Center on the Family receives additional funding for Hawaii Moving Forward project

HONOLULU — The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa‘s Center on the Family (COF) has been awarded $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service‘s Compassion Capital Fund to continue its Hawaiʻi Moving Forward project, which will assist grassroots, community service and faith-based organizations in Hawaiʻi that provide a range of social services to low income and under-resourced populations.

The Hawaiʻi Moving Forward project is a collaborative effort of the Center on the Family and the Hawaiian Islands Ministries, and aims to improve the skills and performance of the organizations through organizational capacity building training, technical assistance and grant funds.

This is the third time the COF has received a grant from the Compassion Capital Fund to conduct organizational capacity building initiatives for local organizations. The Center was initially awarded a $1.8 million grant in 2002 to conduct the Hawaiʻi Moving Forward project as a three-year demonstration, which resulted in providing intensive training and capacity building grants to a cohort of 25 organizations. In 2003, the Center was awarded its second grant of $950,000 for the Fellows Program that is currently assisting 17 organizations.

"Our evaluation of the first Fellows Program cohort indicated that the program was effective in strengthening the operating structures, diversifying and increasing the resources and developing the collaborative networks of the organizations that participated," said Ivette Rodriguez Stern, COF Project Coordinator. Evaluation data are currently being collected on the second cohort to further demonstrate the program‘s effectiveness.

In addition to the intensive Fellows Program, Hawaiʻi Moving Forward has also provided over 25 capacity building training workshops and events reaching nearly 1,800 representatives from faith- and community-based organizations statewide. These larger training events have been provided free of charge to participants.

"In Hawaiʻi, the rising number of people in need of services and the severity of problems require a strong and effective network of service organizations that are able to maximize their social impact,‘ said Sylvia Yuen, COF Director. "We aim to build the capacity of these organizations to enable them to provide more effective and sustainable services."

Hawaiʻi Moving Forward is one of only 10 programs nationwide that were funded in 2006. Public information meetings for organizations interested in participating in the Fellows Program will be conducted in January 2007 and applications will be made available then. Registration information for the larger capacity building workshops will be announced as they are scheduled.

For more information or to be placed on the Hawaiʻi Moving Forward email list, call 956-4132.

ABOUT THE CENTER ON THE FAMILY
The Center on the Family (COF) is a unit within the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at UH Mānoa. Its mission is to enhance interdisciplinary research, service, and education that supports and strengthens families. The Center works closely with colleagues across disciplinary fields at the university and other academic institutions, as well as nonprofit and community organizations, governmental agencies, and private businesses. The Center‘s programs and activities are preventive in nature and aimed at building strong and resilient families. For more information, visit http://uhfamily.hawaii.edu/.

For more information, visit: http://uhfamily.hawaii.edu