Hawai'I Island Workforce & Economic Development Ohana Inc

“No review was or will be conducted.”

“Reported to hiwedo president and board of directors.”

“Executive director comparable data from internet sites and hawaii alliance of nonprofit organization. List from job type county of hawaii and state of hawaii. Special committee of the board of directors and deliberation of the whole board of directors.”

“Other officers and board members are not compensated. No employees compensated over 100,000 per year.”

“Upon written request by interested parties to hiwedo officers, directors or administrative personnel a copy of tax returns and policies will be provided for viewing at the offices of hiwedo”

“Agency mission statement: the hawaii island workforce and economic development ohana (hiwedo) is a private non-profit established in 2005. The organization's purpose is to facilitate the establishment of a workforce development system for the county of hawaii that will respond proactively to the divergent employment and training needs of the county by building community collaboration and by expanding financial resources. Hiwedo bridges economic development and workforce development through collaboration with government and private agencies and businesses to develop long term plans, directives and solutions for employment and training to meet the needs of hawaii county. Hiwedo promotes responsiveness, flexibility, and accessibility in all initiatives.”

“Board of directors are unpaid volunteers giving service to hiwedo in quarterly board meetings and are available to staff and other board members to carry out the operations and programs of hiwedo. Consultants to the board service in an unpaid capacity are workforce professionals, corrections staff, educators and members of the community. Hiwedo has persons from our community volunteer in our second chance grant and assist in our mentoring program.”

“The new affordable healthcare act, and osha enforcement in hawaii; hiwedo co-sponsored the roadmaps to healthcare careers strategic planning event, a vet job fair and a north hawaii ag roundup; the hawaii island business leadership network (hibln). Hiwedo believes in focusing on a person's abilities, not their disabilities, in order to develop a competent and qualified workforce. We pride ourselves with our commitment and involvement of the hibln. The hibln is hawaii's second business-to-business organization created by business leaders, to promote the best practices of hiring persons with disabilities in the workforce. In order to recognize islands businesses for their efforts in hiring, retaining and developing the unique skills of persons with disabilities, hiwedo sponsors many of the workshops and events with the hibln.”

“Going home second chance projects were transfered to other agencies to carry on our work with this community. Going home has grown from infancy into a broad community effort through the cooperative efforts of nearly 40 agencies and organization and the partnership with government. This consortium approach provides facilitation, collaboration, community-building, research and support. Second chance target population includes all inmates who have at least four months left on their sentence. They are processed through hale nani's successful transition and re-entry together (start) re-entry program. Inmates may be required to participate in cognitive skills training, financial literacy, job readiness training, alcohol/drug education classes and 12-step groups, family reunification, and job readiness to help them be prepared for release. These services are provided by the going home consortium. A community-based initiative will assist inmates in re-entry to employment, training and appropriate transitional services. Mentoring and case management services are available to support offenders in the reintegration process. The project manager will match the offender with an appropriate trained mentor. The project staff and its justice agency partners will jointly carry out behavior assessment, data collection, and analysis to monitor the performance of the project. Second chance mentoring was a 2 year federally funded project that provided mentoring services as a vital component of the reentry strategy for former criminal offenders. It successfully paired 54 community mentor/volunteers with former criminal offenders transitioning back into the community and workplace. Mentors and staff provided ex-offenders with positive role models, a stabilizing factor and the necessary assistance in overcoming adversities and frustrations. The overarching goal was to curb recidivism and to increase public safety. The project was very successful and the state public safety department is looking for funding to continue the mentoring program in hawaii county and to initiate the program statewide.”