WHEREAS, there is a need for the Wai`anae community to become empowered and self-supporting. There is a need to be able to devise at the community level responses to the particular needs of the community, based on the available human and natural resources within the community. In this way, the solutions will be home grown, bottom up, instilled with community pride of authorship, and meeting community defined needs; and

WHEREAS, the assets of the Wai`anae community, for example, are a proud sense of cultural values and human caring. There is a treasure trove of talent among its population in music, hands-on skills, an agricultural and ocean knowledge base, and traditional healing practices, among others. There is also an asset of land not used by private owners who are unable to develop the land given the current economic situation. There are beaches and reefs second to none in all of Hawai`i. There are valleys that were once food baskets for large populations on Oahu. There are many individuals and organizations practiced in organizing, who have strong administrative capabilities, and are able to access much of the human resources in the communities. There is now forming an attitude among many in the community that work is medicine and that traditional practices are just as effective as western answers to physical and social ills; and

WHEREAS, for example, the Wai`anae Coast Community Alternative Development Corporation (Corporation) is a community initiated organization addressing alternative development models in the Wai`anae communities. Its services have also expanded far beyond Wai`anae into the neighbor islands and as far away as Samoa. It has been most active in the development of backyard aquaculture and agriculture systems to meet the economic, social, cultural, health, and environmental needs of our communities. It is currently engaged in "A Chance To Work" program along with Hale Na`au Pono, training the seriously mentally ill in skills for employment and self-sufficiency; and

WHEREAS, Hale Na`au Pono is noted not only for its mental health and substance abuse services, but also for its wide penetration into the community through its years of on-the-ground and in-home style of service delivery. It has also developed a high capacity for administrative support services, currently assisting in the development of a community charter school, Ka Waihona O Ka Na`auao; assisting a nonprofit community legal service corporation aimed at families and children, Legal Services for Children; acting as the administrative support arm to the Wai`anae Coast Community Alternative Development Corporation; and undertaking the oversight of a nationally recognized drug prevention program across Makaha Elementary School, Hoa`aina O Makaha; and

WHEREAS, the Queen Lili`uokalani Children's Center (Nanakuli) has a long history of community support and has identified many of the local community resources in a wide variety of areas from fishing to agriculture to healing. There are many good community organizations able to work with one another and who know their community well; and

WHEREAS, there is a need for the development of an emergency action plan to assist the Wai`anae community to become more self-sufficient, which may be used as a model by other communities around the State that have been hurt by current economic conditions; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2003, that the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism is requested to establish a task force to develop an emergency action plan to assist and empower the Wai`anae community and other communities around the State to foster greater self-sufficiency; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the task force is requested to include:

and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the task force is requested to include in the emergency action plan the following elements:

and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the task force is requested to report its findings and recommendations, including any proposed implementing legislation, to the Legislature no later than twenty days before the convening of the Regular Session of 2004; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Business, Economic Development and Tourism and the heads of the following organizations: the Wai`anae Coast Community Alternative Development Corporation, Hale Na`au Pono, and the Queen Lili`uokalani Children's Center (Nanakuli).

Report Title:

Wai`anae Coast; Governor's Task Force; Emergency Action Plan