Brainstorming

When I look at some of the other people in the Pacific Century Fellows program, some additional ideas spring to mind:

To combat homelessness, what if we could somehow get the bankers (Danny Kim and Kamani Kuala'au from Bank of Hawai'i; Jen-L Ann Lyman, First Hawaiian Bank) to consider micro-lending? Perhaps it could be modeled on Kiva where they solicit loans from people locally, serve as the field partners on the ground, and service the loans, or it could take on its own unique form. Could they work with DLNR (Matthew Ramsey) or private entities like A&B (Rick Volner, Jr.) to provide small plots of state land to set up small businesses or perhaps work in natural resource management? I'd like to think Bank of Hawai'i would have a slightly different bottom line than some other bigger banks that have been making in-roads into the microfinance. (from the New York Times: "Banks Making Big Profits from Tiny Loans")

To combat recidivism, what if the business people (Yvette Maskrey, Honeywell International; Daniel Sandomire, Armstrong Development; Michael Takayama, Kyo-ya Management; Stephanie Vaioleti, Kahuku Medical Center) provided job training to recently released inmates, a la Delancey Street Foundation.

More to come...