Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 1, 1 January 1991 — Report due to legislature [ARTICLE]

Report due to legislature

Hui Imi works to improve Hawaiian services

by Ken Ige Assistant Editor "Hawaiians can't work together." This statement has been heard often. For many Hawaiian groups and agencies, shouldering this false assumption has been like pedalling a bicycle uphill with the brakes on. But for the past two years Hui Imi, a task force of 13 Hawaiian organizations, along with five State organizations, has been working together to find ways of improving services to Hawaiian people. Hui Imi has just completed its final report and will give its findings and recommendations to the legislature this month. Haunani Apoliona, Hui Imi's vice chairwoman and new president and chief executive officer of Alu Like, Ine., said the cooperation of the task force's private and public agencies and representatives has shown that Hawaiian groups ean work together. She added that the time and work for this study allowed the different groups to become more familiar with eaeh other. And although the task

force itself may no longer exist, depending on legislative action in the upcoming session, Apoliona said this familiarization will likely promote further cooperation. "This will increase the likelihood of their working together in the future and will also make for more informed referrals and better use of their respective talents," she said. Hui Imi's report contains five tasks: 1) an inventory of current services and programs; 2) an assessment of the use and accessibility of these services and programs; 3) an analysis of the quality of coordination of the existing services and programs; 4) an identification of critical needs and requirements to be addressed through future services and programs; and 5) recommendations on improving accessibility, quality of coordination, and the provision of future services and programs. Linda Colburn, OHA eeonomie development officer and staff to the task force, said she feels the report is one of the most exhaustive and interview-based grassroots studies ever done in Hawaii.

Omnitrak, an independent research organization, did one-on-one interviews between an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and 50 minutes eaeh with 250 Hawaiians. The sample group included people from the Big Island, Kauai, Lanai, Molokai, Maui and Oahu. These people are from different socio-economic and occupational categories, gender, age, blood quantum groups, members and non-members of OHA, those living in urban and rural communities and on homestead land. Colburn said the task force itself was also a good mix. "The group brought together an extraordinary blend of expertise whieh contributed significantly to the product." A sample of some of the interview topics: what is important in their life for them and their family; what it means to be Hawaiian; the difference between their life and what they want for their ehildren; kinds of services and programs they are aware of; whieh services they use; why they don't use other services; whether they ever wanted a "service but were not able to get it; suggestions for more culturally appropriate ways that services ean be provided to make them more accessible; and suggestions for the improvement of services. Results and recommendations of the report will be made public after members of the 1991 Legislature have reviewed it. But Colburn hinted that most of the findings corroborate what task force participants have long suspected. "For the first time we have documentation to support us," she said, adding that, more importantly, they now have something concrete on whieh Hawaiian agencies and providers ean base future legislation. Colburn said the Hui Imi task force was an example of a successful collaboration of entities. "It's an example of what ean be," she said. "Not just for this task, but for the future."