St Elizabeth's Episcopal Church
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Mission Statement
St Elizabeth's was founded in 1902 to assist newly arrived Chinese immigrants learn literacy and employment skills, provided housing and a welcoming place to worship. Today we serve many ethnic groups including the latest wave of migrants to Hawaii, folks from Micronesia. We provide STEM programs, after school tutoring, sewing classes, a drop in center offering legal, housing, medical insurance and immigration assistance, a youth basketball team, a community garden where everyone is welcome to plant and harvest and a very active food pantry. Located in Honolulu's inner city, we are an eclectic mix of people spreading the good news of the gospel through social ministry, song and worship.
About This Cause
Where it Began St. Elizabeth’s is over 100 years young. Founded in 1902 with a mission to serve newly-arrived immigrants from China, St. Elizabeth’s built and maintained Hawaii’s first low income housing, provided vocational training and language lessons to men and women, and opened its doors to people of all nationalities. Where We Are Now St. Elizabeth’s is located in Honolulu’s inner city, surrounded by public housing, with the state prison only a mile away. It can be a tough neighborhood, and so we welcome our neighbors every day of the week with a myriad of programs and activities aimed at both young and old. Our neighbors are made up of new immigrants from Micronesia, folks from Tonga, the Philippines, Chinese immigrants and their descendants, folks of Japanese ancestry, Hawaiians and even some kama’aina (long term residents) and malihini (newcomers to the islands)! We provide, in partnership with Honolulu Community Action Program, a daily Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) program after school that draws dozens of children into robotics classes, literacy and computer skills and even a sound studio where oral histories can be recorded. In addition, our after school tutoring program was so successful that last year, every student achieved promotion to the next grade level; in prior years over a dozen students were held back, sometimes repeatedly! Add to this the El Sistema Music program, (an inspiration hatched in Venezuela to form an orchestra of barrio children), and St. Elizabeth’s is bringing the wonders of a stringed orchestra — made up exclusively of immigrant youth playing violins, recorders and learning to sing in chorus — to a pair of ears near you! We have regular meals for our children, a food pantry that feeds hundreds every month, a community garden that so many work in, and a teenage basketball team that in its early years went 0-50 and last year won over half their games! Our Micronesian ladies have formed a sewing co-op and regularly turn out indigenous clothing and household articles for sale, all monies going back into the co-op and to the ladies themselves. Last year we organized the monthly March For Medical Mercy, seeking to obtain Medicaid benefits for the Micronesian migrants. They are the only nationality in the world ineligible for these benefits, never mind that they come to the US to escape the devastation left in their island homeland by the nuclear test blasting of the 1950s. Thankfully, The Affordable Care Act is now covering this needy population. This year we are involved in Laundry Aloha, a program designed to help the houseless and working poor pay for their laundromat expenses by giving folks a roll of quarters and some detergent. We have trained over 60 immigrant women to provide in-home assistance to the sick and elderly, which not only helps the care receivers, but provides a decent income for the care givers. Add to that the vibrant worship services every Sunday, with a fabulous bell choir and choirs from Tonga, the Philippines, Micronesia, (not to mention the youth choir!) St. Elizabeth’s is a happening place— spreading through deeds (usually) and words (sometimes) the good news of God’s love for ALL humanity through the grace and scandal of Jesus Christ.