KAPA‘A — Students and community members rallied Wednesday afternoon to raise public awareness of the state’s intent to cut funding for several key youth programs. “On O‘ahu, there are other programs that overlap what is being offered through these programs
KAPA‘A — Students and community members rallied Wednesday afternoon to raise public awareness of the state’s intent to cut funding for several key youth programs.
“On O‘ahu, there are other programs that overlap what is being offered through these programs that Gov. Neil Abercrombie is cutting,” said About Face instructor Gordon Doo, who has been with the program since its inception in 2003. “But on Kaua‘i, if these programs go, that’s it. There are no other programs.”
Students from the Jump Start program, one of the affected programs, joined their instructors and other community supporters in bringing awareness to the community of the state’s plan to cut these programs and possibly others.
Jump Start covers Kapa‘a High School and Kapa‘a Middle School, Doo said.
The Community All Stars program encompasses students from Waimea Canyon Middle School and the Waimea High School, he said, and the About Face program services students from Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School and Kaua‘i High School under Polly Brun.
“Everything falls under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program,” Doo said. “Currently, there are about 300 students being serviced annually. There was a cut in 2008 where we lost more than a hundred students from across the island. Now, we’re about to lose everything.”
In part due to the end of the temporary federal stimulus aid, Abercrombie urged legislators to consider cutbacks in welfare spending like TANF which the About Face program and others fall under, and Medicare Part B for retired state workers, states the tax foundation website. The state is trying to find ways to make up for a forecasted $850 million budget shortfall over the next two years.
“We will have to scale back on those social services which funding no longer exists,” Abercrombie said in his State of the State address on Jan. 24. “There are some contracts entered into by the previous administration that assumed the existence of additional federal funds for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. These unfunded contracts are for worthy programs, and we must now find new ways to support our neighbors.”
What will be affected on Kaua‘i are the Hawai‘i Forward March, the About Face, Jump Start, and the Community All Stars program, Doo said.
“We understand when the governor says we don’t have money,” Doo said. “But in seven years that the programs have been here, we have come a long way. These programs do a lot for the students because it gives them work ready skills and life skills. When these programs are eliminated on Kaua‘i, this is not like O‘ahu where there are other programs to fall back on.”
Peggy Grande, the site manager for Forward March, said the program is working, and it’s benefiting the ones who need it — the disadvantaged families.
Joining the informational picketing were parents of students as well as alumni of these programs, noting the advantages and benefits they derived from participating in them.
Madison Perry, site manager of the Jump Start program, said people can support these programs by sending letters to their Hawai‘i state legislators.
“Jimmy Tokioka, Ron Kouchi, and the others all know about this and support the programs,” Doo said. “They can use help.”
