| 43 | | - | WHEREAS, the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 more than any other communities in the State; and WHEREAS, these communities together make up approximately twenty-one percent of the population but accounted for over fifty percent of the State's COVID-19 cases in 2020, and approximately thirty percent of cases in 2021 and 2022; and WHEREAS, due to a lack of comprehensive plans by the State for mitigating the spread of COVID-19 in the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities, community leaders and organizations mobilized by forming various task forces to meet the immediate needs of families within their communities who were most heavily affected; and WHEREAS, as Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders share a colonial past that has led to generational trauma and socio-economic hardships, COVID-19 added to these inequities and social injustices; and WHEREAS, in October 2020, the Department of Health created a contact tracing investigation team known as Team 6B to provide critical outreach to Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islander communities; and WHEREAS, Team 6B was innovative and different as it provided culturally appropriate engagement in the communities' primary languages and at a level that had not been seen previously; and WHEREAS, throughout the past two years, Team 6B has done a tremendous amount of work in the community from creating culturally appropriate educational webinars that are in the communities' primary languages, hosting testing and vaccination pods that are inclusive of social support services to assist with community participation, and providing much needed data collection and disaggregation; and WHEREAS, the hiring of underserved and marginalized community members by the Department of Health proved successful and drastically decreased the number of cases in the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities and provided a level of disaggregation that was not previously present; and WHEREAS, this body recognizes the importance of creating culturally relevant programs and supports diverse hiring practices to address the inequity that exists for many underserved and marginalized communities; now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Thirty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2022, that the Department of Health is urged to employ the Team 6B contact tracing team as permanent staff and hire other members from the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities that have been responding to the pandemic since March 2020; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Health is urged to continue hiring members from the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities in an effort to address the health inequities that exist for these underserved communities and create better access to culturally relevant programs for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Health is requested to create a diverse hiring plan and submit a report of its progress to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2023; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to Director of Health and the Administrator of the State Health Planning and Development Agency. Report Title: DOH; Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders; Team 6B Contact Tracers; Culturally Relevant Programs; Hiring Plan |
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| 43 | + | WHEREAS, the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 more than any other communities in the State by together making up approximately twenty-one percent of the population but having accounted for over fifty percent of the State's COVID-19 cases in 2020, and approximately thirty percent in 2021 and 2022; and WHEREAS, due to a lack of comprehensive plans by the State for mitigating the spread of COVID-19 in the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities, community leaders and organizations mobilized by forming various task forces to meet the immediate needs of families within their communities who were most heavily affected; and WHEREAS, as Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders share a colonial past that has led to generational trauma and socio-economic hardships, COVID-19 added to these inequities and social injustices; and WHEREAS, in October 2020, the Department of Health created a contact tracing investigation team known as Team 6B to provide critical outreach to Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islander communities; and WHEREAS, Team 6B was innovative and different as it provided culturally appropriate engagement in the communities' primary languages and at a level that had not been seen previously; and WHEREAS, throughout the past two years, Team 6B has done a tremendous amount of work in the community from creating educational webinars that are in the communities' primary languages and culturally appropriate, hosting testing and vaccination pods that are inclusive of social support services to assist with community participation, and provided much needed data collection and disaggregation; and WHEREAS, the hiring of underserved and marginalized community members by the Department of Health proved successful and drastically decreased the number of cases in the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities and provided a level of disaggregation that was not previously present; and WHEREAS, this body recognizes the importance of creating culturally relevant programs and supports diverse hiring practices to address the inequity that exists for many underserved and marginalized communities; now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Thirty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2022, that the Department of Health is urged to employ the Team 6B contact tracing team as permanent staff and hire other members from the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities that have been responding to the pandemic since March 2020; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Health is urged to continue hiring members from the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities in an effort to address the health inequities that exist for these underserved communities and to create better access to culturally relevant programs for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Health is requested to create a diverse hiring plan and to submit a report of its progress to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2023; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to Director of Health and the Administrator of the State Health Planning and Development Agency. OFFERED BY: _____________________________ Report Title: DOH; Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders; Team 6B Contact Tracers |
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