About Us
Built by someone who has lived it.
COTA Foundation exists because hardship on Hawaiʻi Island is not abstract to the people who founded it.
Our Founder
Shaunna Cota's story
COTA Foundation was founded by Shaunna Cota, a lifelong Hawaiʻi Island resident who grew up facing housing instability and hardship in Hilo. She knows what it is to move again, to go without, and to be looked at differently for needing help in a place where everyone knows everyone.
That experience shaped every decision this organization makes. Shaunna saw which kinds of help actually changed a family's direction and which kinds only got someone through the week. She saw that people rarely needed a lecture — they needed a meal, a ride, a fee paid, and someone who kept showing up.
So every COTA program is rooted in three things together: faith, structure, and real opportunity. Faith gives the work its heart. Structure keeps promises from becoming vague intentions. And real opportunity — a scholarship, a mentorship, a home — is what actually moves a family forward.
Our Vision
A Hawaiʻi where no family is one hard month from losing everything.
We are working toward a Hawaiʻi where every family has basic necessities, stable housing, education, and the support to become self-sufficient — and where those healing from homelessness, trauma, and addiction have a real place to grow roots rather than a waiting list and a phone number.
Generational Vision
We break cycles, not just meet needs.
A family often arrives through essentials — a meal, a hygiene kit, a box of groceries. From there, a student in that household applies for a scholarship. A teenager joins the Youth Fellowship & Service Camp and spends a year serving other families. Years later, some of those same people come back as donors, mentors, and volunteers. That full circle is the point of everything we build.
- 01
Essentials
Meals, clothing, hygiene, and household basics stabilize the household.
- 02
Scholarships
Education and training funding open a door that was closed by cost.
- 03
Mentorship
Youth serve their community for a year and are mentored through it.
- 04
Giving Back
Former recipients return as donors, mentors, and volunteers.
Core Values
What we hold ourselves to
Six commitments that decide how we serve, spend, and speak.
Faith-Rooted
Faith is the foundation of this work, not a condition for receiving it. Everyone is welcomed, fed, and helped — no questions about belief attached.
Dignity First
Nobody should have to prove how bad it has gotten to receive a hot meal. We serve people the way we would want our own family served.
Rooted in Lived Experience
Our programs are designed by people who have lived through housing instability on this island, not written from a distance.
Generational Thinking
We measure success in what changes for a family's children, not just in what we handed out this week.
Community Over Charity
This is neighbors helping neighbors. Recipients are participants, volunteers, and eventually leaders — not cases to be managed.
Radical Accountability
We tell the truth about what we've done, what we've spent, and what we haven't accomplished yet. Trust is earned in the open.