Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 26, Number 1, 1 January 2009 — CRC offices: OHA's front line in the Hawaiian community [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CRC offices: OHA's front line in the Hawaiian community

By ī. Ilihia Giūnsnn Publicatinns Editnr Community Resource Coordinators, or CRCs, are the face of OHA in coimnunities across Hawai'i. And the CRC offices across Hawai'i are assets in the coimnunities they serve, places that beneficiaries ean go to access the many services that OHA offers, and sources for more information about services and programs available from other agencies. Beneficiaries ean visit the loeal CRC office to register for OHA's Hawaiian Registry or Kau Inoa, make payments for an OHA loan, piek up the latest issue of Ka Wai Ola, or just to talk story. On Maui, CRC Thelma

Shimooka and clerk Roy Newton are happy to help beneficiaries. Lynn Paranada, who lives in Wasilla, Alaska, brought two of her keiki, Ke'ilani Moana and Koa, in to the Maui CRC office to renew their Hawaiian Registry cards. Paranada's sister also eame to register herself and her newborn grandchild, who at just a little more than 1 month old wasn't brought along but was represented with a photo and a birth certificate. "I registered several infants before, but this might be the youngest," said Newton, between taking the family's photos for the registry cards and sharing OHA scholarship infonnation with Paranada. Newton referred her to Hawai'i Coimnunity Foundation's web site, hcf.org. "They offer scholarship applications

from Ianuary to March," he said. "HCF also offers other scholarships so it will be good to look at all they have to offer." With Kau Inoa registry applieations in hand, Paranada said: "I am going to fill this out because I'm a very proud Hawaiian. I want to get into everything I ean. We need to

get our Hawaiian nation growing." Kaliko Santos is the CRC on Kaua'i. She finds helping beneficiaries to be the most rewarding part of her job. "The front line is where I live, and it's where I work. I think the CRCs have the best jobs in OHA," Santos said. Beneficiaries will eome in

because "they heard something about OHA or something about Hawaiian issues and want to eheek it out with a real person. We will go and find the answers if we don't know so we all learn together," Santos said. Many beneficiaries stop by the loeal CRC office with no particular business in mind, just to talk story with the friendly CRCs and clerks. "Many of our beneficiaries just want to vent their frustrations with a particular community or personal situation, and we're here to listen and explore solutions. They feel we are a good sounding board," Santos said. 'The most fulfilhng part of the job for me is seeing beneficiaries leave our office happy with their concems taken care of," said Gladys Brigham, clerk of the East Hawai'i CRC office. "Many of them visit often to take advantage of the programs we have available to help." For contact information for the CRC office near you, see page 25. Lisa Asato contributed to this report. S

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