Meeting Notes: July 27, 2004
The meeting was convened by Sen. Chun Oakland. In attendance were representatives of various government and private agencies. There was one volunteer community representative. These summer sessions are devoted to various topics which assess the status of children in Hawaii and how well previous efforts of the legislature have met the needs. After October the group will start drafting bills, resolutions and administrative actions for the 2005 session.
Kids Count is a program of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, housed at the Center for the Family on the UH Manoa Campus. One of its functions is to collect statistics on ten indicators of children's health in every state on a yearly basis. In addition, yearly trends in the indicators are shown on a 5 or 10 year scale. Hawaii ranks 20th among states in the nation. The trend is worse for % low birthweight babies, infant mortality rate, % teens who are high school drop outs (40), % of teens not attending school and not working, and % of families with children headed by a single parent.
Further details of the statistics and the Kids Count program may be found at their website: www.uhfamily.hawaii.edu/index.asp The second presentation was by the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii (HCDCH) - website www.hcdch.hawaii.gov. These folks have the job of finding housing which doesn't exist for families who can't afford to pay the rent. And we think we have problems! The problem for renters is most severe. As the economy improves and rental units go to other uses, the number of homeless increases. The last session passed a resolution requiring an Affordable Housing Task Force to be organized by HCDCH. The task force is to find ways to increase the number of affordable rental units on the market and report back to the 2005 session. Among other things, they are to find ways to prepare people for self-sufficiency. It doesn't seem that these families can be living in a healthy environment for the growth and development of their children. The first meeting of the task force will be in August.
The next Keiki Caucus Meeting will be on Tuesday, August 24th from noon to 2:00 pm in Room 325 at the Capitol. There will be presentations by:
1. Office of Children and Youth
2. Safe Route to Schools
3. The Hawaii Uninsured Project and Hawaii Covering Kids
Children and Youth Day will be on Sunday, October 3rd, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm at the State Capitol.
The Keiki Caucus Summit will be on Saturday, October 23rd from 8:00 am to 3:30 pm at the State Capitol Auditorium.
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