Honolulu state Rep. Mark Hashem has picked up a national honor for work that Hawaiʻi families and service providers have been tracking for years. He was named the 2026 National Children’s Alliance Champion for Children State Advocacy Award recipient after pushing to replace the Oʻahu Children’s Justice Center with a larger, centralized facility. The new hub is intended to bring medical, mental health and forensic services under one roof for abused children across Oʻahu and from the neighbor islands, with families and frontline providers expecting more space, more coordinated care and new training opportunities for students entering child protection fields.
National honor, local impact
Hashem received the award at the National Children’s Alliance recognition ceremony on June 29 in Washington, D.C., an event listed on the National Children’s Alliance conference page. The honor is given to state policymakers who strengthen Children’s Advocacy Centers and, in Hashem’s case, it acknowledged his work to secure state resources and improve outcomes for child victims.
Hashem said a 2013 visit to the center "reinforced the importance" of creating a single, child-friendly site for coordinated care, and one nominator described him as "a true champion," according to Maui Now. The outlet reports that Hashem personally contacted property managers, arranged site visits and worked with staff and community partners to secure a new location. Maui Now also notes that the expanded center will include a formal internship program for students in law, criminal justice, medicine, mental health and social work, with construction expected to begin this summer and an anticipated opening in 2028.
Funding, procurement and the Leahi site
Public records show the project moving into state procurement and capital planning. The Department of Accounting and General Services' project listing identifies a relocation of the Children’s Justice Center to Leahi Hospital’s Sinclair Building, and procurement postings on the state public-works portal show active bid activity for that relocation. Legislative capital measures in recent sessions provided appropriations tied to a new Oʻahu facility, signaling broad state support for the upgrade.
The Leahi Hospital campus sits at 3675 Kilauea Ave, Honolulu, and the state public-works pages include the Children’s Justice Center relocation to Leahi as a current contracting item, indicating the project is moving from planning toward construction.
What the center will do
The Oʻahu Children’s Justice Center is the Judiciary’s largest such site and handles roughly 1,100 child cases a year, offering forensic interviews, medical exams and trauma-informed support across age groups, the Hawaii State Judiciary notes. Supporters say a larger, centralized facility will reduce delays, streamline emergency transfers to specialty pediatric care in Honolulu and make it easier for neighbor-island cases to access coordinated services in one location.
For Hashem, the award reflects a local campaign that mixed lawmaking with on-the-ground work to find a site and line up funding. Officials say the next steps include awarding construction contracts, continuing community outreach and moving the project from procurement into building, milestones advocates hope will translate into quicker, kinder care for keiki in crisis.
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