STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2234

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2449

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 2449 entitled:

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

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate $50,000 for the continued funding of Project Kealahou, a program that promotes community-based, individualized services for at-risk adolescent girls.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Hawaii Youth Services, Community Alliance on Prisons, Hawaii Public Policy Advocates, YWCA of Oahu, and two individuals.

     Your Committees find that Project Kealahou provides mental health and family support services to adolescent girls who have experienced trauma and are housed within the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division of the Department of Health.  Your Committees further find that Project Kealahou is currently funded through a federal grant that will be phased out.  This measure will allow this effective program to continue to provide therapy and education to the girls and their families, while reducing the risks of suicide, violence, and future involvement in the criminal justice systems.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2449 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Human Services,

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair

____________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair