MEO receives national award for work with wildfire recovery

Maui Economic Opportunity (MEO) received the prestigious Promise of Community Action Award from the National Community Action Partnership (NCAP) for the agency’s work in the aftermath and the recovery phases of the devastating and deadly 2023 wildfires.

MEO CEO Debbie Cabebe accepted the national award Thursday evening at the NCAP gala in Detroit, Mich.  MEO was one of five agencies and individuals recognized at the gathering.

This national award recognizes Community Action Agencies that have been diligently caring for the entire community and remain dedicated to helping people help themselves and each other amid a catastrophe. These agencies are working to build resilient communities.

“Debbie, thank you to you and your team for all that you did post-fire and that you do every day,” said Denise Harlow, NCAP CEO, in presenting the award to Cabebe, who was joined on stage by Transportation Director Patty Copperfield and Chief Fiscal Officer Wil Torricer.

Harlow, who observed the work of MEO firsthand during a visit in May, noted how MEO brought funds directly into the community from foundations and private donors nationally to assist in the recovery and partnered with landlords on housing options for families.

In her remarks, Cabebe thanked NCAP for the award, noting that MEO has infused $30 million into the community to assist in the recovery. 

“When federal, state and local leaders need information or help, they call MEO,” said Cabebe.

In the immediate aftermath of the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires, MEO joined a caravan transporting visitors and residents out of the west side, helped arrange Airbnbs for thousands of displaced residents in shelters, hosted the Mexican and Chilean consulates on document recovery.

By November, MEO was operating the National Dislocated Worker Disaster Recovery Program that employed 300 survivors in 50 host sites performing recovery work and the Maui Relief TANF Program that has provided recovery assistance to 6,500 households. By the end of 2023, MEO’s Business Development Center was distributing short-term recovery grants to 700 small businesses.

“At MEO, we understand that success is achieved through constant effort, resilience in the face of setbacks and refusal to give up, highlighting the power of tenacity and achieving goals,” said Cabebe. “The staff and the board truly live The Promise of Community Action.”

The awards ceremony capped a week of workshops and networking at the NCAP event. MEO is one of a thousand Community Action Agencies formed in the mid-1960s as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty.

This year is MEO’s 60th anniversary, having formed in March 1965 with two programs. Today, MEO operates more than 30 diverse programs, offering paratransit rides, preschool at no cost to families, rental and utility assistance, business planning courses and micro-lending, and intermediate and high school drug/alcohol/smoking, bullying, suicide prevention. 

MEO operates on Maui, Molokaʻi and Lanaʻi and in East Maui with a staff of 275. More than 55,000 residents annually are assisted.