LIHUE — Fifty years in business is an accomplishment for any organization to celebrate, but ensuring that funding is available for all services remains an ongoing battle, said Kauai Economic Opportunity Executive Director MaBel Ferreiro-Fujiuchi. With about 5,000 people depending
LIHUE — Fifty years in business is an accomplishment for any organization to celebrate, but ensuring that funding is available for all services remains an ongoing battle, said Kauai Economic Opportunity Executive Director MaBel Ferreiro-Fujiuchi.
With about 5,000 people depending on her staff of 60 people and a $4 million budget to cover food services, mobile outreach efforts, transitional housing opportunities and child care options, securing funding is a complex dance.
“My personal belief is that somebody is going to tell me, ‘No’ — I’m not going to tell me, ‘No,’ but somebody will tell me, ‘No’ — so you move on to the next person,” Ferreiro-Fujiuchi said. “It’s like a prom date. If somebody tells you, ‘No,’ you go on to the next person and if that person tells you, ‘No,’ you move on to the next person.”
And Kauai Economic Opportunity, it turns out, is not alone.
During the tail end of her swift eight-hour visit to Kauai on Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard met with representatives from Kauai Economic Opportunity, Easter Seals Kauai and Child and Family Service officials to discuss the challenges their organizations are facing.
At issue for many of the nonprofits are the continuing effects of federal budget cuts totaling $85.4 billion — known as sequestration — that took effect on March 1.
The cuts, which are evenly divided between federal domestic and defense programs, were executed after Congress failed to strike a deal that would cut $1.5 trillion in spending over the next eight years.
Although not all funding comes directly from the federal government, Ferreiro-Fujiuchi explained that some funding received from state and county governments, such as Community Development Block Grants, come from the federal government.
For Kauai Economic Opportunity, some cuts have been spared by the organization’s 30 funding sources, which include a mix of federal, state, county and private funding.
Another saving grace, Ferreiro-Fujiuchi said, was the federal government’s continuing resolution, a temporary legislative move that provides the federal government with funding equal to the previous year until Congress can pass a budget.
This resolution, Gabbard said, will only avert a government shutdown until Jan. 15.
“Sequestration, of course, affects everybody, but for us, we were dealing with a 5 percent reduction in services,” Ferreiro-Fujiuchi said. “I welcome the continuing resolution because it protects us … for another period until January.”
Some organizations, however, are feeling the effects of these budget cuts.
In September, Child and Family Service officials lost six slots in Head Start classrooms on Kauai after the Oahu-based nonprofit was forced to trim $58,923 from its Head Start programs.
Those six slots were turned into private pay enrollment slots, meaning they can be filled if parents want to pay for them, Child and Family Service Chief Executive Officer Howard Garval told The Garden Island at the time.
The challenge, Gabbard said, is to show other legislators across the nation how these cuts will affect people throughout the state.
“That’s the story that we do our best to tell in D.C. when these conversations are happening and numbers are being thrown out left and right,” Gabbard said.
“As we know in Hawaii, we talk story, because stories are important and convey in a very real, practical and human way why we do what we do and the impact of all of these numbers.”
• Darin Moriki, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0428 or dmoriki@thegardenisland.com. Follow him on Twitter at @darinmoriki.
