Report Title:

Human Services; Blueprint for Change Project

Description:

Appropriates funds for the blueprint for change project.  (SD1)

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	428
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007		S.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

relating to Human Services.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

     Section 1.  The legislature finds that the State should fund child abuse prevention and diversion services to remove the risk of child abuse within a family rather than remove a child from a family.  The rate of child abuse and neglect cases continues to rise dramatically in both numbers and severity with an overwhelming majority of the families experiencing problems with substance abuse, mental health issues, domestic violence, and poverty.

     In response to the need for child welfare reform, Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 89, 1994, created a child welfare services reform task force, known as the blueprint for change task force, to develop a blueprint for reform in child protective services.  The task force found a need to provide coordinated and comprehensive community-based services to families at risk for child abuse and neglect.

     As a result of the work of the blueprint for change task force, the legislature enacted Act 302, Session Laws of Hawaii 1996, to create "neighborhood places" or sites around the State that enable professionals to work with families identified by the child welfare system or by community members as families at risk for child abuse and neglect.  It is through the neighborhood places that families can receive necessary services before the risk level rises to the point of more costly intervention efforts within the child welfare system.

     The overall average cost of working with the blueprint for change neighborhood place is approximately $300 per family.  The average cost of a family entering the child welfare system is estimated conservatively at over $20,000 per family member.

     In 1999, private agencies and the federal government provided limited start-up funds to initiate a pilot project in Kona.  Since opening its doors, the Neighborhood Place of Kona has served as a powerful example of the success of community partnerships for child protection.  The Neighborhood Place of Kona has served over five hundred families, preventing and diverting these families from the more costly child welfare system.

     The blueprint for change program ended its pilot project and expanded the neighborhood place network to communities on the Waianae coast, central Kalihi, Wailuku on Maui, and the Puna district on the Big Island.

     The legislature further finds that without continued funding for the blueprint for change project, the neighborhood places program will not be able to continue to carry out important child welfare reform and assist at-risk families.

     The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds for the blueprint for change project, and for additional neighborhood places in Waimanalo, Oahu, and Kauai.

SECTION 2.  There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $300,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2007-2008, and the same sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2008-2009, for the blueprint for change project to continue to deliver diversion and child protective services to target families, and for additional neighborhood places in Waimanalo, Oahu, and Kauai.

     The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of human services for the purposes of this Act.

     SECTION 3.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2007.