Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 21, Number 5, 1 May 2004 — Asset-building adressed at conference [ARTICLE]

Asset-building adressed at conference

In February, OFIA helped sponsor a conference organized by the Hawai'i Allianee for CommunityBased Eeonomie Development (HACBED) that began discussions on building financial and cultural assets in Hawai'i. The event, titled "Families Defining Eeonomie Success - Redefining Wealth & Poverty in Hawai'i," convened eighty loeal and national speakers to provide their perspectives on asset-building initiatives and public policy. Over 270 people attended the conference, with close to one-fourth of the participants being Native Hawaiians. Most of the Native Hawaiian participants received scholarships from OHA. One of the main reasons for convening the conference was to explore why so many families in Hawai'i continue to struggle despite many traditional eeonomie indicators pointing to a healthy economy. "When people eontinue to say that Hawai'i's economy is

strong, but families don't have enough ineome to survive for three months at the poverty level without help, there is a serious disconnect," said HACBED Executive Director Bob Agres. In the past, mueh of the discussion about poverty has centered on ineome and not financial assets. Because focusing on assets is a different way of looking at poverty, participants were asked to share a personal symbol of wealth throughout the three-day event to spark conversations about the different ways people view wealth. Most of the attendees agreed that there is a need to further discuss and formulate an agenda for asset and wealth creation in Hawai'i. One of the fundamental issues moving forward will be to consider how traditional Hawaiian values regarding wealth would fit into this agenda For further information, please eall HACBED at 550-2661 or (1-866-223-7057), or visit www.hacbed.org ■