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HCHA meeting September 7, 2021 <br />Kierkiewicz: Thank you guys so much for these details, we're going to have to <br />be wrapping up the presentation soon, we're kind of over committee but thank <br />you so much for hard work, you can count on all of us to help you get the word <br />out on this important program. Thank you. Sharon, we have a couple more <br />programs to get through, yeah? <br />Hirota: Yes. thanks Julie, thanks Eric. Yes, so we can always come back so I just <br />want to quickly go over the next two, the first is the Financial Empowerment <br />Centers, we've talked about this for a number of months and years and we're <br />finally getting ready for implementation so we, through several funding sources <br />including funding from the Cities for Financial Empowerment out of New York, <br />locally here Hawaii Community Foundation as well as the County, we are <br />getting ready to launch our programs, so on July 1 It we entered into a contract <br />with Hawaiian Community Assets and Hawaii First Federal Credit Union to be our <br />financial counselors and to stand up our Financial Empowerment Centers. <br />Basically, what it is, it's free one-on-one counseling services as a public service to <br />our residents, they work directly with a counseling, financial counselor to address <br />whatever their house holds needs are. I just want to move quickly along, so <br />using the concept developed by the CFE fund out of New York almost 11 years <br />ago, our funding, out of Mayor Bloomberg's foundation, it's taken off and we <br />are the first in our state to become an FEC partner. As you can see by the <br />diagram, number of components coming together in partnership, starting with <br />the local government and your support, so I appreciate your support in this <br />program, our counseling providers has indicated Hawaii First Federal Credit <br />Union as well as Hawaiian Community Assets. Our initial community partners <br />who have issued letters of support to our program and have agreed to refer <br />their clients to the FEC, they include two County departments so to Keith at the <br />Department of Water Supply and to Lisa Miura at the County Real Property Tax <br />for those that are struggling and need help in paying their obligations, instead of <br />taking them to the (inaudible) for moving into other derogatory situations, they <br />can refer them to a counselor who can connect them to potential resources <br />that are available to address all of their needs. So you can see our partners <br />there. Our funders, the Cities for Financial Empowerment Funds, Hawai `i <br />Community Foundation, and then moving along. And then our training <br />providers, so heads off to Advance, Hawaii Community College Chancellor, for <br />being committed to the program. What they did was take a curriculum that <br />was developed in the US mainland, specifically for more metropolitan cities and <br />infused our culture into the training and I will tell you that all of our counselors <br />who completed the advanced training and recently completed their <br />certification all passed so thank you to Advance, their contribution to this is they <br />did it at no cost to the program so we appreciate their partnership. So moving <br />along, just to kind of give you some conceptual idea of how this works, they will <br />walk into a center, get referred to a center and they'll do a financial health <br />assessment to address what their specific household needs are but what also <br />Page 32 of 34 <br />