STAND. COM. REP. NO. 446

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 322

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Human Services and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 322 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION TO BEST BUDDIES INTERNATIONAL,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds as a grant to Best Buddies Hawaii to support its Hawaii chapters and to provide services to youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, Best Buddies International, Best Buddies Hawaii, and fifteen individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from one individual.

 

     Your Committees find that Best Buddies International is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1989 whose mission is to establish a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  Best Buddies Hawaii is a non-profit organization and the designated state affiliate of Best Buddies International.  Best Buddies Hawaii is dedicated to fostering the social integration of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  Best Buddies Hawaii serves 556 participants with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities in thirteen schools in Hawaii by involving parents, siblings, and friends, thereby positively impacting the lives of over 5,560 people in the State.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 322 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 Human Services and Health,

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair

 

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair