Posted on: Sunday, September 15, 2002
Maui rural program gets $7 million
Advertiser Staff
KAHULUI, Maui — Maui Community College has received nearly $7 million in federal grants for rural development and job-training programs on the Neighbor Islands.
The $4 million statewide award from the U.S. Department of Labor's Rural Development Project and the $2.9 million from the Rural Job Training Initiative will be coordinated through the project's office at MCC, headed by John Dunnicliffe.
The Rural Development Project provides money to rural community colleges to develop leadership training, small-business support, computer literacy and farm management training. The job-training initiative focuses on enhancing the employment potential of citizens in rural communities, with an emphasis on high-demand professions such as education and healthcare.
"The purpose of these grants is to invest in the infrastructure of rural communities," said MCC Provost Clyde Sakamoto. "In some cases the investment is in physical infrastructure, as with computing labs on Lana'i and fishponds on Moloka'i. In other cases the infrastructure investment is in human capital."
For instance, tuition assistance will be provided to 75 students from Kaua'i, Maui and the Big Island who are enrolled in the educational assistants program at MCC, Sakamoto said. After completing the program, these students will return to schools in their communities to help teach youngsters, he said.
U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, who helped establish the Rural Development Project in 1997, said many residents who enjoy living in Hawai'i's close-knit areas find limited job and education opportunities.
Training offered through the project gives them a chance to remain in, and contribute to, their communities while reducing employers' training and recruitment costs.
The first Rural Development Project grant, $200,000 in 1997, set up computer literacy, leadership training and youth mentoring programs on Lana'i, and resulted in an additional $5.8 million being awarded to similar programs on Maui, Moloka'i, Kaua'i and the Big Island.
Dunnicliffe said some of this year's money had been earmarked for specific programs, including $1 million for teacher programs and training of vice principals and educational assistants, and approximately $1 million for home health nurse training.
In addition, each island participating in the program will receive its own allocation, whose use will be determined by a community advisory committee and the provost of the local community college.
The Rural Development Project already has paid for a number of community-specific programs, such as advanced emergency medical technician training in Hana that includes telemedicine training to coordinate with professionals at Maui Memorial Medical Center, and an unexploded-ordnance training and certification program for civilians to assist in the military cleanup of Kaho'olawe and elsewhere.
Another program is training metalworkers, machinists and interpretive field guides for jobs at the Mauna Kea Science Reserve. On Kaua'i, a program provides computer training for jobs at the Pacific Missile Range Facility.
