Building Resilience on Kauaʻi
Posted 12/16/21 at 11:56h by Cassie Clark
Kupu Community Resilience AmeriCorps VISTA Program provides full-time volunteers to non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and local governmental agencies that serve low-income communities. The VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) model is driven by communities in need, with the goal of expanding the capacity of local efforts through addressing community challenges and developing initiatives that enable people to become increasingly self-sufficient and secure. Through this service to others, Members gain valuable experiences for their own career while simultaneously enhancing the capacity of the organizations/communities they serve within.
Christina Kaser is an AmeriCorps VISTA serving with the County of Kauaʻi in the Office of Economic Development’s Energy and Sustainability Program. She was brought on to support the County’s efforts in creating plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and implement mitigation goals, as well as engage the broader community on solutions to our climate crisis. Christina’s day-to-day varies considerably, whether she’s helping her supervisor research policy for a new legislative bill, going to classrooms to present the Kauaʻi Aloha+ Challenge, photographing and creating content for social media, imputing energy data and calculating transportation emissions from carbon dioxide, or helping to organize climate meetings within our community.
Christina’s proudest accomplishment was helping to organize a meeting, present representing the County, and facilitate a break-out discussion to a group of local business leaders on the intersection of climate change and business on Kauaʻi. The intent of the meeting was provide a space for business leaders to engage with the topic of climate change, and provide feedback on strategies both themselves and the County can take to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.
A San Francisco Bay Area native, Christina graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in with a B.S. in Society and Environment and emphasis in Global Environmental Politics, and moved to Kauaʻi shortly after graduating. Having been with the County for almost a year and a half, Christina is thankful every day for the opportunity to serve in a government capacity working on climate policy issues implemented at the local level.
