Background

The Office for Social Ministry has an extensive history of serving the community by initiating and providing innovative safety net programs that serve those who have nowhere else to go. As an agency of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, we are charged with the advancement of Bishop Larry Silva’s Diocesan Road Map for the future. The road map is the fruit of listening sessions with all islands of the Diocese, and it places homeless issues as one of it’s top priorities, setting a goal that “the poor and homeless of Hawaii will have more access to shelter, food, clothing, and work opportunities”. Since being founded in 1986, OSM established the Hawaii Island Food Bank (now, The Foodbasket, Inc.), the Mobile Care Health Project, and Care-A-Van (now, HOPE Services Hawaii),  all direct service programs that served the most vulnerable and marginalized in society.