Journalists typically get into this field for the same reason people become attorneys or social workers or maybe even politicians: We want to be part of changing things for the better. As reporters and editors, we can’t make those changes ourselves, but we can ignite the spark. We call that impact and here at Civil Beat, we’re kind of scientific in the ways we measure our impact on Hawaiʻi. You can see the full sweep of it on our impact page.

We break things down into three main categories:

• Reach is the number of people who come into contact with our work. For you to make something happen either yourself or through advocacy, you have to first see the story. We measure reach not just in clicks on our website, but in views and shares on social media as well as pickup by other media.
• Engagement includes participation in our events or public discussion of our reporting. Maybe you attended one of our 36 events last year, ranging from popups at farmer’s markets to candidate Q&As all over the islands, commented on stories via our website or social media, or maybe you wrote a Voices piece on a topic that moves you.
• Action is the coin of the realm, when someone is prompted by our journalism to act, whether that means pushing for or enacting a new law or improving a single person’s life. You may have tuned in one of the 49 times Civil Beat came up in testimony at the state Capitol in 2025, which you can track using our new Digital Democracy tool.

As we look back on the year, I wanted to spend a little more time with that third measurement today. Natalie Thielen Helper, our grant writer who is co-writing this column, logs it all for us and below are a few of the action highlights she tracked during 2025. As you will see, many of these changes came months and even years after we first reported on the problems. Improvement takes time.

Some of the problems we uncovered caught the eye of state legislators…

Calls for accountability: Civil Beat broke the story that an unknown, influential Hawaiʻi lawmaker is being investigated by the FBI for accepting a $35,000 gift. We noted that more than three years after the handoff, the identities of an unnamed man and the lawmaker he paid remained unknown to the public. The story was a continuation of a Pay-to-Play project we produced in 2023 as part of a fellowship with The New York Times. As the federal investigation drags on, advocates and legislators are now demanding answers about the gift.

New housing policy: Civil Beat reported on the state kauhale program, including runaway costs, lack of transparency and leadership changes. The Legislature passed a bill requiring an audit and dictating that the publicly funded program to build communities of tiny homes for the homeless must have multiple bidders, be on-grid, have regular audits and allow neighborhood input.

Some were taken up by state government…

Task force for foster youth: Dozens of children have ended up sleeping in offices or hotels when families, guardians and the foster system could not house them. Civil Beat first wrote about this problem two years ago. When we checked back this year, the newly installed director of DHS, Ryan Yamane, ordered the formation of an internal task force to explore solutions to the problem. DHS Social Services Division Administrator Daisy Hartsfield told us the goal is “to figure out how we can best address this issue here in Hawaiʻi.”

Support for tenants: Civil Beat brought to light the plight of public housing tenants who received incorrect information and inadequate resources as they tried to relocate ahead of the housing complex’s demolition. When Kūhiō Park Terrace is rebuilt, these former residents will have the right to move back in, but that option is years away. After our report, the state swapped out the company overseeing the project.

Others unfolded at the local level…

Building permit accountability: Civil Beat’s watchdog reporting on Honolulu’s troubled Department of Planning and Permitting revealed that a popular house-flipping show had sidestepped the permitting process. This investigation followed our longstanding scrutiny of permitting delays at DPP. The “Renovation Aloha” exclusive led not just to revoked permits and violation notices at the local level, it prompted the Legislature to establish a task force to come up with a more efficient permitting process.

Gag order reversed: The Maui Ethics Board reversed course less than 24 hours after Civil Beat wrote about its new “gag order” rule, which would have prohibited members of the public from talking about any ethics complaint they filed against a county employee, or risk having their case dismissed. Following our article, the board said it would not enforce the rule.

Still others played out on a more personal level…

Relief for bereaved mother: The Honolulu Police Department charged Lucita Ani-Nihoa $650 for the police report on the murder of her daughter, Theresa Cachuela, despite a law outlawing such fees. We had previously reported that Cachuela called 911 at least three times in the weeks before she was killed by her husband in a Central Oʻahu mall parking garage. After Civil Beat wrote about the expensive turn in Ani-Nihoa’s search for justice, HPD refunded most of her money.

Family history rediscovered: After 150 years of searching, a California family found out what happened to a missing ancestor thanks to Civil Beat’s “Dead Letters” series, which reported on Americans who died in Hawaiʻi in the 1800s. The family told our columnist that discovering the truth was healing.

Sometimes we hear about impact from our own reporters and editors, who see firsthand how their work makes a difference. Sometimes we read about it in the news, when local or national outlets republish or cite our work. 

But we also rely on you, our readers, to keep us informed — just as you rely on us. Has Civil Beat made a difference in your life, your work, or your community? Maybe a closed bathroom or broken slide in your local park got repaired faster because of our Fix It! column. Maybe you called your representative about something you read in our Sunshine Blog and they actually picked up the phone. Maybe Civil Beat inspired you to volunteer, organize with your neighbors or even just to vote. Whatever it is, we’d love to hear about it.