STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3400

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.R. No. 151

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.R. No. 151 entitled:

"SENATE RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES TO REPORT ON THE CULTURAL AND THERAPEUTIC SERVICES PROVIDED BY COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATIONS AT THE KAWAILOA YOUTH AND FAMILY WELLNESS CENTER,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to request the Department of Human Services to report on the cultural and therapeutic services provided by community-based organizations at the Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Opportunity Youth Action Hawaiʻi.

Your Committee finds that ten percent of the State's homeless population is comprised of individuals under the age of eighteen years, and that forty-four percent of homeless youth report having spent time in jail or a juvenile detention center. Your Committee further finds that state-sponsored working groups and recent reports have show that community-based support centers substantially reduce the likelihood that youth are incarcerated or experience homelessness. This measure requests informative reports on the positive effects of services provided by Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center, where members of the Opportunity Youth Action Hawaiʻi partner with state and nonprofit agencies to transform punitive modalities of treatment and incarceration with effective therapeutic community-based programs. These reports will assist the state in expanding state and private sector collaboration to implement effective therapeutic and cultural methods that will promote youth wellness and reduce youth homelessness and the negative effects of incarceration.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health and Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.R. No. 151 and recommends its adoption.

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

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JOY A. SAN BUENAVENTURA, Chair