I dropped off 5 carloads of home goods, clothing, bedding, etc while downsizing my mom's condo to move her into a house with my sis and her fam. Helping Hands was so much closer to where we live compared to Salvation Army or Goodwill. I like that Helping Hands is truly a nonprofit organization because they don't sell your donated goods to the people who need them. People can come get the goods for free at helping hands. Staff were always very friendly and helpful with unloading my car. They are also very good about giving me the tax write off forms. (Salvation Army has you go to a website to get tax form and I couldn't even create an account successfully on the website. Kept getting error message.) Helping hands drop off times are Monday to Friday from 11 AM to 2 PM so the drop off window is pretty limited. read more

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! read more

Helping Hands Hawai'i - One of the awesome staff at Helping Hands Hawaii - Mae - Community Service/Non-Profit Near Me - Honolulu, 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. read more

Helping Hands Hawai'i - Relief efforts for Maui wildfire victims - Community Service/Non-Profit Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Just had to wait while one person before me donated. They offered to help me unload & asked if I wanted a receipt. Walking to my car, I saw a name not mine on it. HHH uses carbon paper receipts. The gentleman helping gave me my original top clear receipt. Hope they have a record of me & my donation... read more

They don't respond to calls nor emails at all. How do you communicate with this organization?

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 read more

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 read more

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. read more

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

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. read more

Helping Hands Hawai'i - Thank you Helping Hands Hawaii and American Savings Bank. - Community Service/Non-Profit Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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www.helpinghandshawaii.org This non-profit do great work. Check them out. :) read more

Helping Hands Hawai'i - Community Service/Non-Profit Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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. read more

Merry Christmas yelpers! This is the second year I've worked with the Helping Hands "Adopt-A-Family" program and it's completely changed the way I look at the holidays. You contact them about adopting a family in need and they'll send you a few families to choose from. You get to read about each family, their personal struggles and a list of what each family member would like to receive this Christmas. We ended up adopting two families for the Yelp community to help out and we collected gifts, cash and gift certificates during a happy hour. In total we ended up gifting over seventy presents to ten children and a single mom. Next year when you're making your Christmas list, I encourage you to get together with your family or co-workers and adopt-a-family through Helping Hands. They have more families than ever and are looking to find gifts for hundreds of children. With each year this experience has made me more grateful and helped me to discover the true meaning of the holidays. I am already brainstorming ways on how we can raise more money and adopt more families in 2012. Next year my personal goal is to gift bicycles to all the kids in our adopt-a-family list! Santa needs as many helpers as he can get, so I hope you join in on the giving! "Be the change you want to see in the world." - Mahatma Ghandi Yelp 365 Challenge; #115/365 (The Very Merry Christmas) read more

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. read more

I always see this place when I am driving home from work and always curious to what they are. So when Yelp Helps came around then I learned more about them and there great cause. I recently dropped off all the donations from all the yelpers to two great families in need. I met up with Scott Morishige the Program Director and he is just the nicest guy ever. He showed me to the warehouse where all the donations are accepted and tagged to get ready for families to pick up. They take all kinds of donations, new and used clothes, toys, towels and etc. And also they do furniture pick-ups and he reminded me that all these donations are given to underprivileged families and never gets re-sold. It is so amazing to be a part of something so miraculous and I can't even imagine how it will change these families holidays. Only if more people could get into that holiday spirit, and remember it doesn't need to be during the holidays! There are families out there that are always in need of just a little something... so if you have any clothes, shoes, bags anything that you have sitting around please find it in your heart to donate it to there families. read more

It has been my experience and that of several other people who have applied to Helping Hands have been denied for one ridiculous reason or another. Their stats would be interesting based on the number of applicants and the number of approvals and denials. I'm unclear if their money is from strictly grants, PRIVATE sector, Feds/State, donations, etc., Regardless, just a about EVERY SINGLE PERSON that applied for some type of assistance was denied. Even outside a Agencies have stated the no longer refer clients to Helping Hands because just about every single one is DENIED. It's a waste of everyone's time. So, that begs the question. Based on your funding, aside from paying your salaries and your rent - how many people have you actually helped. And in what capacity? Is it limited to the once a year 'School Supplies' you so proudly pose for? Exactly what percentage of you total funding goes to the needy people? And what goes to you? You write a Grant claiming there is a 'need' in the community in specific areas and that your agency is determined to be helpful, right? That's the basic gist. Your Agency requires serious investigation. I particularly LOVE the 'special Hawaiian group's, Punawai. A worker there actually told someone requesting help with utilities to apply for SNAP because her self employment income must come from a 'creditable source.'.. Um, guess what? Self Employment income is 'Self Declaration' with SNAP. Welfare doesn't do anything MAGICAL to verify the self employment income. There's your creditable source!And to turn someone away by telling them to apply for welfare assistance they aren't requesting for because that's the ONLY WAY you can verify income is ridiculous!!!! read more

This is a great organization. Their approach is wonderful, and really make direct use of items donated

This was our first time adopting a family through Helping Hands Hawaii. Based upon Emi's review, my husband & I decided to give it a go. All we did was call the number that they list on their website. They then e-mailed us three families to choose from & their wish lists. After that, you can start your shopping, & drop off merchandise at their warehouse on Nimitz by the deadline date. We adopted a family of six. A husband who works on minimum wage, a wife who is unemployed, but actively looking for work, & their four kids. It was a humbling experience, seeing how this family was requesting for things that we take for granted, like blankets, cups, plates, & clothing. The connection that was felt with this family was unexpected. When Christmas day arrived, it was nice to take a moment & imagine them opening their gifts from "Santa". read more

Helping Hands Hawaii - Good Neighbor Fund Before I went on vacation I emailed my address, home & business phone numbers with names I wanted to include in the newspaper. The donation was over $470 by credit card to the Good Neighbor Fund. While on vacation I checked my email and home phone but did not get any response. When I got back from vacation after Christmas I found a message on my work phone. The message said they would call back. They never called back. I never got a message on my home phone or email. I guess they were too busy to respond or they thought that this was a fake email. Doesn't seem that a donation of over $470 was very important to them. Oh yea, I have been donating to the Good Neighbor ever since it was created and in the past years I have been increasing my donation every year. Having second thoughts about future donations. Update: 12/27/2018 I called them and the operator asked me to wait and forwarded me to another number. I got an answering machine. I then left a message mentioning a donation. When I checked my phone the next morning there was no message. At that point I decided not to make a donation. read more

Don't go to them for payee services they will give you the run around! I was dealing with Lori Hamada and was trying to retrieve old funds they had withheld from my fathers Social security account. It has been months, almost a year now and still he hasn't received his money from this organization. When you call Lori she'll give you the run around or is never available to come to the phone and when she does actually answer she puts you on hold until you hang up and can no longer get a hold of her again. (I stopped by the office to speak about this issue with Lori, who would not come to the door, and had another employee "Brenda" come out and tell me a bunch of excuses that didn't make sense and when I mentioned about being put on hold several times and then the phone disconnecting she just tells me that they "don't have a hold feature on their phones" so... what is she doing when they tell you to please hold? GIVING YOU THE RUNAROUND.) Seems like she's just trying to milk her time there until she retires, because she obviously doesn't want to help anyone. Maybe that's the organizations way of making money, withholding money from people they're trying to "help". Avoid them if you can. read more

Best place for Rep Payee services. Lori Hamada is the bomb and she manages a team better than most

Access line helps those who are in need of mental health support and/or connections to services in the community. Knowing that there are bilingual interpreters is an asset read more

There program for assistance suck terrible service put yourself in my shoes they suck just like Salvation Army

Okay I've written a previous review but I need to write another, this organization is awsome when helping for things but to help for rent not so much they turned me a single working mother who really needed the help and now they have turned down my friend and coworker she got sick and was out for a week she is the only one working in her family right now but they wouldn't help her come on guys who do you help?! read more

Tried several times to contact the person in charge after seeing the adopt a family segment on kitv this past holiday season. Did not receive one call back. Saw one of the families shown on the tv segment they too said they had not heard back from the agency also after doing the news segment. read more