Mission

Our mission

Our piko. Our ʻohana. One Hawaiʻi.

Digital Piko exists to connect the greater Hawaiian community — kamaʻāina at home in the islands and those of us scattered far from them. Wherever you are, your piko is here. Our roots connect us.

100% of Digital Piko’s net profit supports the Hana Lima Youth Foundation — helping Hawaiʻi youth explore trades and prepare to earn acceptance into an apprenticeship of their choosing.

Net profit is revenue remaining after product, fulfillment, shipping, payment-processing fees, taxes, and necessary operating costs. Those costs may include customer support, technology, and reasonable staffing.

Why this matters

Hawaiian families are being priced out of their own ʻāina.

For generations, kānaka maoli and local families have called these islands home. Now Hawaiʻi has the highest cost of living in the United States, and the math no longer works for the people who built this place. Keiki who grew up here graduate, look around, and leave — not because they want to, but because there’s no path that lets them stay. In 2010, 55% of Native Hawaiians still called the islands home. By the 2020 U.S. Census, just 47% did. More of us now live on the mainland than at home.

Whole ʻohana — Hawaiians who would be home if they could be — are scattered across the mainland and the world, missing the slack-key on a Friday night, the smell of plumeria after rain, the feel of standing in a place where everyone knows where you’re from.

We can’t fix all of that. We try to do three things, well.

Wherever you are
Your piko is here.
Wear where you’re from — or open a door for a keiki who’s still home. Every shirt, every dollar carries one of them closer to staying.

What we do

1

Help keiki get started100% of Digital Piko’s net profit supports Hana Lima Youth Foundation — helping Hawaiʻi’s young people explore skilled trades and prepare for an apprenticeship that can lead to a life-sustaining career at home.

2

Make pieces for everyday lifeWear where you’re from. Made for Aloha Friday, family celebrations and everyday life here.

3

Make room to talk storyTalk Story and Island Happenings host the conversations and share the cultural pulse of the islands — wherever you are.

About Hana Lima Youth Foundation

Helping Hawaiʻi’s young people discover the possibilities of working with their hands and prepare for a skilled-trades career at home.

HLYF’s developing pathway begins in eighth or ninth grade, helping students explore trades and prepare to apply and interview for an apprenticeship in a trade they choose. Shop Cluster is its first initiative: bringing schools, students, and trade professionals together around a real project.

Schools and qualified trade professionals provide instruction and technical supervision. HLYF helps with applications, paperwork, interview preparation, recommendations, and references grounded in Shop Cluster and contractor work experience. HLYF does not train or place students. Apprenticeship programs make their own admission decisions and provide formal trade training. School and industry relationships are being developed; formal partners will be announced as agreements are confirmed.

Meet the keikiStarting in eighth or ninth grade, help young people discover different trades and what the work requires.
Get ready togetherHelp students build experience, work habits, recommendations, and references through Shop Cluster and work with contractors.
Apply for an apprenticeshipHelp students understand requirements, complete paperwork, and prepare for interviews. Programs make their own admission decisions.
Stay in their cornerOur goal is guidance through the first year after entry, as resources allow. Help with fees, work gear, or transportation depends on resources and approved needs.

Hana lima. Work of the hands. So our keiki can thrive here for generations.

Wear where you’re from. Fund where they stay.

Every shirt, every hat, every piece is a connection — to home, to ʻohana, and to the keiki who could thrive in the trades if someone opens the door.

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