The Arc of Hilo

My son has been volunteering at the ARC of Hilo, and I am extremely disappointed with what he has experienced there. He’s been coming home frustrated, exhausted, and confused because instead of learning real-life, career-building skills, he is being used for manual labor. He told me that most days, they are simply pulling weeds, wiping benches, cleaning chairs and tables—tasks that teach him nothing about becoming a functional, independent member of society. Children and young adults with disabilities deserve support, education, and meaningful skill-building, not to be treated like unpaid labor. My son comes home sweaty and worn out, looking like he worked an eight-hour shift—without pay—and on top of that, I still have to buy his lunch. This is not what a supportive program should look like, especially for individuals with autism and other disabilities. I am speaking up because this is unfair to kids with disabilities everywhere. Programs like this should empower their participants, not take advantage of them. Families trust organizations like ARC of Hilo to teach, guide, and uplift—and this experience has been the exact opposite. I hope this review brings awareness and encourages real change, because our children deserve better.

We used Arc of Hilo as our Daughters First Birthday Party. The AC in the hall was absolutely perfect while setting up and through out the whole party. We did run into a couple of issues with the kitchen. Refrigerator broke on us and started defrosting and flooded the inside with water. The electrical outlets tripped and was not able to use them. I made contact with the Arcs event coordinator, and was guaranteed a partial refund due to the situation. We made do with what we could, and the party went on. The rest of the night went amazing.

We had our wedding here a couple of weeks ago! Everything worked out great! Binil was so great to work with. He went over and beyond to ensure that all of our needs were met….

We enjoyed having our training at the Arc of Hilo! Itʻs a beautiful location. We were able to order our lunch at the Tiki Turtle! Loved the Chicken Pesto Wrap! We also had great service from Anthony and Binil! We hope to have future meetings/trainings at the Arc! Mahalo nui!

Arc of Hilo was so good with setting up the tables and chairs and just great in communication and making sure I had everything I asked for,provided beyond..I was blessed to get this place for cheap and fast last minute booking,my family was so grateful..Mahalo!

The Arc is such a great venue! Binil is so easy to work with and he'll make sure everything runs smoothly from beginning to end! Their whole team is friendly, helpful and efficient. We'll definitely be seeing them for our next big partayyyy! "Thanks to you all" for helping to make our party such a great success!

We recently had a luncheon for around 150 people at the Arc for a program that our company does to honor our graduating seniors. Binil was awesome and a pleasure to work with and everything was set up beautifully. Highly recomend for your next event!

The Arc of Hilo was a wonderful site, perfect for our community meeting that we held there earlier this week. The staff made the experience even more exceptional - very helpful and accommodating, down to providing us push pins when we forgot our own! Mahalo again to Robert for letting us use the space, we appreciate it!

Conference room was awesome and tv worked well for the PowerPoint!! Genuinely kind hearted people work there.