Lanai residents are invited to meet with Civil Beat reporters, editors and other staff at our next pop-up newsroom on Monday at the Lanai Public and School Library.

We’ve been traveling around the state for the past few months in an effort to learn more about the important issues facing many communities in Hawaii, especially those in more rural parts of the state. The turnout for these events has been awesome, with dozens of people dropping by at each one, and we have numerous stories in the works based on conversations with people at the pop-ups.

Our trip to Lanai has an additional element. We’d also like to hear your thoughts on problems with accessing health care and more specifically, mental health care services, on the island. This is a problem that affects many rural communities and others in the state as well as nationwide so we’d love to learn about your experiences and ideas about possible solutions, or whatever else is on your mind. Reporter Brittany Lyte has already written about the lack of mental health services on Lanai and she’ll be there Monday to talk more about the concerns.

Joining Brittany will be editors Kim Gamel and Nathan Eagle, opinion and politics editor Chad Blair, reporter Paula Dobbyn and Ku’u Kauanoe and Megan Dung from our engagement team.

The pop-up will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. but the library closes for lunch from noon to 1 p.m. Come by anytime, there’s no set schedule for meeting with staff.

Drop us a note at news@civilbeat.org if you’d like us to arrange a pop-up in your community. We are partnering with the Hawaii State Public Library System to put on these events.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by grants from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation and the Fred Baldwin Memorial Foundation.

Help Power Local, Nonprofit News.

Across the nation and in Hawaii, news organizations are downsizing and closing their doors due to the ever-rising costs of keeping local journalism alive and well.

While Civil Beat has grown year over year, still only 1% of our readers are donors, and we need your help now more than ever.

Make a gift today of any amount, and your donation will be matched dollar-for-dollar, up to $20,500, thanks to a generous group of Civil Beat donors.

About the Author