your hearts and share time in this safe space, join in on this EPIC experience.

Through the Better Together curriculum and a special facilitation style, this experiential learning process offers participants a new lens and "safe space" to better understand one another's lived experiences and perspectives. Using strategic activities, deep conversations, vulnerable sharing, barriers are broken and replaced with a trust that can change the way we approach our work and lives.

Modules that focus in on power differentials, race and culture, father involvement, what partnership looks like, and eye-opening conversations help shape the experience and learning. We hope to shift the way Hawaiʻi protects our keiki, strengthening the practice of shared parenting at all levels.

NOTE: This training/workshop is offered to birth parents with closed CWS cases, resource caregivers, young people with a history in foster care, CWS staff, and related service providers. Sessions require active participation and respectful engagement by all in attendance. Participants must be open to sharing and/or receiving moʻolelo of real life experiences and perspectives. Designated “Lifelines” are available for emotional support during vulnerable moments. Facilitators are highly trained in trauma responsiveness with an engagement style grounded in ʻike Hawaiʻi (Native Hawaiian values). Confirmed participants from the community (not employed as a provider) may be eligible for partial childcare subsidy and stipend.

Better Together is a training of Casey Family Programs and the Children’s Trust Fund Alliance.

Better Together Core Team

  • Amanda Mundon, Facilitator

  • Asha Autele, Facilitator

  • Charla Weaver, Facilitator

  • David Donahue, Facilitator

  • Kamaile Miyasato, Coach

  • Kayla Samson, Facilitator

  • Kimberly Nabarro, Facilitator

  • Mele McDaniel (RCG), Facilitator

  • Nicole Statham, Facilitator

  • Nikki Trost (CCH), Facilitator

  • Noe Realin (LT), Facilitator

  • Tina Shibata, Coach

  • Vivian Kim-Seu, Facilitator

Upcoming Sessions

Contact Us

Chassidy Shinno, Director of Strategy & Innovation

cshinno@epicohana.org

(808) 218-6884

Mahalo nunui to our Better Together ʻohana, walking together with us each step of the way:

  • Casey Family Programs

  • All the Lived Experts at EPIC and in our community who have contributed their powerful voices (birth parents, young people, RCGs, kin caregivers)

  • Liliʻuokalani Trust

  • Catholic Charities Hawaiʻi

  • Harvest Family Life Hawaiʻi

  • Hawaiʻi Community Foundation

  • The Children’s Trust Fund Alliance & Birth Parent National Network