Lihue Court Townhomes

Resident Services

Kauai, Hawaii

Activities, Programs & Services 2016

Lihue Court Townhomes isa 173-unit affordable rental property near downtown Lihu`e. Resident Services offers activities, programs, and services year round for almost 450 residents.

In 2016 the LCT Resident Services theme is “A Healthier Me.” With construction of the public walk path through the Lihue Court community garden, we will be encouraging residents of all ages to walk, stroll, and run along the path for exercise and community building.

In 2015 the LCT Resident Services theme was “Residents Leading Residents.” Residents took initiative in leading onsite programming such as our resident taught Raspberry PI-II computer programming class held jointly with the Boys & Girls Club-Lihue.

In 2014, our theme was “Building Community,” and we focused on increasing the quality of interaction and relationship among residents, and between residents and LCT staff and service providers. As example, resident participation in the Landscaping survey and Charrette was noteworthy, as well as having strong resident and community participation (100+) in the informative cultural and social meeting on the Marshallese people.

In 2013, our LCT Resident Services theme was “Residents helping Residents,” and we saw increases in resident participation in all program areas as well as more resident volunteers during Food Pantry, Family Nights and Senior Bingo, and the December Holiday Party. In addition to participating in programming residents were more willing to start and run programs themselves, such as the weekly Zumba class and Ray’s Computer Lab.

At Lihue Court Resident Services offers activities, programs, and services in seven(7) primary areas: Resident Leadership Development, Community Building, Youth Development, Health & Wellness, Economic Sufficiency, Sustainability, and Arts, Culture & Music.

  1. Resident Leadership Development:

We aim to develop residents as leaders in all programs and services at Lihue Court, and this includes engaging residents in periodic and ongoing formal and informal training opportunities.

Currently, we have 5 Resident Councils and are developing three others in the areas of Youth Programming, Cultural Education and Planning, and Parent/Teacher Engagement.Each of these Councils has a list of resident participants, general rules and instructionssome written and others unwritten to govern, manage ongoing activities, projects and programs within the Lihue Court community.

Cleanup/Beautification Council (13 Members)

Community Fairs/Neighborhood Events Council (7 Members)

Food Pantry Council (10 members)

Senior Council (21 Members)

Neighborhood Revitalization & Planning Council (24 Members)

  1. Community Building:

We aim to maintain a safe, clean, and attractive community where residents enjoy living. We offer family fun activities and supportive programs to help residents live together peaceably, and to achieve measurable goals of value to them and their families.

Currently, we offer the following activities, programs, and services in the area of community building: Monthly Newsletter with Calendar; Family Night (Monthly); Zumba – weekly; Food Pantry Distribution (monthly); Holiday Parties (seasonal); Senior Bingo (monthly); Prevention Day (annual); Summer Day of Fun (annual); Neighborworks event (June)

In addition we partner on a regular with many persons, offices, and agencies.

  1. Youth Development:

We aim for our youth to participate fully in educational, athletic, and career opportunities offered on Kauai. LCT offers residents access to programs that are comprehensive in nature with educational, social, and athletic components. We collaborate with programs that are interactive, constructive and engaging for the youth and meaningful for their future. Our goal is to foster a spirit of achievement and responsibility among our youth for themselves, their families and their community:

New Playground System was installed in May 2015 for use for all ages of youth along with a cemented path for bicycles and trikes installed around the playground. Current swing set area was revitalized.

Child & Family Services operates a fully functional Head Start program at Lihue Court Townhomes. Parents of children ages 3 and 4 are eligible to apply for school year 2015-16. Applications are available through the Resident Services office. Space is available for up to 20 Keiki.

The Boys & Girls Cluboffers afterschool Programming & Homework assistanceages 7-17 at their clubhouse.

LCT Afterschool Programming: Although the computer learning center is available to adult residents 8am-4pm, Resident Services is exploring hiring an assistant to have the computers available for youth after school for computer gaming and Facebooking, etc. We have a Computer Learning Center with 16 functional thin client computers with internet connection, conference room/AC and Flat Screen HDTV.

Computer Class: We hope to offer in 2016 a computer programming class. During the week of 7/6, 7/8, and 7/9 2015 a current resident of Lihue Court Townhomes and veteran with the United States Navy introduced 20 Middle School youth of the Boys & Girls Club to computer programming using "Raspberry Pi 2" and "Scratch" MIT from (9:30-11:30AM). The resident (Arthur) mixed in some YouTube videos shown on the HDTV. Youth were divided into teams and used six RPi2 for hands on experience.

LCT TEEN Club: Due to reports that LCT teens have been hanging out on occasion in the Community Garden and other areas on property and drinking alcohol, we have working to offer more teen programming. In conjunction with The Boys and Girls Club and Salvation Army we are developing the LCT Teen Club. Currently these two organizations offer Teen programming on Wednesday and Friday evenings respectively. They are offering teen programing in areas of character development, healthy relationships, general education, arts, theatre, and music.

The goal is for Lihue Court Townhomes to offer Teen programming on Monday evenings. The LCT Teen Club will serve as a safe space for Kauai teens ages 13-18 to sing, listen to and play music, watch videos, eat snacks and interact responsibly.

Mondays 6-9PM, will offer soft lighting, bean bag chairs and roll up carpet, snacks like large Sub and Juice or Pizza purchased by the group; encourage use of teen talents like live music (Ukulele), gaming, watching and discussing movies of consequence, team games, table tennis (donation from Hawaii Food Bank) all within a community environment (Wii night, talent night, Movie night, dance night, etc.).

  1. Health & Wellness:

Lihue Court Fall Prevention Program 2016 – The County of Kauai Health Department in partnership with American Medical Response and the Lihue Fire Department will be conducting a fall assessment of seniors’ households at Lihue Court, residents ages 65-85. In addition AMR will be completing a medical alert booklet for participating residents to maintain in the homes in case of emergencies.

With the health of all residents as priority Lihue Court will continue to distribute to residents information on the dangers of smoking and second hand smoke.

We will offer on a regular basis nutritious recipes in the Monthly newsletter (Nutrition Tips category in our newsletter)

The County of Kauai is constructing a paved walk path through the Lihue Court community garden during the months of February – May 2016. This paved path will connect to sidewalks on Rice Street and eventual sidewalks on Hoala Street making a complete circle traversing through Lihue Court Townhomes to Kalena Park and then Rice Camp Senior Housing and back to Lihue Court. We will be encouraging residents and neighbors to use the walk path for regular exercise.

Cooking Tips at Family Night and Senior Bingo on balanced meal preparation

Zumba Exercise program – 2x weekly

MonthlyBlood Pressure and Glucose checks by the Kauai Health Department, Hoolalahui Health Clinic at our monthly Food Pantry distribution, every third Wednesday afternoon.

Once the walkway through the Community Garden is complete and the sidewalks connecting Lihue Court Townhomes to our neighbors at Rice Camp and Kalena Park we hope to encourage regular resident walks throughout the day.

  1. Economic Sufficiency:

We aim to equip residents to live productive lives. We are connecting our residents, both adults and youth, with programs and services that can help them achieve important milestones such as graduating from High School, attending college, trade schools, and certificate programs to acquire the necessary skills to support their families.

We aim to offer supportive activities and programs to help residents find jobs, achieve financial stability and increased self-sufficiency: We offer LCT residents periodic presentations from the Kauai County Work Force Development Board on job readiness skills, educational courses and certificate programs available to them; and are making our residents aware of other educational and work readiness programs available through Kauai Community College.

LCT Homeownership - we are gathering information on resources such as the HawaiiHomeOwnershipCenter ( can prepare residents for the opportunity and responsibility to own their own their homes on Kauai. We hope to make classes available to LCT residents in 2016. The program will offer interested households four classes that can be taken either online or in person over a two day period. The classes cover money management, understanding credit, real estate, mortgages, and insurance. After the classes the program is able to offer households one to one counseling.

Every 6-8 weeks we develop and distribute to all residents Job Bulletins listing current employment opportunities on the island.

Important and innovative programs coming in 2016 include a Credit Building Program whereby resident’s rental payment history is reported to the top credit agencies as a way to give positive credit to those who pay their rent on time.

Also this year we are planning a computerclass to introduce adult residents to the "Raspberry Pi 2" computer while logging onto Workwise, developing and posting their resumes, and job searching within the local market.

  1. Sustainability:

We aim to foster increased involvement by all residents in sustainable activities in the areas of agriculture and food security, responsible consumption of resources like water and energy, and consistent participation in recycling, reducing and re-using initiatives. It is important that both individuals and families develop and maintain sustainable ways to use environmental resources wisely.

  • LCT Herb Garden Project – Students under the supervision of the Kauai Master Gardener Program at Kauai Community College will organize the Herb Garden Project at Lihue Court Townhomes. The project will involve collaboration with Lihue Court seniors as well as Keiki and families at the Child & Family Services Head Start located at Lihue Court Townhomes. The project will plant an assortment of culturally practical herbs and spices, and vegetables used by many of the nationalities and ethnicities in the LCT community.
  • We are hopeful that the Herb Garden Project may lead to additional educational opportunities with the adults and children in the areas of composting, soil regeneration, and garden to table food production.
  • New Landscaping & Parking Lots: Landscaping is undergoing improvement with re-pavement of the parking areas planned for 2016. In partnership with the County of Kauai we are planning beautification of the Lihue Court Community Garden with a walkway through the community garden, decorative fencing, motion sensor lighting and colorful signage.
  • After parking areas are complete we are planning to develop a small Fruit Tree Orchard, green waste site and resident composting area adjacent to the community garden
  • We have a vibrant Community Gardenwith 14 plots and committed resident participation growing…Fruit – Avocado, Banana, Breadfruit, Lemon, Lime, Orange, Papaya, and Tangerine; Vegetables – Asparagus, zucchini, squash, pumpkin, bitter melon, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, kale, cabbage, onion, beets, carrots, sweet potato, taro, cucumber, green beans, spinach, radish, okra, peanuts, ginger, and turmeric; Herbs – cilantro, basil, oregano, thyme, lemon balm, parsley, chives, lemon grass, nasturtium, rosemary, sage, mint; and we are in the stages of developing a small Herb Garden with regular resident participation. Food items from the gardens are shared with residents and used in meal preparation for Family Nights and Senior Bingo.
  • Photovoltaic panels have been installedon three of our buildings, and will continue to reduce energy costs associated with the Computer Learning Center, maintenance shop, Property Management offices, and the Resident Laundry facility.
  • We are continuing a full recycling program (card board, mixed paper, glass, etc.) and we aim to increase our Bags to Barrels Recycling Program providing a new recycling barrel to 100 Lihue Court Households from a generous grant from the received a grant from the Kauai County Recycling Office. We aim to increase participation in this program by 25% with 125 LCT residents having and using a recycling barrel by the end of year 2015.
  • While supplies last we are continuing to distribute to residents KIUC donated energyefficient bulbs

This array of green programming is on-going throughout the year.

  1. Arts, Culture & Music

We want residents to explore and share their cultures proudly among us, including their talents and interests in the Arts and music

  • We are offeringpresentations and movies with cultural themes and national interests of those residents living at Lihue Court
  • We will invite more residents to display their talents at Family night, from recipe sharing to poetry reading, and singing, even learning songs together to sing, and story telling
  • We hope to encourage our youth through the start of Teen Club to sing and play their musical instruments, listen to and share music, etc. on Monday evenings from 6:00 – 9:00 at Lihue Court Townhomes.
  • We are hoping that the new addition of TEEN night on Monday evenings will encourage youth to play music, sing, draw, etc.

Respectfully submitted,

Brian C. Alston

Resident Services Manager

Lihue Court Townhomes

Lihue, Hawaii 96766

(808) 246-6997 (office)

(808) 645-0553 (cell)

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.” Aristotle

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