It's been 30 years since Sue Buske co-founded the Alliance for Community Media, a group that now brings together community media groups from across the country and world to share concepts and experiences.

Never, Buske said, has she seen a program like 'Olelo Wai'anae Enrichment Program, which was on display for about 500 adult community teachers and educators last week at the annual ACM International Conference in Washington, D.C.

"There are other programs across the country designed to help at-risk kids," Buske said. "But I've never seen one that encompasses a community's culture like Wai'anae does."

She added, "It would be great to replicate it at other places around O'ahu and other places in the country. To me, it is taking community media to another level. I'm fortunate that I've seen some of these kids for a few years at 'Olelo and what they're doing in Wai'anae. But this was the first time they got to share their experiences off-island, and they were impressive."

Seven student members of the Wai'anae group made the trek to the conference to speak about their own experiences, teach Final Cut Pro editing to adult educators from across the country and meet with Hawai'i senators Daniel Akaka and Daniel K. Inouye.

The 'Olelo Wai'anae Enrichment Program provides at-risk youths with a chance to participate in community media. Some 60 Wai'anae-area public school students, representing both grade schools and high schools, are involved with the production and broadcast of positive stories about their community. The program also educates students about native Hawaiian history.

The goal is to give the students a sense of community pride that they'll carry long after they graduate from high school.

Over the past three years, grants from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Native Hawaiian Education have funded the effort. The Kellogg grant ends after this year, but because of the program's success and popularity — several students have been turned away due to limited program enrollment — 'Olelo president Keali'i Lopez said he expects more funding will come.

"A lot of times Wai'anae is portrayed in a negative image," Lopez said. "A guy gets killed or punched. That's what you see and hear in the media, and pretty soon that's the negative image kids develop and carry. But our students learn a role of being a powerful steward in the community, to be part of the media that shows positive stories. They learn to be a part and have a sense of the community."

"It was cool to see the senators on a candid level," said Christian Naho'opi'i, a 19-year-old Leeward Community College student who grew up on the Wai'anae Coast and has been involved with 'Olelo's youth programs the past eight years. "This program has meant a lot for me, and getting the chance to share it was important."

Naho'opi'i, a Wai'anae Enrichment Program instructor, said it lets him "give something back to the community by teaching" while continuing to learn about community media. He added, "I've seen kids here who've been labeled 'at-risk' and difficult-to-learn, but by the end of this program they're usually learning right along everyone else."

Naho'opi'i maintains that kids living on the Wai'anae Coast who hear and see many negative comments about their community sometimes start to fall into negative stereotype roles.

"I know I grew up hearing it wasn't the safest place to raise a kid, and I know we've had our incidents," he said. "I started to believe it for a while, but it really wasn't that bad of place to grow up."

"This program helps you learn to be members of the community and take pride in where you're from. It teaches kids values that they'll have no matter where they move on to in life. It brings out the pride of living in Hawai'i, even if you're not Hawaiian — and that's important. If you don't have pride in where you live, you'll end up disrespecting it. If you have pride, you'll most likely end up contributing to make the state, the community, a better place to live."