HCAP Weekly October 12, 2015

In this week’s issue:

Board Members Receive Head Start Governance Training
Luis’s Story: Be Focused and Never Give Up
A Big Mahalo to the Bank of Hawaii!
Head Start Children Identify Changes in the Seasons
Tax Preparation is Free and Easy Thanks to VITA!
HCAP Shares Information with the Windward Community

Board Members Receive Head Start Governance Training

Governance Training is an essential part of any successful Head Start or Early Head Start program. Donna Manibog, HCAP Head Start Assistant Director recently provided training for the HCAP Board of Directors. In her presentation, Donna talked about the uniqueness of the Head Start program and how it was designed to maintain shared governance between the Board of Directors and the Head Start Policy Council. The presentation also invited the Board of Directors to be ambassadors for HCAP Head Start by sharing what they know to others.

Luis’s Story: Be Focused and Never Give Up

Luis attended high school in Mexico, but he stopped attending school after the 11th grade and was unable to graduate. When Luis moved to Hawaii, he began working as a chef. In order to receive a promotion and a pay-raise within his profession, Luis had to obtain a high school diploma.

Luis started attending the C-Base Program in 2013 when he was fifty years old. He completed four units and was finishing his last unit when he became very ill. Suddenly, Luis found himself fighting for his life in the hospital. Luis thought that his dreams of owning his own restaurant were over, but that didn’t stop him from dreaming. He fought back and regained his focus, even though he has to go to dialysis three times a day. Luis registered for his last unit with C-Base on September 30th. At the end of the unit, he took and passed the Competency Based Community School Diploma Program mastery test. HCAP is proud to say that Luis has now earned his Hawaii Adult Community School Diploma. Luis has a new set of goals, which includes getting a long overdue promotion and a pay raise. The Central District Service Center sincerely congratulates Luis on earning his diploma and hopes he continues to stay positive and achieve his goals.

A Big Mahalo to the Bank of Hawaii!

A big “MAHALO” to Board Member Bill Shiroma and other Bank of Hawai’i staff for sharing their valuable time and knowledge with HCAP’s Youth Services students. As part of Bank of Hawaii’s Community Reinvestment efforts, several of their staff presented a financial literacy workshop to the Youth Services C-Base students. They covered topics such as budgeting, goal setting, analyzing spending, and financial planning.

Head Start Children Identify Changes in the Seasons

Early in the school year, teachers prepared the Head Start children for future field trips and community walks. The children of Nanakuli I Head Start and their teachers learned how to be safe by walking in line and staying together as a group. During the community walk, the teaching staff prompted the children to use their sense of sight, smell, and touch to identify the changes that have occurred in the environment due to recent heavy rains and the transition from summer to fall. Through the activity, the students learned important skills such as using their senses, making connections based on experiences, building vocabulary, and responding to open ended-questions.

Tax Preparation is Free and Easy Thanks to VITA!

Central District Service Center’s Community Service Manager Katy Perry represented HCAP at the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) annual site coordinators’ meeting. VITA provides free tax assistance to low-to-moderate income Hawaii residents which results in an immediate savings to each taxpayer of at least $200.
The Hawaii VITA and Financial Empowerment Program provides low-to-moderate income workers with free tax preparation services, financial empowerment programs, and asset building opportunities to enable them to become self-sufficient. VITA is much more than just another program for low-to-moderate income earners; VITA also covers other aspects of financial education, not offered by some other financial literacy programs. For example VITA educates individuals on how to prevent tax-related debts. VITA has determined that approximately 90% of balance due returns can be avoided if taxpayers are aware of some very simple tax concepts that anyone can learn.

The VITA program is volunteer-driven with amazing volunteers from the community including, credit unions, banks, government, churches, schools and non-profits. Thus far, nearly 100 high school juniors and seniors have been trained under its “Learn Early. Live Smarter.” Initiative. This initiative recruits high school students on Oahu and trains them to become certified volunteer tax return preparers and receive IRS certification to prepare tax returns. Taxes affect every aspect of a person’s life and learning basic tax law early in life will help our youth avoid mistakes that could lead to serious debt in the future.

VITA also offers a self-preparation tool called MyFreeTaxes, which allows anyone earning less than $60,000 to prepare and electronically file both their federal and state returns for free. Most “free” sites will allow a person to prepare a free federal return but will charge for the state return. MyFreeTaxes is a service provided by United Way Worldwide through a grant from the Walmart Foundation.

HCAP’s District Service Centers successfully prepared a total of 764 returns this past tax season totaling $1,278,354.00 in revenue to our local communities. The District Service Centers will begin taking appointments for the tax season beginning February 2016. For more information, or to become a volunteer certified tax preparer, contact your nearest HCAP District Service Center or go to http://www.hawaiitaxhelp.org/.

HCAP Shares Information with the Windward Community

On Thursday, October 15th, the HCAP staff attended the Windward District Resource Fair. They provided Windward Department of Education (DOE) employees with information about HCAP resources available to youth and families in the region.

Sonny-Jean Preston (Windward District Service Center Community Worker), James “Jo-Jo” Upega (Na Lima Hana Employment Core Services Program Coordinator), Dr. Kimberly Stone, EdD (Hā Initiative: Creative STEM After-School Program Manager), and Shanna Maikui (HCAP Head Start Family Resource Specialist) greeted individuals from the DOE and shared success stories from various HCAP programs. They shared a multitude of stories from Youth Services graduates receiving their diplomas to kupuna learning how to actively age through HCAP’s Kupuna Independent Life Series and the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP).

Helping the community learn and understand what resources are available is an important part of HCAP’s mission. If you are interested in having someone from the HCAP team share information with your ohana, please call HCAP’s Main Office at (808) 521-4531.