HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES             H.R. NO.175           
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 1999                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                     HOUSE  RESOLUTION

  REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES TO IMPLEMENT AND
    UTILIZE THE CHILDREN'S VILLAGE CONCEPT FOR OUT-OF-HOME
    PLACEMENT WHEN APPROPRIATE.


 1        WHEREAS, currently, it is estimated that there are more
 2   than half a million boys and girls in the foster care system in
 3   America and about one-quarter of them will linger in the system
 4   indefinitely, moving from one home to another, changing schools
 5   and being separated from their brothers and sisters; and
 6   
 7        WHEREAS, about forty per cent of former foster children
 8   have required public assistance as adults while others have
 9   ended up homeless; and
10   
11        WHEREAS, the Children's Village concept offers an
12   innovative and effective alternative to traditional foster
13   care; and
14   
15        WHEREAS, under this Children's Village concept, the
16   parents in each of about eight to fifteen families in the
17   village commit to raising a permanent family without adopting
18   the children, who are biological siblings if possible, in a
19   close-knit existing neighborhood of single-family homes that
20   allows the children to experience and participate in normal
21   community life, and where each family is independent, but gives
22   and receives mutual support to each other and who are
23   additionally helped by trained, specialized staff ranging from
24   village assistants who have backgrounds in social work, staff
25   social workers, tutors, on-call psychologists, and possibly
26   even people and organizations who donate various types of in-
27   kind assistance such as donated yard service; and
28   
29        WHEREAS, in other words, the Children's Village concept is
30   based on four principles:  the village, the home, brothers and
31   sisters, and the parent; and
32   
33        WHEREAS, the architect of the first village was Herman
34   Gmeiner, who started SOS Children's Village International in
35   Austria in 1949, for orphans whose parents had died in World
36   War II; and
37   
38        WHEREAS, the SOS Children's Villages International is a
39   private, nonprofit, non-political, non-denominational
40   humanitarian children's organization second in size only to the

 
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                                  H.R. NO.176           
                                     
                                                        

 
 1   United Nations' UNICEF (United Nations International Children's
 2   Emergency Fund), and has spread to over one thousand five
 3   hundred villages in one hundred twenty-eight countries; and
 4   
 5        WHEREAS, the first SOS Children's Village in the United
 6   States was opened in 1993 and currently there are two villages
 7   operating -- one in Florida and the other in Illinois -- while
 8   a third is nearing completion in Wisconsin and the development
 9   of a fourth and fifth is being discussed in Arizona and
10   Washington, D.C.; and
11   
12        WHEREAS, under the Children's Village concept, volunteer
13   single parents (single women are preferred because of the
14   chance that a married couple's marriage may not last) receive
15   room and board and $22,000 a year, and together with their
16   assistants, are rigorously screened and trained and continue to
17   meet monthly with a clinical team of social workers and
18   psychologists; and
19   
20        WHEREAS, in the Children's Village in Florida, money to
21   build the village homes came from a grant from the
22   international SOS group, the land on which the homes were built
23   was donated, the children's medical needs are seen to by
24   Medicaid, $3,000 for each child is provided by Florida's
25   Department of Health and Rehabilitation Services and Broward
26   County, and of the estimated $30,000 in operating costs for
27   each child, ninety per cent must be covered by donations; and
28   
29        WHEREAS, when reunification with biological parents is out
30   of the question, adoption of abused and neglected children is
31   the best alternative, however, adoption of a large number of
32   biological siblings is often impractical; and
33   
34        WHEREAS, the Children's Village concept has proven to be
35   effective throughout the world, it is in the interest of the
36   people of Hawaii to avail itself of an alternative to the
37   breaking up of biological families either for adoption or for
38   placement in separate foster homes; now, therefore,
39   
40        BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the
41   Twentieth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session
42   of 1999, that the Department of Human Services is requested to
43   implement and utilize the Children's Village concept for out-
44   of-home placement when appropriate; and
45   

 
 
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                                  H.R. NO.176           
                                     
                                                        

 
 1        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this
 2   Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Human Services and
 3   the National Executive Director of SOS Children's Villages-USA,
 4   Inc.
 5   
 6   
 7   
 8                         OFFERED BY:  ____________________________