At KKV, one of our dreams is to create leadership and career pathways for kids who often thrive in non-traditional education and mentorship programs. Last month that goal came to fruition through the hiring of KVIBE’s new Bike Shop Manager Josh Kim.   

The Kalihi Valley Instructional Bike Exchange (KVIBE) is one of KKV’s Youth Services programs that serves as a drop-in center, bike repair shop, and hub of cultural and community healing and grassroots activism. KVIBE uses the bicycle, or as they call it “the urban canoe,” as a catalyst to uplift and empower kids between the ages of 8 and 18. KVIBE was honored in 2019 and 2020 by the Movember Foundation as a model for uplifting teen boys and providing them with community leadership opportunities. 

Josh was introduced to KVIBE in 2017 through friends who were already frequenting the bike shop. Wanting a bike to ride to school, KVIBE presented him with the opportunity to build his own. “That’s how I got here and I ended up staying til now,” Josh says,”I [never left] because I remember the very first circle that I was in – it just felt really like I was accepted even though they didn’t know me. KVIBE felt really homey, like family.”

The “circle” he refers to is the culture or “aloha” circle held at the beginning of each KVIBE day. Here, kids are asked to speak about their identities in the format, “name, home, ancestor, with the recent addition of ‘clan’.” The activity is intentional and helps to ground daily activities by encouraging the kids to acknowledge their presence and the responsibility they hold as representatives of their families and communities. Many of KVIBE’s participants feel as Josh did.

“I got to work on bikes and other projects, using my hands and learning new skills,” says Josh,
”I felt really proud of that and I wanted to make my parents feel proud of me.” While a participant at KVIBE, Josh completed the bike mechanics program, learning how to build and repair bikes. He also participated in several of KVIBE’s Community Education-Civic Engagement programs, including the Nakem Leadership Institute and the Waiwai Health Fellowship. His experiences pushed him to try new things and taught him to “think about...me as myself, me as my body, because who I am is how I am feeling.” 

Now at the age of 19, four years after he first stepped into the shop, Josh has been hired as KVIBE’s Bike Shop Manager. “I love KVIBE,” he says, “because I feel at home and seeing all these kids come into the shop wanting to have a place to be able to hang out and to learn what they want to learn - that’s why I love the shop...Being the [Bike] Shop Manager means that I am doing what I've always been and wanted to be doing.” 

We are so proud of you Josh. Welcome home!