STAND. COM. REP. NO.  165-14

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2014

RE:   H.B. No. 2037

      H.D. 1

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 2037 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PROJECT KEALAHOU,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to continue and expand the array of services offered to at-risk youth and their families by Project Kealahou by appropriating funds to preserve this project.

The Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, YWCA of O‘ahu, Hawaii Youth Services Network, and two individuals supported this measure.  The Department of Health commented on this measure.

     Project Kealahou is a federally-funded program currently operating under a six-year grant housed within the Department of Health Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division.  Project Kealahou promotes community-based, family-driven, and evidence-based services.  Project Kealahou also emphasizes gender-responsive and trauma-informed care when serving its target population of adolescent females ages 11 to 21 who have experienced trauma in their lives.  Your Committee notes that the federal funding that currently supports Project Kealahou will be phased out beginning in October 2014 and will expire completely after that time.

     Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1)  Deleting the specified amount reflected in the appropriation;

(2)  Changing its effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate continued discussion; and

(3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

Should this measure be further deliberated in the legislative process, your Committee respectfully requests the Committee on Finance to consider appropriating $50,000 for Fiscal Year 2014-2015 for the continued funding of Project Kealahou.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2037, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2037, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

____________________________

DELLA AU BELATTI, Chair