Helping Hands Hawai'i

I have been working with this organization for over 20 years. They have been helping the community for the past 50 years! Amazing! I always refer my clients there to get free household goods such as bedding, pots and pans, dishes, etc. I always drop off my donations there. Every Christmas - they have Adopt A Family and I love seeing our clients get items they wouldn't be able to get for their family since it is so expensive living here in Hawaii. They also have the Ready To Learn program which gives students school supplies for the upcoming year. They have other programs so please donate any household items or give a monetary donation if you are able! Thank you Helping Hands Hawaii!

One of our favorite local non-profit organizations is Helping Hands Hawaii. It began as the Honolulu Council of Social Agencies Volunteer Placement Bureau in 1941 and incorporated as Helping Hands Hawaii in 1974, it is a social service agency whose mission is to develop self-sufficiency and resilience by providing guidance, household goods, and opportunities for empowerment and connection.It includes the following programs:* Adopt-A-Family. It links individuals and families-in-need with generous donors in the community. Donors choose a family that they would like to assist during the holidays and purchase new items for their family wish list.* Bilingual Access Line. It provides interpretive services and language assistance via spoken interpretation or written translation for those with limited English proficiency.* Emergency Assistance. It provides financial assistance for rent and utilities to households who are at-risk of being homeless.* Ready-to-Learn. It provides free school supplies to children in grades K to 12.* Representative Payee Services. It provides financial management services to households, primarily those affected by mental illnesses or substance abuse disorders, that hinder them from making decisions themselves.* Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Outreach. It helps families reduce food insecurity and helps them to buy nutritious food.* Disaster Relief. It helps survivors of disasters, such as the Maui wildfire, as donations support disaster operations and recovery efforts for those affected by immediate and future needs.* Community Clearinghouse. Provides families-in-need of basic necessities, such as food, clothing, furniture, and basic household items. Families are given free items donated by the community or purchased from grant funds.This review focuses on its Community Clearinghouse, as we have and continue to use the Community Clearinghouse to donate our household items and furniture instead of donating them to other organizations, such as Goodwill, Savers, or the Salvation Army. Why? We are grateful that Helping Hands Hawaii is able to accept our donations, sort them with other donated items, and give them FREE OF CHARGE to families in need. There is no administrative fee, and NO RESELLING of items to anyone. At-risk families are evaluated based on need and are allowed to choose the items they need accordingly. Over the years, we have donated all kinds of furniture, household items, clothing, toys, books, kitchen items, linen, and other miscellaneous items and know that our donations will be made to good use by families with the goal of being self-sufficient.During the three years of Covid, Helping Hands HI elected not to accept donations of household goods for health and safety precautions. They now accept donated items from Mon to Fri 11a to 2p and on the third Sat of each month 9a to 1p at their warehouse near Puuhale Road in Kalihi, so we just drive up and drop the items off, requesting a receipt for tax purposes. Larger items, such as furniture may be picked up at your home by their truck by appointment.Note that there are some restrictions for donated items. As the donated items are distributed to families in an "as-is" condition, items must be clean and in usable and working conditions. While items such as beds, small appliances, linen, furniture, clothing, accessories, and hygienic products are allowable, items such as car seats, strollers, cribs, sporting equipment, hospital/medical equipment, musical instruments, computers, and electronic equipment are not accepted due to liability concerns.The Community Clearinghouse is surely a worthy cause and provides a win-win situation for both the donor and the recipient. We have always supported Helping Hands Hawaii with their ongoing philanthropy and human generosity efforts in assisting those in-need and guiding them to overcome their challenges.

UPDATE: I've corrected and clarified certain points of my review to make sure there was no misunderstanding:Helping Hands Hawaii is an exceptional organization lending its hands to people in need by providing clothing, household goods, language assistance. During the holidays they host a special program named "Adopt a Family". A family's wish list is promoted via HHH media partners so anyone wishing to assist would have to contact the media or HHH directly.They are located at the 2100 block of Nimtz Hwy. But don't be fooled. They are not in the frontage of the building where the sign is rather, you would have to access their location from Puuhale Road. The collection area at the facility for donations is located at the immediate right side entrance. They accept clothes, household goods, furniture, toys and almost anything you can think of. The only caveat is that all goods, small appliances, etc be in working and operable condition as they do not have an arm for repair.Volunteers are always welcome. They need volunteers who can work in almost any discipline that a simple phonecall to HHH would clarfity. Their translators of language are PAID part time employees but there for the asking. So, when you are cleaning your home please think about sharing things you have not used or things you are planning to discard and discard them in the Helping Hands Hawaii direction.87/100 Yelp Review Challenge Los Angeles

QGenuine people, couldn't drive had lost my office they help me get some paperwork in quickly with grace and kindness

I wanted to write a review to inform the public, in the future when using Helping Hands Hawaii, here is my situation: Date of Meeting: 9/26/2016 Time of Meeting: 2:30 PM Language: Korean Location: @ Elementary school. I called Helping Hands, Bilingual Access Line Phone number: 526-9724 Date of phone call : 9/8/16 spoke to Gail requesting interpreter. She informs me that, she will look for interpreter and will get back to me. All this time form 9/8 to 9/20/16, I didn't hear back from Gail. Date of phone call : 9/20/16, spoke to Gail, to get status on interpreter. She informs me that she is still looking for interpreter. I'm getting worried as meeting is scheduled for 9/26, only 6 days away. I got frustrated as why no phone calls in between? why did it take Bilingual this long to get an interpreter? I didn't want to chance waiting, she still mentioned she will get back to me ( 6 days away!!) I got permission from the district office to call another agency. On 9/20/2016, I called that agency and I got interpreter confirmation that afternoon.Date of phone call: 9/21/16, spoke to Gail, just wanted to get status as she said she will get back to me. Her reply, she said she called me and left a message that she had no luck in getting an interpreter. I told her that I didn't get any messages on my recorder. Realized she left it on the wrong recorder, there is another staff member with a similar name. I recalled giving her my extension #. This is just an FYI review, if you do call for interpreter service, my advice is to call the agency to follow up if you didn't get a return call. You don't want to be stuck with not having an interpreter or having to look for one, last minute.In the future, if I have to call Helping Hands, I hope I don't have to deal with this situation again!!2016 #97/100 Yelp Challenge

Failed to Connect - On November 30th, I submitted an online application to sponsor a multi-generational family for Christmas. Having received no reply by December 4th, I called Helping Hands concerning their Adopt-A-Family program and my desire to sponsor a family. Unfortunately my call missed their deadline to sponsor a specific family, as a result they suggested I go to one of three locations and donate cash ... huh?The basic guidelines to encourage donations suggest to me that the organization should: #1 - make it easy to donate; #2 - create a brand image; #3 - create a trusted method to donate. Because the Adopt-A-Family program by Helping Hands failed my perception of all three elements, I took my designated funds to another non-profit organization. I am hoping the family programs with Helping Hands return in 2021 with perhaps tighter operating controls.

Helping Hands Hawaii is very dedicated to helping families in need in our communities. My office has had the pleasure of partnering with Helping Hands Hawaii for many years on several community projects and have witnessed the great work they do. The most rewarding project we have been involved in is the Ready to Learn program. This program helps to provide low-income school aged children K-12 with the necessary school supplies needed to be successful in school. This year Helping Hands Hawaii partnered with American Savings Bank to include a beautiful drawstring bag with every school supply starter kit distributed. Depending on the grade level school supply starter kits include a drawstring bag and a variety of supplies such as pencils, crayons, glue, pens, a ruler, spiral notebooks, composition books, folder paper, a binder, portfolio's, scissors, erasers and a calculator. Each year the cost of school supplies rise and many low-income children attend the first day of school with no school supplies, simple because their families just can't afford them. Because of this it is very hard for these students to be successful and fit in with their peers. Every child deserves an equal opportunity to a great education no matter what their families economic status maybe. Helping Hands Hawaii and all the partnering agencies that help with the distribution of these special kits have pledged to help as many children as possible to begin their first day of school with the tools needed to be successful. My office is very proud to be a partner in this amazing program that provides hundreds of low-income children the opportunity to a fresh start at learning. Thank You to all the donors who helped to make this program successful and to all the great staff at Helping Hands Hawaii who obviously care about our communities.

My husband and I were looking to adopt a family-in-need this holiday season. Thanks to Hawaii Yelp Community Manager Emi Hart's awesome Yelp review from 2011, we adopted a family (a father and his 2 boys) through Helping Hands Hawaii's "Adopt a Family" program!From start to finish, Helping Hands Hawaii was amazing to work with. They were prompt with their communication, detailed in their explanations, and extremely pleasant to deal with at the gift donations drop off site.Although Hawaii is a tropical paradise, the sad reality is that many, many families are living in poverty and cannot afford housing, food, and basic necessities because of the high cost of living. Please consider volunteering, donating, and helping families in need through Helping Hands Hawaii, and take a look at their annual "Adopt a Family" program that will give you the opportunity do donate Christmas gifts to families in need off their "wish list." Thank you Helping Hands Hawaii and the "Adopt a Family" program for serving families in need, and giving Hawaii residents the opportunity to give back.

www.helpinghandshawaii.orgThis non-profit do great work. Check them out. :)

While HHH may do a lot of good, they lack communication skills.It took a number of phone calls before I could schedule a pick up, but they seem to be the only agency that picks up large furniture on the westside. Getting in touch with them was near impossible when I had a family emergency and wanted to see if the pick up could be adjusted earlier. Instead my pick up was cancelled. It took more work to get it rescheduled.When I called to set up a large furniture donation I was not told that pick ups were at the driver's discretion. Consequently 1 item out of 5 was picked up. No donation slip or explanation was left.I went to the building and it is very apparent that keeping people at a distance is the organization's preference. The receptionist made a number of calls to resolve my issue. I saw no smiles from any of the workers.