Hawai'i's smallest churches and assistance groups are learning how to take a seat beside some of the state's largest social service agencies under President Bush's Faith-Based and Community Initiative, launched seven years ago.

Although very few of these small charities have reached the point where they are competing for government grants, initiative-funded training offered through the University of Hawai'i's Center on the Family and its partners is making them more efficient and effective in serving the homeless, the elderly and other needy populations, officials said.

"We've been targeting small organizations that want to build their internal capacity. For the most part, these are very small, volunteer-run groups that are doing really good work in their neighborhoods," said Sylvia Yuen, director of the UH Center on the Family. "To be competing at a national level would be a very big jump for them."

The White House last week released a seven-year progress report on the Faith-Based and Community Initiative, or FBCI, that said more than $125 million was awarded through 194 federal grants to Hawai'i faith-based and community organizations in the 2005 and 2006 fiscal years.

Of that amount, roughly $114.5 million went to secular nonprofits and $11 million to faith-based groups, the report said. Three long-established social service agencies — Catholic Charities, The Salvation Army and YMCA — accounted for all but $63,500 in grant funding to faith-based organizations, according to federal records.

RANGE OF PROGRAMS

Grants to those three agencies cover activities ranging from Weed and Seed programs to those addressing juvenile justice, substance abuse, runaways and physical education.

Only two other faith-based groups received federal grants during the two-year period: Faith Action for Community Equity, a multifaith alliance that examines poverty, healthcare and other issues, which received a $25,000 award; and Moloka'i Baptist Church, which received a $38,500 community facilities grant for improvements to facilities used for public purposes.

Other benefits to Hawai'i from the FBCI include $1.1 million in grants to nonprofits from the Mentoring Children of Prisoners program established by Bush, and $8.3 million over three years as part of the new voucher-based Access to Recovery program that will enable O'ahu residents in need of substance abuse treatment and recovery support services to receive help from the program that best suits them, including faith-based and community organizations that have not previously received public funding.

The FBCI said that nonprofits motivated to service by faith and small grassroots organizations provide critical care and services to some of the neediest members of the community. Although these groups were able to seek federal grants before the initiative was announced in 2001, they weren't always welcome because of "a pervasive suspicion of faith-based organizations on the part of many government officials" and "excessive restrictions" on religious activities, according to the White House.

Many small community-based charities were left out because they lacked grant-writing skills and insight into the federal grant process, and because previous grantees may have received favorable treatment.

In addition to removing barriers that created an unlevel playing field, the FBCI established the Compassion Capital Fund to help fund training and other assistance.

Hawai'i received $497,943 in Compassion Capital Fund grants over a five-year period, and the state received additional money to form the Compassion Capital-Hawai'i Moving Forward project under a partnership between the UH Center on the Family, Hawai'i Community Foundation and Hawaiian Islands Ministries.

The project has provided training opportunities for small service organizations "to build their capacity to get better and bigger at what they were doing," said Mary Vinson, executive director of Hawaiian Islands Ministries.

She said about two-thirds of the participants have been from faith-based groups. Most already were providing services on a small scale "and wanted to do it better and do it more," Vinson said.

Participants have included Habitat for Humanity groups on different islands; Central Union Church, for a job training and placement program helping the homeless and people transitioning off welfare; the Windward Homeless Coalition; Mo'ili'ili Hongwanji Mission's Project Dana, for its interfaith volunteer caregivers program; Wailuku Door of Faith, which provides teleconferencing for prison inmates and their families; and St. Theresa Church's Hale Kau Kau soup kitchen on Maui.

The training has covered how to apply for grants, fundraising, conflict management, recruiting and retaining volunteers, financial controls, marketing and public relations, how to write a strategic plan, and related topics.

From March 2003 to December 2007, Compassion Capital-Hawai'i Moving Forward held 38 workshops attended by a total of 2,641 individuals from faith and community-based organizations. A more intense Fellows Program was held in 2002, 2005 and 2006 for representatives from 56 organizations.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Faith-based and community groups that participated in the training have seen substantial increases in their revenues, volunteer force and clients served, according to a report on the Compassion Capital-Hawai'i Moving Forward project.

At the start of the first Fellows cohort, only 6 percent of participants had a financial management system or strategic plan in place, the report said.

At the end of the program, those percentages had increased to 50 percent and 67 percent, respectively, and at the 18-month follow-up, 94 percent of participants said they had implemented both.

The report also said that mean revenue from grants, contributions and fundraising events went up from $132,317 per organization at the start of the cohort to $334,372 by the 18-month follow-up. During the same period, the mean number of volunteers per organization increased from 139 to 271.

The groups also were helping more people, with the number of clients served rising from 383 per organization to 679.

Despite the training and encouragement, concerns about possible restrictions on religious activities kept many faith-based groups from enlisting in the FBCI, said Ivette Stern of the UH Center on the Family.

SOME GROUPS CONTENT

Other groups aren't interested in public grants and just want to improve their operations, officials said, and some remain wary of getting involved with the government.

"Little agencies are sometimes tentative about working with state or federal agencies," said the Rev. Sadrian Chee of Ohana Family of the Living God, who participated in FBCI training.

The Ohana is the service arm of the nondenominational Christian church Uhane Hemolele Pi'ikea in Hau'ula, and it runs a number of programs serving the elderly, the homeless, prison inmates, youths and others.

Chee said his organization has been providing services since the 1970s without major grant funding. Only in the past five years, through his involvement in larger nonprofits and now through FBCI-funded training, did he gain the know-how to develop financial and other controls and expand funding resources, Chee said.

Ohana Family of the Living God does not employ federal grant money but did receive a $599,000 state grant for its Pu'u Honua Initial Contact Shelter program that uses tent-like yurts to provide emergency shelter.

Although rules continue to prohibit use of government funds for religious activities, critics of the FBCI said the effort would enable faith-based groups to use public money to spread their beliefs and recruit members.

Officials at the UH Center on the Family, the White House and the state Office of Community Services, which serves at the state's FBCI liaison, said they are not aware of any complaints against Hawai'i faith-based groups for violating the ban against religious activities.

"I have attended a lot of training and we make sure we have that line drawn. We've learned to keep it separate," Chee said.

Besides, he said, "providing service is already our testimony."

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.