Na'alehu Main Street, Inc. is a community-based economic development organization in the Ka`u district of Hawai'i. It is Main Street's vision to provide total community participation with aloha for people at the root of everything done. The organization preserves the historic Na'alehu Business District, while improving its economic vitality through community-based economic development planning projects. It also meets the health, safety, human service, and commercial needs of the greater Na'alehu community.

Na'alehu Main Street: Community action makes it happen

Rural Roots is the name Na'alehu Main Street gave to its ongoing efforts to bring technology to rural communities. Rural Roots has over five years experience operating Internet based commerce and technology programs.

As a MIRA CSO, the objectives of the organization were three-fold. First, was to stabilize the Main Street organization. Second, was to build a technology infrastructure to take advantage of opportunities for local development. Third, was to build the capacity of native Hawaiians, local nonprofits and small business through technology.

Taken from the CSO Annual Report (July 1998 through June 1999):

The greatest benefit of the WKKF funding through MIRA, to the Na'alehu Main Street corporation in terms of organizational development, was the increased capacity of the organization resulting from the hiring of three salaried employees which were able to staff the NMS offices on a full-time basis. Regular, technically knowledgeable and generally capable staffs were able to provide following benefits to the NMS and the surrounding community:

• Someone knowledgeable to answer the phone five days a week.
• Enhance electronic communication in the area.
• Provide, at a basic membership cost of $10/year, business and offices services and qualified assistance to members of Na'alehu Main Street including email, fax services, word processing/spreadsheet, printing, and use of the Internet and web browsers.
• Assist partner organizations with business strategic planning, business plan development, bookkeeping and accounting procedures.
• Provide computer technical support and basic repair services at very low rates underwritten by the WKKF grant. This was very timely due the closing of the only computer repair establishment in the area.
• Allowed the corporation to take the lead in submitting a Strategic Plan for Ka'u to the USDA's Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community (EZ/EC) Round II initiative, winning Ka'u as a whole the status of USDA "Champion Community"; as well as establish a new non-profit corporation to act as lead agency for EZ/EC.
• Operate and staff an "Open-Lab" computer lab, available to the public during business hours (9am-4pm) and students with adult supervision in the evening, utilizing five workstations with complete business software and full-time Internet connection.
• Further the creation process for a State Rural Development Council for Hawaii, a USDA administered program at the national level.

Na'alehu Main Street also participated in the CSO workshop, "Sharing Information to Overcome Differences: Linking community resources electronically." This workshop was open to all Big Island nonprofit organizations and included technology demonstrations on geographic information systems (GIS), global positioning systems (GPS), www-based database applications, and network decision-making.