STAND. COM. REP. NO. 44

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 923

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 923 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HUMAN SERVICES,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds as a grant to Network Enterprises, Inc. to establish a maintenance program that provides employment for persons with disabilities, unemployed veterans, public housing residents, and socially and economically disadvantaged people in need of employment.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Public Housing Authority; Network Enterprises, Inc.; and two individuals.

 

     Your Committee finds that Network Enterprises, Inc. is a non-profit community rehabilitation program that provides vocational rehabilitation, job training, job placement, and support services for persons in Hawaii with physical, social, economic, and intellectual challenges.  Network Enterprises, Inc. is requesting funding to be used for the establishment of a maintenance component that will provide temporary and transitional employment and training services for clients.  Currently, Network Enterprises, Inc. does not have an in-house transitional component, which is an important and much needed step to competitive employment and self-sufficiency.  Your Committee further finds that Network Enterprises, Inc. does not have the resources to establish this program without the help of state funding.  This program will go a long way in providing meaningful employment and training for some of Hawaii's neediest individuals.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 923 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services,

 

 

 

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair