STAND. COM. REP. NO.  661

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2007

 

RE:   H.B. No. 1457

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Human Services & Housing and Public Safety & Military Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1457 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AT-RISK PERSONS ON HAWAII ISLAND,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to establish a conservation corps program within the Department of Land and Natural Resources to help at-risk persons on the island of Hawaii develop life skills and job skills and to gain work experience.

    

     Specifically, this program will be designed to serve at-risk youth and adults by providing guidance, life skills, counseling, vocational training, educational activities, and case management.  The bill provides for an executive director to oversee the program, and the program will be permitted to seek and accept grants from outside sources.  Additionally, the Department of Land and Natural Resources will be required to submit annual reports to the Legislature on the progress and results of the program.

 

     Kealakehe Ahupua'a 2020 and The Corps Network submitted testimony in support of this measure.  The Department of Land and Natural Resources submitted testimony in opposition to this measure, and the Department of Public Safety submitted comments.

 

     Your Committees find that an outreach and assistance program is an effective tool for serving at-risk members of the community.  However your Committees believe such a tool is best used to serve at-risk youth in Hawaii and that an appropriate method of doing so would be to expand the existing youth conservation corps program to a year-round program for at-risk youth.  This would provide ongoing outreach, assistance, counseling, and vocational skills to youth at risk of substance abuse, juvenile delinquency, and other threats.

 

     Accordingly, your Committees have amended this bill by:

 

     (1)  Amending section 193-32, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to expand the youth conservation corps to a year-round program for at-risk youth and defining "at-risk youth;"

 

     (2)  Amending section 195-4(a), Hawaii Revised Statutes, to empower the Department of Land and Natural Resources to administer the youth conservation corps;

 

     (3)  Adding a new section to chapter 193 that allows the Department of Land and Natural Resources to seek grants and additional funding for the youth conservation corps from private and public sources; and

 

     (4)  Requiring the Department of Land and Natural Resources to establish a five-year pilot program of the youth conservation corps on the island of Hawaii.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services & Housing and Public Safety & Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1457, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1457, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services & Housing and Public Safety & Military Affairs,

 

 

____________________________

CINDY EVANS, Chair

 

____________________________

MAILE SHIMABUKURO, Chair