Gov. Josh Green signed eight bills at the state Capitol on Wednesday relating to domestic violence and sexual assault, and seven bills relating to wellness and child welfare.
The bills are about “protecting our people,” Green said.
While introducing the legislation relating to domestic violence, Green said there is an “epidemic of violence against people, mostly women, in our country.” He said that 1 in 3 women in the United States and in Hawaii experience violence from their partner.
“It’s shocking,” he said.
Green said the bills will promote a pathway for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault to feel safe and protected in Hawaii.
Senate Bill 1527 transfers the Address Confidentiality Program — which allows victims of domestic violence to access mail, forwarding services and personal information to prevent stalking — from the Office of the Lieutenant Governor to the state Department of Law Enforcement. Green said as a former lieutenant governor, he knows that the lieutenant governor’s office in the state Capitol is not the “best place” for the service.
“People have to feel safe and they have to be able to go somewhere where it’s protected, and this building is not always that,” he said.
Out of the eight bills relating to domestic violence and sexual assault, three were part of this year’s Women’s Legislative Caucus package. House Bill 579, HB 580 and HB 581 address issues such as creating a human trafficking prevention program and establishing new training requirements for child custody evaluators.
“Collectively, all of these measures will ensure better support for survivors and their families. At the same time, we recognize that violence persists in our communities and that more work still needs to be done,” state Rep. Linda Ichiyama (D, Fort Shafter Flats-Salt Lake-Pearl Harbor) said on behalf of the Women’s Legislative Caucus.
The set of bills also affects the University of Hawaii. HB 580 expands victim-counselor privilege to include the confidential advocates employed by UH, while HB 554 improves trauma training for the university’s staff, requires a mandatory annual sexual misconduct prevention and awareness program for students and employees, and protects victims who report campus-based sexual assault from disciplinary action.
Nanci Kreidman, chief executive officer of the Domestic Violence Action Center, spoke before the bills were signed. As an advocate for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault for 40 years, Kreidman said the problem of domestic violence is “haunting, enormous, complex and costly.”
“We all got to keep lifting because without the lift, it falls into a receding background, which we can’t afford,” Kreidman said.
The remaining seven bills primarily focus on child welfare and the Office of Wellness and Resilience, which was established last year.
“It’s not lost on me that reports of child abuse in Hawaii reached record highs as of 2021. A lot of us feel that was due to isolation and a time where people felt desperate, but there’s no excuse for it,” Green said. “And that’s why having an Office of Wellness and Resiliency is very important in our state.”
In addition to transferring the Office of Wellness and Resiliency from the Office of the Governor to the state Department of Human Services under SB 894, a new Malama ‘Ohana Working Group will be established within OWR under SB 295. The working group, which will include EPIC Ohana Inc., Hale Kipa and representatives of foster youth will “provide the checks and balances” in recommending changes to the state’s existing child welfare system, according to state Sen. Joy San Buenaventura (D, Puna), senate chair of the Committee on Health and Human Services.
“This working group will help us see the forest beyond the trees and, hopefully, seize the cracks that need to be addressed, so that we can help the children and no longer have deaths like Peter Boy Kema and Isabella Kalua,” Buenaventura said.
Hale Kipa is particularly geared toward working with Native Hawaiian youth who are over-represented in the child welfare system, said Venus Rosete-Medeiros, president and CEO of Hale Kipa.
“For our Indigenous people founded on strong healthy values rooted in ohana, this is a tragedy,” Rosete-Medeiros said.
Additionally, HB 948 will establish a two-year child and adolescent crisis mobile outreach team pilot program on Oahu and one on a neighbor island that will be determined by the state Department of Health.
“After a phone call comes in, within an hour, someone will go to the house where the crisis is taking place and the team of resources will converge and, over an eight-week period, will provide the support that the family and individual need to stabilize, to find the resources, to get higher level of care and to be in touch with the resources out in the community,” said Rep. Nadine Nakamura (D, Haena-Kawaihau).
Green said there is some overlap in the bills that relate both to children and victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. HB 777 requires more expansive background checks for any employees, volunteers or contractors who work closely with minors or vulnerable adults, and will trump any previous extensive background check under the state’s employment practices law, Nakamura said.
Additionally, HB 349 and SB 1267 expand jurisdictions for protective orders for teens and victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault who call Hawaii their temporary home, such as members of the military and students, Buenaventura said.
“I just want to thank the Senate and House leaders,” Green said. “It’s amazing, what you’ve given us.”
