With support provided by the Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities, Palama Settlement is pleased to preserve and make accessible annual reports and newsletters from the archives collections.
Palama Settlement also published reports for two social services programs: Pākōlea and In-Community Treatment. The Pākōlea project connected education with sports, attracting youth at-risk of dropping out of school to participate in an integrated approach to learning and their well-being. The In-Community Treatment Program was a court-ordered referral program to candidates as their last chance to avoid detention centers. Participants engaged in guided group interactions, building academic and social skills at their own rate. The combination of these self-improvement programs was a powerful force of remediation for many lives over the decades. These publications documented the social, political, cultural, and economic history of the Kalihi-Pālama communities.
While newsletters served as a communication tool for Palama Settlement to promote programs and engage its participants, the publications also offered details about people, events, and activities that were not found in annual reports. Many of the writers themselves were participants, ranging from teenagers to senior citizens, sharing their voices and perspectives about their time spent at Palama Settlement. With robust metadata, the digitized resources will be offered for academic study to not only students and researchers, but also public health professionals, urban planners and developers, social workers, community and athletic program specialists, educators, and individuals searching for their family history.
The annual reports of the Board of Trustees provide a yearly summary of the activities and programs at Palama Settlement. Built by P.C. Jones in 1896, Palama Chapel was managed by Central Union Church. In 1905, Palama Chapel was transferred to the Hawaiian Evangelical Association. At that time, Mr. James Arthur Rath took over operations as Head Worker and, by 1906, changed the name to Palama Settlement. In 1910, Palama Settlement's Board of Trustees filed the charter of incorporation. The institutional annual reports recapped Palama Settlement's activities, programs, and services along with audited financial statements for its stakeholders. These reports offer insight about the area’s community needs with program objectives supported by demographic statistics and quantitative analysis.
