We then traveled to the Pacific Aquaculture & Coastal Resources Center to hear from Dr. Kevin Hughes about their initiatives. Their mission is to engender sustainable aquaculture, marine science, conservation biology, collaborative research, outreach and training. Hilo is an ideal location for this type of venture because it has all marine environments represented and a wide diversity of communities.
Most of their money comes from "soft" which Dr. Hopkins encourages because then they don't become complacent due to a guaranteed revenue stream and have to respond to a "customer" (i.e. those providing their grants).
Our next stop was at the Hawaiian charter school Ke Kula Mauli Ola Hawai'i 'O Nawahiokalani'opu'u. We were greeted with a traditional oli from the upper school students, presented with lei, and then given a tour of the facilities. One of the highlights was seeing the preschoolers and hearing them speak and sing their songs in Hawaiian. It was a really impressive display.
The day culminated with a lunch panel session at the "Imiloa Astronomy Center where we heard about the Mauna Kea Management plan. The cultural significance of this area had been neglected in the past so group of community leaders and representatives got together to create a master plan. Native Hawaiians see Maunakea (the preferred spelling by the UH-Hilo Language department) as the piko of Wakea, the creator of the Hawaiian people. It is a connection to history for them and must be respected and preserved accordingly. There is future development planned with the Thirty Meter Telescope but it is being pursued with heightened cultural and environmental sensitivity.
That evening we were hosted at a dinner reception back at 'Imiloa to honor PCF alumni from the Big Island, and community leaders. We were joined by our main benefactor Mufi Hannemann who was very gracious just a few days after his election defeat in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. He showed a lot of class and fed off Billy Kenoi's positive energy and humor to enliven the evening.
Monday, September 27, 2010
PCF— Big Island retreat, part 1
We started off two days on the Big Island with a Mayoral Breakfast at the Hawai'i Innovation Center located in downtown Hilo. The mayor was running a little late so we heard from three PCF alums who live in Hilo: Ka'iu Kimura, Kaloa Robertson, and Toby Fujitani.
When the mayor arrived he couldn't have been less like a mayor— we heard slippers slapping down the hall as jogged to the door and then he burst into the room in board shorts and a T-Shirt. He then proceeded to blow us away with his energetic, funny, thought-provoking insights of what leadership is all about. Some of the highlights:
He started out by lamenting how many people love to make outlines of ideas (such as people at conferences: "Great conference!" but where are the ideas?) but to get anything down it's about leadership.
His father told him once that to be effective you need to think, feel, and then speak. Then everything you say is from your heart and you know that ni matter what you've been honest. "Do it with aloha." ("Only be shame if you steal.")
His personal history was incredibly compelling: 1.8 GPA in high school, on a path to prison until his friend introduced him to a professor at UH-Hilo who thrust an application into his hand and said "I understand you belong here." He went on the graduate with Honors from UMass—Amherst and then went on to law school at UH— Manoa. he sought to use his considerable speaking talents to bring the gift of advocacy to people who didn't have a voice— worked for Legal Aid, Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund.
To Billy Kenoi, leadership is:
— take blame and give credit
— look at all the information then make a decision (the difficult decisions)
— avoid the paralysis of analysis
— be accountable, responsible
— surround yourself with excellence
He then broke it down to the 3 E's:
— education
— experience
— expertise
and the 3 C's:
— committed
— compassionate
— courageous
Move people, build people, inspire people; never break people, especially in public,
• research + preparation = success ("it is inexcusable to be unprepared or ill-informed when you are expected to be at your best.
• strategic analysis
talk story with as many people as possible— ask different people how to look at something; if you have more information than the other side you have the advantage
• execute
you gotta perform!
when you're positive and you "aloha" everybody then everything will work out (and it's free!)
When the mayor arrived he couldn't have been less like a mayor— we heard slippers slapping down the hall as jogged to the door and then he burst into the room in board shorts and a T-Shirt. He then proceeded to blow us away with his energetic, funny, thought-provoking insights of what leadership is all about. Some of the highlights:
He started out by lamenting how many people love to make outlines of ideas (such as people at conferences: "Great conference!" but where are the ideas?) but to get anything down it's about leadership.
His father told him once that to be effective you need to think, feel, and then speak. Then everything you say is from your heart and you know that ni matter what you've been honest. "Do it with aloha." ("Only be shame if you steal.")
His personal history was incredibly compelling: 1.8 GPA in high school, on a path to prison until his friend introduced him to a professor at UH-Hilo who thrust an application into his hand and said "I understand you belong here." He went on the graduate with Honors from UMass—Amherst and then went on to law school at UH— Manoa. he sought to use his considerable speaking talents to bring the gift of advocacy to people who didn't have a voice— worked for Legal Aid, Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund.
To Billy Kenoi, leadership is:
— take blame and give credit
— look at all the information then make a decision (the difficult decisions)
— avoid the paralysis of analysis
— be accountable, responsible
— surround yourself with excellence
He then broke it down to the 3 E's:
— education
— experience
— expertise
and the 3 C's:
— committed
— compassionate
— courageous
Move people, build people, inspire people; never break people, especially in public,
• research + preparation = success ("it is inexcusable to be unprepared or ill-informed when you are expected to be at your best.
• strategic analysis
talk story with as many people as possible— ask different people how to look at something; if you have more information than the other side you have the advantage
• execute
you gotta perform!
when you're positive and you "aloha" everybody then everything will work out (and it's free!)
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
PCF— Environmental Sustainability Day
PART I
Our day began with a panel discussion with Hawaiian Electric Companies Robbie Alm, Executive Vice President; Colton Ching, Manager, Corporate Planning Dept.; Darcy Endo-Omoto, Vide President, Government and Community Affairs; and Scott Seu, Manager, Resource Acquisition Department.
Robbie Alm spoke of how Hawai'i is in a unique position to "get off of oil." The rest of the US is stuck on cheap energy from coal, whereas Hawai'i gets most of its electricity from burning petroleum whcih we all know is volatile and only going to go up in price. The break down of Mainland versus Hawai'i electricity generation:
Mainland:
coal— 48%
natural gas— 21%
nuclear— 20% (I was surprised it was so high)
hydro— 6%
petroleum— 2%
renewable— 3%
Hawai'i:
petroleum— 77%
coal— 15% (I was surprised that figure was so high)
renewable— 8%
hydro— 1%
With a Gross State Product of $63.8 billion (Colton Ching), Hawai'i spent $8.4 billion on energy with most of that ($7 billion) getting sent out of the state. 90% of the spending is on fossil fuels: jet fuel (34%), electricity (32%), gasoline/marine fuel (27%)
HECO, according to Mr. Alm has made a commitment to change its corporate philosophy to provide clean energy. Employees or managers who refuse to embrace that philosophy have been let go. The three goals for HECO heading into the future:
1) meet clean energy goals (renewable, greenhouse gas targets) while maintaining service
2) reliability, safety
3) reasonable costs
They are proposing a paradigm shift for energy:
— from economic drain to economic engine
— from energy insecurity to security
— from environmental harm to compatibility
— from price volatility to stability
To achieve those goals HECO will aggressively pursue all forms of renewables: solar, biomass, geothermal, OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion), wind, wave, biofuel, refuse (H-Power), and hydrogen. For now, the most viable commercially, available on a large scale in a five-year horizon, and with no fuel cost are solar and wind energy.
The large scale wind generation plan calls for putting wind farms on Moloka'i and Lana'i and then sending the electricity to O'ahu via an underwater cable. (The neighbor islands represent 322,922 people— roughly 38% of the state— but are much richer in renewables. The Big Island gets 29% of its peak load from wind, Lana'i 28%, and Maui 17% from wind.) The challenges of the underwater cable project:
— interisland connection
— effective integration of intermittent generation
— what to do with oil-burning plants?
— switch to sustainable biofuels?
— testing at Kahe and Ma'alaea
— new biofuel unit at Campbell Industrial Park
— customer role
— choices: efficiency, pricing options
The role of HECO is changing. The key word I heard was "decoupling:: eliminating the incentive of HECO to make more money when people consume more electricity. As a result it will set rates and revenues based on grid and investments in the new grid that are financially sound and reliable (two other key words repeated several times).
Resources:
hawaiienergyfuture.com
heco.com
hawaiicleanenergyinitiative.org
hawaii.gov/dbedt/info/energy
Hawaii National Energy Institute
hawaiienergy.com
PART II
The next part of the day consisted of a presentations about the "State of the Industry: Hawai'i's Clean Energy Initiative" from representatives of the government and alternative energy industries.
Representing the government were Ted Peck, state energy adminstrator; Representative Hermina Morita, Chain, House Energy and Environmental Protection Committee; and Carlito Caliboso, Chairman, Public Utilities Commission.
Representative Morita started off discussing the importance of using the statutory power to implement energy policy. Long-term thinking is required connecting PUC, Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, the legislature, and the gubernatorial administration.
Mr. Caliboso gave a brief history of the PUC: created by the legislature to regulate utilities, so that they are reliable (there's that word again), with fair rates, and provide a reasonable return. The latter two goals are in conflict with each other and that's where the challenge lies in working with a for-profit company like HECO. Policy objective include: energy security— reduce dependence on foreign oil, ensure supply, stable prices; and climate change.
Ted Peck showed how the Hawai'i Clean Energy Initiative— which seeks to generate 70% of Hawai'i's energy with renewables by 2030— shapes up in specific data.
Current (ha!) situation:
— 2,351 MW capacity
— 1,691 MW peak load
— 201 MW renewables
— 853 MW under development today
The near-term potential for renewables: $1.3 billion in revenue ($158 million in tax revenue) and 2,600 construction jobs; $220 million annual revenue ($12 million tax revenue) and 500 sustained jobs. To achieve this objective the state is focused on getting private money into the transformation. They need $16-20 million and so far they've received $220 million from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act passed in the spring of 2009.
The industry representatives were Wren Westcoatt from First Wind, Roy Starling from Hawai'i Energy, Riley Saito from Sun Power Corporation, and Joel Matsunaga from Hawai'i Bio Energy.
Wren Westcoatt spoke of how First Wind has 8 wind farms nationwide and 2 in Hawai'i (Kaheawa on Maui and Kahuku on O'ahu). He said it generally takes 3 years to build a project: 2 years for permitting and environmental assessments, and then 6-9 months for actual construction. Once built a project will run for 20 years. He also said they have a 8 MW battery by Xtreme Power, Inc. to store energy in case the wind dies down.
Roy Starling shared how Hawai'i Energy main mission is to uphold the conservation and efficiency part of the HCEI. Of the 70% alternative energy called for in HCEI, 30% will come from cutting down on waste in our current grid.
Riley Saito highlighted how progress is being made in photovoltaic (PV) technology due to federal subsidies, uncapping the tax credit, and a drop in PV prices. We are getting close to voided (?) costs.
Joel Matsunaga explained how Hawai'i Bio Energy has 6 partners: Grove Farm, Kamehameha Schools, Maui Land and Pineapple, Vinod Khosla, and Ohana Holdings (Pierre Omidyar). Farmers grow the crops to use as biofuels but they need land, water, technology, and the seeds. So far they've experimented with sorghum, eucalyptus, sweet beets, amd micro-algae. The latter is funded by the military. Phase 1 has called for Hawai'i Bio Energy to produce oil at $2 per gallon and jet fuel at $3 per gallon, which they have successfully achieved. Phase 2 calls for getting production costs of oil down to $1 per gallon. The goal is to have a "green fleet"— bio-fuel jet fuel by 2012.
The potential for alternative energy in Hawai'i is huge. Moloka'i and Lana'i wind farms can produce 10% of the state's energy needs. Solar heating is currently on 25% of houses-- why not more? Solar energy is the most intense in the US-- we currently generate 10/w per capita, we're on pace to double that every year, feed-in tariffs are under development, and the dept. of energy estimates we can generate 1 GW of energy from solar. Biofuels have the potential to send 5 million barrels per year to HECO for their biofuel plants. This could double agriculture in Hawai'i and displace 10% of the pertoleum to the state.
PART III
Our second stop was at the Gas Company where we heard from Tom Young, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; Mike Kita, Director of Supply and Logistics; Stephanie Ackerman, Vice President, Sales and Customer Loyalty; Jill Tokunaga, Vice President, Marketing; and Vince Loo, SNG Plant Manager.
The Gas Company has 1,000 mile network on the south side of O'ahu. They boast an 89% efficiency rate in their production and transmission (versus 30% at HECO).
The Gas Company's renewable strategy starts with Act 234 which requires Hawai'i businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to below 1990 levels by 2020. Hawai'i is unique in that we have no natural gas, so we must produce our own. TGS is the only US gas utility that produces its own syngas. Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) is a low carbon heat source. TGC seeks to produce 50% of their SNG from renewable sources by 2015. Their plant flexibility allows for renewable gas generation and experiments are under way utilizing various biofuels. They currently use naptha from the neighboring Tesoro plant. Its also conceivable that they might be able to use the spent algae use by Hawaii Bio Energy as a feedstock.
Hydrogen is a bi-product of the SNG process. This hydrogen can be used to develop hydrogen fuel cells for the future.
PART IV
Our next stop was at the H-Power plant where we heard from Robert Webster, Facility Manager; and Rodney Smith, Facility Business Manager. There we learned that the average US citizen produces 4.5 lbs. of waste per day, versus 6.8 lbs. in Hawai'i (include tourists).
Waste composition:
cardboard and paper— 31%
yard trimmings— 13.2%
food scraps— 12.7%
plastics— 12.0%
metals— 8.4%
rubber, leather, textiles— 7.9%
wood— 6.6%
glass— 4.9%
other— 3.3%
H-Power is managed by Covanta. They claim to be able to burn 80% of all municipal waste (excluding hazardous, medical, or sewage waste) and that once the third boilers is built they will be able to burn 100% of the waste and convert it into energy. 1 ton of trash burned equals 1 barrel of oil. They are able to generate 45 megawatts of renewable energy, or enough to power about 45,000 homes. They also are able to recycle the ferrous and non-ferrous metals that come out of the burning process. The left over ash is sent to the landfill.
This all sounded way too good to be true, and considering the source it probably is. They claim that there is virtually no emissions of hazardous gases into the environment and that the ash is not a problem. They seemed to suggest that recycling is a waste of time and resources because they can burn almost all of our solid waste. Because their bonuses are based on how much electricity they produce, it makes sense that they would want as much of our waste as possible.
PART V
Our long day ended at the Fed Ohrt Water Museum in Kalihi. We heard from Arthur Aiu, Community Relations Specialist, Honolulu Board of Water Supply; and Carolyn “Cat” Sawai, Internal Conservation Program Coordinator, Water Resources Division. They essentially told us that we have nothing to worry about when it comes to water (?!). Apparently we get approximately 5 billion gallons into the watershed each day but only pump about 150 million gallons. Nevertheless, they still gave us a packet about how to conserve water, which is nice. If we ever run into a water crisis in the future, there is already a well drilled into the caprock to allow for desalinization. that may be nice as well, but not the proper message in my view.
Our day began with a panel discussion with Hawaiian Electric Companies Robbie Alm, Executive Vice President; Colton Ching, Manager, Corporate Planning Dept.; Darcy Endo-Omoto, Vide President, Government and Community Affairs; and Scott Seu, Manager, Resource Acquisition Department.
Robbie Alm spoke of how Hawai'i is in a unique position to "get off of oil." The rest of the US is stuck on cheap energy from coal, whereas Hawai'i gets most of its electricity from burning petroleum whcih we all know is volatile and only going to go up in price. The break down of Mainland versus Hawai'i electricity generation:
Mainland:
coal— 48%
natural gas— 21%
nuclear— 20% (I was surprised it was so high)
hydro— 6%
petroleum— 2%
renewable— 3%
Hawai'i:
petroleum— 77%
coal— 15% (I was surprised that figure was so high)
renewable— 8%
hydro— 1%
With a Gross State Product of $63.8 billion (Colton Ching), Hawai'i spent $8.4 billion on energy with most of that ($7 billion) getting sent out of the state. 90% of the spending is on fossil fuels: jet fuel (34%), electricity (32%), gasoline/marine fuel (27%)
HECO, according to Mr. Alm has made a commitment to change its corporate philosophy to provide clean energy. Employees or managers who refuse to embrace that philosophy have been let go. The three goals for HECO heading into the future:
1) meet clean energy goals (renewable, greenhouse gas targets) while maintaining service
2) reliability, safety
3) reasonable costs
They are proposing a paradigm shift for energy:
— from economic drain to economic engine
— from energy insecurity to security
— from environmental harm to compatibility
— from price volatility to stability
To achieve those goals HECO will aggressively pursue all forms of renewables: solar, biomass, geothermal, OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion), wind, wave, biofuel, refuse (H-Power), and hydrogen. For now, the most viable commercially, available on a large scale in a five-year horizon, and with no fuel cost are solar and wind energy.
The large scale wind generation plan calls for putting wind farms on Moloka'i and Lana'i and then sending the electricity to O'ahu via an underwater cable. (The neighbor islands represent 322,922 people— roughly 38% of the state— but are much richer in renewables. The Big Island gets 29% of its peak load from wind, Lana'i 28%, and Maui 17% from wind.) The challenges of the underwater cable project:
— interisland connection
— effective integration of intermittent generation
— what to do with oil-burning plants?
— switch to sustainable biofuels?
— testing at Kahe and Ma'alaea
— new biofuel unit at Campbell Industrial Park
— customer role
— choices: efficiency, pricing options
The role of HECO is changing. The key word I heard was "decoupling:: eliminating the incentive of HECO to make more money when people consume more electricity. As a result it will set rates and revenues based on grid and investments in the new grid that are financially sound and reliable (two other key words repeated several times).
Resources:
hawaiienergyfuture.com
heco.com
hawaiicleanenergyinitiative.org
hawaii.gov/dbedt/info/energy
Hawaii National Energy Institute
hawaiienergy.com
PART II
The next part of the day consisted of a presentations about the "State of the Industry: Hawai'i's Clean Energy Initiative" from representatives of the government and alternative energy industries.
Representing the government were Ted Peck, state energy adminstrator; Representative Hermina Morita, Chain, House Energy and Environmental Protection Committee; and Carlito Caliboso, Chairman, Public Utilities Commission.
Representative Morita started off discussing the importance of using the statutory power to implement energy policy. Long-term thinking is required connecting PUC, Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, the legislature, and the gubernatorial administration.
Mr. Caliboso gave a brief history of the PUC: created by the legislature to regulate utilities, so that they are reliable (there's that word again), with fair rates, and provide a reasonable return. The latter two goals are in conflict with each other and that's where the challenge lies in working with a for-profit company like HECO. Policy objective include: energy security— reduce dependence on foreign oil, ensure supply, stable prices; and climate change.
Ted Peck showed how the Hawai'i Clean Energy Initiative— which seeks to generate 70% of Hawai'i's energy with renewables by 2030— shapes up in specific data.
Current (ha!) situation:
— 2,351 MW capacity
— 1,691 MW peak load
— 201 MW renewables
— 853 MW under development today
The near-term potential for renewables: $1.3 billion in revenue ($158 million in tax revenue) and 2,600 construction jobs; $220 million annual revenue ($12 million tax revenue) and 500 sustained jobs. To achieve this objective the state is focused on getting private money into the transformation. They need $16-20 million and so far they've received $220 million from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act passed in the spring of 2009.
The industry representatives were Wren Westcoatt from First Wind, Roy Starling from Hawai'i Energy, Riley Saito from Sun Power Corporation, and Joel Matsunaga from Hawai'i Bio Energy.
Wren Westcoatt spoke of how First Wind has 8 wind farms nationwide and 2 in Hawai'i (Kaheawa on Maui and Kahuku on O'ahu). He said it generally takes 3 years to build a project: 2 years for permitting and environmental assessments, and then 6-9 months for actual construction. Once built a project will run for 20 years. He also said they have a 8 MW battery by Xtreme Power, Inc. to store energy in case the wind dies down.
Roy Starling shared how Hawai'i Energy main mission is to uphold the conservation and efficiency part of the HCEI. Of the 70% alternative energy called for in HCEI, 30% will come from cutting down on waste in our current grid.
Riley Saito highlighted how progress is being made in photovoltaic (PV) technology due to federal subsidies, uncapping the tax credit, and a drop in PV prices. We are getting close to voided (?) costs.
Joel Matsunaga explained how Hawai'i Bio Energy has 6 partners: Grove Farm, Kamehameha Schools, Maui Land and Pineapple, Vinod Khosla, and Ohana Holdings (Pierre Omidyar). Farmers grow the crops to use as biofuels but they need land, water, technology, and the seeds. So far they've experimented with sorghum, eucalyptus, sweet beets, amd micro-algae. The latter is funded by the military. Phase 1 has called for Hawai'i Bio Energy to produce oil at $2 per gallon and jet fuel at $3 per gallon, which they have successfully achieved. Phase 2 calls for getting production costs of oil down to $1 per gallon. The goal is to have a "green fleet"— bio-fuel jet fuel by 2012.
The potential for alternative energy in Hawai'i is huge. Moloka'i and Lana'i wind farms can produce 10% of the state's energy needs. Solar heating is currently on 25% of houses-- why not more? Solar energy is the most intense in the US-- we currently generate 10/w per capita, we're on pace to double that every year, feed-in tariffs are under development, and the dept. of energy estimates we can generate 1 GW of energy from solar. Biofuels have the potential to send 5 million barrels per year to HECO for their biofuel plants. This could double agriculture in Hawai'i and displace 10% of the pertoleum to the state.
PART III
Our second stop was at the Gas Company where we heard from Tom Young, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; Mike Kita, Director of Supply and Logistics; Stephanie Ackerman, Vice President, Sales and Customer Loyalty; Jill Tokunaga, Vice President, Marketing; and Vince Loo, SNG Plant Manager.
The Gas Company has 1,000 mile network on the south side of O'ahu. They boast an 89% efficiency rate in their production and transmission (versus 30% at HECO).
The Gas Company's renewable strategy starts with Act 234 which requires Hawai'i businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to below 1990 levels by 2020. Hawai'i is unique in that we have no natural gas, so we must produce our own. TGS is the only US gas utility that produces its own syngas. Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) is a low carbon heat source. TGC seeks to produce 50% of their SNG from renewable sources by 2015. Their plant flexibility allows for renewable gas generation and experiments are under way utilizing various biofuels. They currently use naptha from the neighboring Tesoro plant. Its also conceivable that they might be able to use the spent algae use by Hawaii Bio Energy as a feedstock.
Hydrogen is a bi-product of the SNG process. This hydrogen can be used to develop hydrogen fuel cells for the future.
PART IV
Our next stop was at the H-Power plant where we heard from Robert Webster, Facility Manager; and Rodney Smith, Facility Business Manager. There we learned that the average US citizen produces 4.5 lbs. of waste per day, versus 6.8 lbs. in Hawai'i (include tourists).
Waste composition:
cardboard and paper— 31%
yard trimmings— 13.2%
food scraps— 12.7%
plastics— 12.0%
metals— 8.4%
rubber, leather, textiles— 7.9%
wood— 6.6%
glass— 4.9%
other— 3.3%
H-Power is managed by Covanta. They claim to be able to burn 80% of all municipal waste (excluding hazardous, medical, or sewage waste) and that once the third boilers is built they will be able to burn 100% of the waste and convert it into energy. 1 ton of trash burned equals 1 barrel of oil. They are able to generate 45 megawatts of renewable energy, or enough to power about 45,000 homes. They also are able to recycle the ferrous and non-ferrous metals that come out of the burning process. The left over ash is sent to the landfill.
This all sounded way too good to be true, and considering the source it probably is. They claim that there is virtually no emissions of hazardous gases into the environment and that the ash is not a problem. They seemed to suggest that recycling is a waste of time and resources because they can burn almost all of our solid waste. Because their bonuses are based on how much electricity they produce, it makes sense that they would want as much of our waste as possible.
PART V
Our long day ended at the Fed Ohrt Water Museum in Kalihi. We heard from Arthur Aiu, Community Relations Specialist, Honolulu Board of Water Supply; and Carolyn “Cat” Sawai, Internal Conservation Program Coordinator, Water Resources Division. They essentially told us that we have nothing to worry about when it comes to water (?!). Apparently we get approximately 5 billion gallons into the watershed each day but only pump about 150 million gallons. Nevertheless, they still gave us a packet about how to conserve water, which is nice. If we ever run into a water crisis in the future, there is already a well drilled into the caprock to allow for desalinization. that may be nice as well, but not the proper message in my view.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
PCF— Social Services Day
The day started out in Waianae with a panel discussion moderated by Debbie Kim Morikawa, Director of the City and County of Honolulu Department of Community Services and featuring: Teresa Gonsalves and Dodie Rivers from the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center; Shannon Hayes from US VETS; Valerie Tavai from the Honolulu Community Community action Program; Sophina Valencia from Waianae Community Outreach; Fred Saunders from the Dept. of Community Services; and Captain Mitchell Kiyuna from the Honolulu Police Department.
Debbie Kim Morikawa started off the discussion by describing the scope and mission of the Department of Community Services
— $76 million budget
— youth/elderly services
— homeless
— economic development
Many services are delivered by private, non-profit organizations.
Shannon Hayes explained how U.S. VETS works. It is a state-funded non-profit that serves as an emergency and transition shelter. They have 300 clients, half of whom are children. The population can stay in the shelter up to two years. The population features both extremes— those coming from the beach and those coming from structures living arrangements.
— 70-80% of the populations used to be Hawaiian or part-Hawaiian; now they’re seeing more and more Micronesians.
— 90-95% have substance abuse issues— ice, marijuana, opiates
Their goal is to help the population become self-sufficient. The average stay is eight months and so far they have transitioned 68% of their population successfully.
From Shannon we learned that in order to enter a shelter, a person needs two “verification of homeless letters.” Those are usually written by Waianae Community Outreach and the Waianae Community Comprehensive Health Center after two contact with a person in a homeless situation.
Teresa Gonsalves and Dodie Rivera then talked about their mobile health services, entitlements counseling (insurance, Food Stamps), transportation services, housing application help, and Legal Aid. The ages of their clients range from younger than 1 up to 60. They’ve found that their population is mostly from Hawai’i with only 1% (so far) comprised of mainland transplants.
Sophina Placencia spoke of how her agency does outreach four days a week to get people into their two emergency shelters that provide many of the same services.
Valerie Tavai spoke at length about changing perceptions of homeless people about themselves and by the community. In her view, one of the main reasons for homelessness is that there is a lot of hurt in Waianae caused by abuse of all kinds— drug, physical, mental, sexual, neglect. There has also been a steady marginalization of poor communities due to gentrification. In order to counteract that trend there needs to be several steps taken:
— hire from the community
— raise expectations of homeless people
— education
— mentoring/modeling by others successful people
Here is where I started to wonder about the utility of micro-lending in this community. Could there be entrepreneurs in need of a small loan to give them that opportunity that would change their lives? Or even a small loan that could give a family the cushion to go to school to get that certification that could lead to a better job? This community is so tight and the shelters keep such close tabs on their clients it seems like they would have the best insights as to who would be worthy of getting those loans and capable of paying them back. It seems like the Pacific Century Fellows program could help provide the funds to create such a program and the business and banking mentoring to help them succeed. I’ve spoken with a bunch of people about whether that could work (Kive, ProFounder) and how it might work. We’ll see how that develops.
Fred Saunders spoke about the “One Stop Center” concept funded by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. It covers all people in a community that fall below certain income thresholds who need help becoming relatively self-sufficient— education (at Leeward Community College), employment training, job search skills such as interviewing and resume building. There is also the “Rent to Work,” a one-year program that assists with permanent housing as long as people maintain employment and seek to improve themselves.
Finally, HPD spoke of how they are there to assist people instead of busting them. In their words, “homelessness is not a crime.” They seek to enforce existing laws such as park closures and parking lot closures so that the homeless are forced to take advantage of the wide variety of services available to them at the many shelters. (Two new laws will also help in this regard: the definition of a tent— only structures with one side are allowed in city parks; no shopping carts in city parks.) What they’ve found is that the homeless rarely are the ones committing crimes; for the most part it is criminal elements hiding out in homeless areas. As a result, the homeless are unfairly blamed fro crimes committed in their areas.
My ultimate take-away from this very informative one-hour discussion is that the homelessness issue is even more complicated than I previously understood, but that there are also more agencies and dedicated individuals than I realized doing a tremendous amount of work to alleviate the symptoms and address the root causes. It would be exciting to be part of the solution to this issue that affects all of us on O’ahu.
On our way to Ma’ili Ulu Ke Kukui Transitional Housing for Families we stopped by “Guard Rails,” a homeless encampment located right next to the highway. There we met Junior Atisanoe (brother of Saleva’a, a.k.a. Konishiki) who works for the Department of Human Services and the Hawaii Public Husing Authority as Project Coordinator. Junior’s message as well as that of the “mayor” of Guard Rails is that the homeless aren’t criminals and they’re not all drug addicts. Many of them work and many of them are trying to improve themselves so that they can get off the beach. It was important for us to see people who are not in shelters but who may be the next ones to take that step. It didn’t feel like any of them are lost causes and put a human face on the homeless, for sure.
At Ulu Ke Kukui we met Fanchon Young, the site director. She explained that their state-funded agency has five buildings with 80 units, (42 beds, and 22 studios) and they serve at-risk and homeless families (as opposed to just homeless at other shelters). In order to qualify for space at Ulu Ke Kukui a family must have children, some form of income, and stay drug and alcohol free. There is a small fee for a unit and a family can stay for up to 24 months. Their population is mostly Hawaiian, but they have an increasingly diverse clientele. They offer programs in skills training, economic development, organic farming/gardening, and a community kitchen where virtually anyone from the community can get a free breakfast or dinner seven days a week. (Jeff Lapilio is the kitchen manager.) They also work with the Waianae Business Center to offer an entrepreneurship program.
While we ate an excellent lunch at Kahumanu Organic Farm and Café, Joe Lapilio, the chief Adminsitrative Officer of Alternative Structures International spoke to us about the causes of homelessness and what he’s learned in his work in this area. Corrorating what many of the other speakers mentioned, homelessness is caused by the cost of living, lack of financial management education, and drug abuse (mostly Ice). Having grown up in Waianae he knows that there has always been some form of homelessness and there always will be to some extent. From his experience he’s concluded that the needs of the homeless are specific to the individuals (due to mental illness, substance abuse, attitudinal, behavioral, and psychological issues, and even an attachment to their pet— most shelters won’t allow them) so we can’t just lump them all together with a once-size-fits-all approach. That’s why they offer such a wide variety of service and training for their clients.
Some of the other business programs at Ulu Ke Kukui feature connections with Hawaii Technical Institute and providing micro-enterprise loans and training through a grant from Pacific Gateway. As we walked to the bus I spoke with Joe about the idea of micro-lending to expand the scope of the micro-enterprises program. He seemed interested in the prospect so I sent him the information from Kiva.org on how to become a Field Partner so that they could possibly link up with that network of donors. If that doesn’t work then maybe we would need to build something of our own from the ground up that is driven and supported by members of Pacific Century Fellows and then opened up to the wider community on O’ahu and Hawaii. One message that kept getting expressed over and over is that the homeless problem is everybody’s problem so we can all play a part is its solution. That may take the form of direct action working with homeless individuals and families, or it can be in the form of indirect actions such as advocacy or providing opportunities (jobs, access to credit) that might have been possible previously.
We then ventured to Sand Island Treatment Center where we heard from Cathy, Yvonne, and Kevin about their experiences as former clients and current employees. SITC has been around since 1960 so it is the oldest licensed treatment center in the Pacific. There seemed to be widespread admiration for their boss, L. Mason Henderson, for the work he has done over the years in addressing some of the most intractable issues related to substance abuse. What he did upon arriving at SITC is he went into the prisons and too out some of the worst offenders and treated them. That solidified his reputation and that of the center so that now the courts refer offenders to SITC rather than throwing them directly in jail.
SITC only hires staff from the treatment population. The treatment period is a two year residential program, but the challenge is that most insurance companies won’t pay for more than a few months. SITC prides itself on treating the individual and not the funding source so somehow they make it happen as long as the person wants to stay there. 70-75% of the residents have an Ice addiction with some marijuana, cocaine, and alcohol. The treatment is based on the 12-step program. They believe alcoholism and drug addiction are diseases; they believe in accountability; if you undertreat an addiction then the addict becomes more resistant to treatment in the future— like any other disease. (When I asked the speakers if they believed, based on their personal experience and their work at SITC, if marijuana is a ‘gateway’ drug, they all said that it was not. To paraphrase Kevin: “If people are going to make that jump into Ice, it’s not going to be because they tried marijuana. They were going there anyway.”)
After treatment the clients move into the transition period where they work to get acclimated to living on their own. They get money management skills and try to live on $20 a week. The third stage of the program is the after-care/probation period which has a 90% success rate 1 year after the two year treatment regimen. The speakers made reference to the HOPE court set up by Judge Steven Alm which was reported on in the latest Honolulu Magazine.
SITC focuses on women first because they have the most trouble accessing treatement, Their first priority is pregnant women and then women prone to exploitation.
What they’ve found is that budget cuts are leading to more and more violent incidents due to people going off their medications.
Debbie Kim Morikawa started off the discussion by describing the scope and mission of the Department of Community Services
— $76 million budget
— youth/elderly services
— homeless
— economic development
Many services are delivered by private, non-profit organizations.
Shannon Hayes explained how U.S. VETS works. It is a state-funded non-profit that serves as an emergency and transition shelter. They have 300 clients, half of whom are children. The population can stay in the shelter up to two years. The population features both extremes— those coming from the beach and those coming from structures living arrangements.
— 70-80% of the populations used to be Hawaiian or part-Hawaiian; now they’re seeing more and more Micronesians.
— 90-95% have substance abuse issues— ice, marijuana, opiates
Their goal is to help the population become self-sufficient. The average stay is eight months and so far they have transitioned 68% of their population successfully.
From Shannon we learned that in order to enter a shelter, a person needs two “verification of homeless letters.” Those are usually written by Waianae Community Outreach and the Waianae Community Comprehensive Health Center after two contact with a person in a homeless situation.
Teresa Gonsalves and Dodie Rivera then talked about their mobile health services, entitlements counseling (insurance, Food Stamps), transportation services, housing application help, and Legal Aid. The ages of their clients range from younger than 1 up to 60. They’ve found that their population is mostly from Hawai’i with only 1% (so far) comprised of mainland transplants.
Sophina Placencia spoke of how her agency does outreach four days a week to get people into their two emergency shelters that provide many of the same services.
Valerie Tavai spoke at length about changing perceptions of homeless people about themselves and by the community. In her view, one of the main reasons for homelessness is that there is a lot of hurt in Waianae caused by abuse of all kinds— drug, physical, mental, sexual, neglect. There has also been a steady marginalization of poor communities due to gentrification. In order to counteract that trend there needs to be several steps taken:
— hire from the community
— raise expectations of homeless people
— education
— mentoring/modeling by others successful people
Here is where I started to wonder about the utility of micro-lending in this community. Could there be entrepreneurs in need of a small loan to give them that opportunity that would change their lives? Or even a small loan that could give a family the cushion to go to school to get that certification that could lead to a better job? This community is so tight and the shelters keep such close tabs on their clients it seems like they would have the best insights as to who would be worthy of getting those loans and capable of paying them back. It seems like the Pacific Century Fellows program could help provide the funds to create such a program and the business and banking mentoring to help them succeed. I’ve spoken with a bunch of people about whether that could work (Kive, ProFounder) and how it might work. We’ll see how that develops.
Fred Saunders spoke about the “One Stop Center” concept funded by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. It covers all people in a community that fall below certain income thresholds who need help becoming relatively self-sufficient— education (at Leeward Community College), employment training, job search skills such as interviewing and resume building. There is also the “Rent to Work,” a one-year program that assists with permanent housing as long as people maintain employment and seek to improve themselves.
Finally, HPD spoke of how they are there to assist people instead of busting them. In their words, “homelessness is not a crime.” They seek to enforce existing laws such as park closures and parking lot closures so that the homeless are forced to take advantage of the wide variety of services available to them at the many shelters. (Two new laws will also help in this regard: the definition of a tent— only structures with one side are allowed in city parks; no shopping carts in city parks.) What they’ve found is that the homeless rarely are the ones committing crimes; for the most part it is criminal elements hiding out in homeless areas. As a result, the homeless are unfairly blamed fro crimes committed in their areas.
My ultimate take-away from this very informative one-hour discussion is that the homelessness issue is even more complicated than I previously understood, but that there are also more agencies and dedicated individuals than I realized doing a tremendous amount of work to alleviate the symptoms and address the root causes. It would be exciting to be part of the solution to this issue that affects all of us on O’ahu.
On our way to Ma’ili Ulu Ke Kukui Transitional Housing for Families we stopped by “Guard Rails,” a homeless encampment located right next to the highway. There we met Junior Atisanoe (brother of Saleva’a, a.k.a. Konishiki) who works for the Department of Human Services and the Hawaii Public Husing Authority as Project Coordinator. Junior’s message as well as that of the “mayor” of Guard Rails is that the homeless aren’t criminals and they’re not all drug addicts. Many of them work and many of them are trying to improve themselves so that they can get off the beach. It was important for us to see people who are not in shelters but who may be the next ones to take that step. It didn’t feel like any of them are lost causes and put a human face on the homeless, for sure.
At Ulu Ke Kukui we met Fanchon Young, the site director. She explained that their state-funded agency has five buildings with 80 units, (42 beds, and 22 studios) and they serve at-risk and homeless families (as opposed to just homeless at other shelters). In order to qualify for space at Ulu Ke Kukui a family must have children, some form of income, and stay drug and alcohol free. There is a small fee for a unit and a family can stay for up to 24 months. Their population is mostly Hawaiian, but they have an increasingly diverse clientele. They offer programs in skills training, economic development, organic farming/gardening, and a community kitchen where virtually anyone from the community can get a free breakfast or dinner seven days a week. (Jeff Lapilio is the kitchen manager.) They also work with the Waianae Business Center to offer an entrepreneurship program.
While we ate an excellent lunch at Kahumanu Organic Farm and Café, Joe Lapilio, the chief Adminsitrative Officer of Alternative Structures International spoke to us about the causes of homelessness and what he’s learned in his work in this area. Corrorating what many of the other speakers mentioned, homelessness is caused by the cost of living, lack of financial management education, and drug abuse (mostly Ice). Having grown up in Waianae he knows that there has always been some form of homelessness and there always will be to some extent. From his experience he’s concluded that the needs of the homeless are specific to the individuals (due to mental illness, substance abuse, attitudinal, behavioral, and psychological issues, and even an attachment to their pet— most shelters won’t allow them) so we can’t just lump them all together with a once-size-fits-all approach. That’s why they offer such a wide variety of service and training for their clients.
Some of the other business programs at Ulu Ke Kukui feature connections with Hawaii Technical Institute and providing micro-enterprise loans and training through a grant from Pacific Gateway. As we walked to the bus I spoke with Joe about the idea of micro-lending to expand the scope of the micro-enterprises program. He seemed interested in the prospect so I sent him the information from Kiva.org on how to become a Field Partner so that they could possibly link up with that network of donors. If that doesn’t work then maybe we would need to build something of our own from the ground up that is driven and supported by members of Pacific Century Fellows and then opened up to the wider community on O’ahu and Hawaii. One message that kept getting expressed over and over is that the homeless problem is everybody’s problem so we can all play a part is its solution. That may take the form of direct action working with homeless individuals and families, or it can be in the form of indirect actions such as advocacy or providing opportunities (jobs, access to credit) that might have been possible previously.
We then ventured to Sand Island Treatment Center where we heard from Cathy, Yvonne, and Kevin about their experiences as former clients and current employees. SITC has been around since 1960 so it is the oldest licensed treatment center in the Pacific. There seemed to be widespread admiration for their boss, L. Mason Henderson, for the work he has done over the years in addressing some of the most intractable issues related to substance abuse. What he did upon arriving at SITC is he went into the prisons and too out some of the worst offenders and treated them. That solidified his reputation and that of the center so that now the courts refer offenders to SITC rather than throwing them directly in jail.
SITC only hires staff from the treatment population. The treatment period is a two year residential program, but the challenge is that most insurance companies won’t pay for more than a few months. SITC prides itself on treating the individual and not the funding source so somehow they make it happen as long as the person wants to stay there. 70-75% of the residents have an Ice addiction with some marijuana, cocaine, and alcohol. The treatment is based on the 12-step program. They believe alcoholism and drug addiction are diseases; they believe in accountability; if you undertreat an addiction then the addict becomes more resistant to treatment in the future— like any other disease. (When I asked the speakers if they believed, based on their personal experience and their work at SITC, if marijuana is a ‘gateway’ drug, they all said that it was not. To paraphrase Kevin: “If people are going to make that jump into Ice, it’s not going to be because they tried marijuana. They were going there anyway.”)
After treatment the clients move into the transition period where they work to get acclimated to living on their own. They get money management skills and try to live on $20 a week. The third stage of the program is the after-care/probation period which has a 90% success rate 1 year after the two year treatment regimen. The speakers made reference to the HOPE court set up by Judge Steven Alm which was reported on in the latest Honolulu Magazine.
SITC focuses on women first because they have the most trouble accessing treatement, Their first priority is pregnant women and then women prone to exploitation.
What they’ve found is that budget cuts are leading to more and more violent incidents due to people going off their medications.
Monday, June 14, 2010
PCF submarine embark day
On June 11 we had the pleasure of going out on the SSN Charlotte. It was pretty amazing in terms one would imagine of a submarine crew— efficiency of space, efficiency of movement, clarity of tasks, back-ups to back-ups, professionalism, and commitment to duty. Until we saw the torpedo and missile room I had almost lost sight of the fact that they were a war vessel. There were subtle reminders around the hallways reminding the occupants of their task— one in particular said "Think Quiet." The level of professionalism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWApSOKcbks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWApSOKcbks
Sunday, June 6, 2010
PUEO— sabbatical
Some initial thoughts on where I'm going in terms of selling the idea of corporations and foundations expanding their "public purpose" campaigns to include PUEO-type programs:
Aside from the emotional standpoint of the respective stories of these kids and their families who now see college as within their reach, right now I'm seeing three potential ways of making this attractive to the private sector:
• long term— these are the companies' future employees; they would be helping to train a more highly skilled work force
• medium term— public relations; businesses can market how they are committed to providing enrichment activities to public schools; that would create brand loyalty and a loyal customer base
• immediate/short term— providing a tax incentive to give them the necessary write-off for their contributions to convince board members and/or shareholders; this is where I need the most help in navigating the legislative process and figuring out if it's even possible to change the tax code in that way
Aside from the emotional standpoint of the respective stories of these kids and their families who now see college as within their reach, right now I'm seeing three potential ways of making this attractive to the private sector:
• long term— these are the companies' future employees; they would be helping to train a more highly skilled work force
• medium term— public relations; businesses can market how they are committed to providing enrichment activities to public schools; that would create brand loyalty and a loyal customer base
• immediate/short term— providing a tax incentive to give them the necessary write-off for their contributions to convince board members and/or shareholders; this is where I need the most help in navigating the legislative process and figuring out if it's even possible to change the tax code in that way
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)