Report Title:
Faith-Based Health & Human Services
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.R. NO. |
74 |
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TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001 |
H.D. 1 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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requesting the departments of human services and health to convene an ad hoc task force to develop a comprehensive strategy to utilize faith-based health and human services iN hawaii.
WHEREAS, despite a multitude of federal and state programs to battle social distress:
(1) As many as 15,000,000 young people are at risk of not reaching productive adulthood–-falling prey to crime, drugs, and other problems that make it difficult to obtain an education, successfully enter the workforce, or otherwise contribute to society;
(2) About 1,500,000 children have a parent in prison;
(3) Over 500,000 children are in foster care, more than one-fifth of whom are awaiting adoption;
(4) In 1997, more than 1,000,000 babies were born to unwed mothers, many of them barely past their own teen years;
(5) More than 1:6 American families with children live on an annual income of $17,000 or less; and
(6) Hundreds of thousands of Americans are homeless and live on the streets;
and
WHEREAS, faith-based and other community organizations provide social services to our distressed citizens and are indispensable in meeting the needs of poor Americans and distressed neighborhoods, but they have been traditionally held at a distance by government; and
WHEREAS, government cannot be replaced by such organizations but it can and should welcome them as partners; and
WHEREAS, the paramount goal is compassionate results, and private and charitable community groups, including religious ones, should have the fullest opportunity permitted by law to compete on a level playing field, so long as they achieve valid public purposes, such as curbing crime, conquering addiction, strengthening families and neighborhoods, and overcoming poverty; and
WHEREAS, the delivery of social services must be results-oriented and should value the bedrock principles of pluralism, nondiscrimination, evenhandedness, and neutrality; and
WHEREAS, President Bush signed an executive order on January 29, 2001, to establish a White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives within the Executive Office of the President to assume the lead responsibility in the executive branch to establish policies, priorities, and objectives for the federal government's comprehensive effort to enlist, equip, enable, empower, and expand the work of faith-based and other community organizations to the extent permitted by law; and
WHEREAS, one of the strategies of the President's executive order is to identify and eliminate improper federal barriers to effective faith-based and community-serving programs through aggressive legislative, regulatory, and programmatic efforts, which includes federal matching funds to help states design and establish state-level offices to assist faith-based and community service groups; and
WHEREAS, the indispensable and transforming work of faith-based and other charitable service groups must be encouraged and successful government social programs must work in fruitful partnership with community-serving and faith-based organizations that provide similar services; and
WHEREAS, a wealth of opportunity exists for the coordinated provision of health and human services in our own communities in Hawaii; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, that DOH and DHS are requested to jointly convene an informal Ad Hoc Task Force to develop a comprehensive strategy to utilize faith-based health and human services in Hawaii; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Education, the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, and the Judiciary are also requested to participate in the Task Force; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Task Force is requested to develop the comprehensive strategy in conjunction with the President's Faith-Based Initiative and contact the President's White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives for assistance; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Task Force is also requested to contact for assistance, as the Task Force deems necessary, the Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives within the following federal departments:
(1) Department of Health and Human Services;
(2) Department of Housing and Urban Development;
(3) Department of Labor;
(4) Department of Justice; and
(5) Department of Education;
and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Task Force is requested to:
(1) Assess programs and services currently provided by faith-based and community organizations in Hawaii;
(2) Identify geographic areas and populations in the State that would most benefit from the health, human services, housing, educational, and employment services provided by faith-based and community organizations;
(3) Develop a strategy whereby public programs and private entities representing faith-based and community service organizations can cooperate in a common marketplace to provide needed services in an innovative way to geographic areas and populations in the State that most need these services;
(4) Assess the procedures by which contracts for services with community-based and faith-based organizations are awarded and report any differences or inequities;
(5) Identify any barriers that these organizations may face when applying for, or after being awarded, a contract to provide health services or human services for the state;
(6) Address the issues of separation of church and state as provided for in the Constitution of the United States and how it plays a role, if any, in the awarding of contracts for services with these organizations; and
(7) Include faith-based organizations as part of this Task Force;
and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that DOH and DHS are requested to jointly report the findings and recommendations of the Task Force, including any necessary proposed legislation, to the Governor and the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2002; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, Assistant to the President for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Governor, the Directors of Health, Human Services, and Labor and Industrial Relations, Superintendent and Chairperson of the Board of Education, and Chief Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court.