STAND. COM. REP. NO. 444

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 237

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committees on Health and Human Services & Homelessness, to which was referred H.B. No. 237 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PEER SUPPORT PROGRAMS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds for the establishment and oversight of peer-to-peer support programs for children from birth to age five and their families.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Wellness and Resilience; Department of Health; Commit to Keiki; Hawai‘i Children's Action Network Speaks!; Hawai‘i Health & Harm Reduction Center; Family Hui Hawai‘i; Association for Infant Mental Health in Hawaiʻi; AlohaCare; and numerous individuals. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Services.

Your Committees find that peer-to-peer support programs for families with young children increase the exchange of information between parents with shared experiences, provide parents and caregivers with screening and referrals to other services, and reduce social isolation. Your Committees further find that peer-to-peer support programs are a cost-effective means of reducing negative parenting practices, connecting victims of intimate partner violence to appropriate support, and encouraging completion of substance use disorder programs. Your Committees believe that investing in peer-to-peer support programs for families with young children will increase savings in the long term and provide the State's children with a solid foundation for life.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the appropriation and position counts to unspecified amounts; and

(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion.

Your Committees respectfully requests your Committee on Finance, should it deliberate on this measure, to consider an appropriation amount of $860,000, to be allocated as follows:

(1) $200,000 for one full-time equivalent program specialist V position and one full-time equivalent program specialist IV position;

(2) $270,000 for purchase of service contracts with neighborhood or location peer-to-peer based groups; and

(3) $390,000 for purchase of service contracts for addiction and child welfare peer support programs.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services & Homelessness that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 237, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 237, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

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

____________________________ LISA MARTEN, Chair

____________________________ GREGG TAKAYAMA, Chair