erc projects

Developing and Integrating a Maui Workforce Ecosystem

Develop social and economic structures, and systems, to expand and train, and attract and retain, with adequate financial support in skilled trades, essential workers, sustainable industries, and education.

Project Description 
  • Create social and economic structures and systems to expand, train, attract, and retain local workforce with adequate housing and financial support.
  • There is a need to strengthen coordination of industry specific resources to the community and strengthen existing industry pipelines. To achieve this, federal funding should be secured to stand up six targeted positions.
Barriers to remove/address:
  • Stock of affordable, adequate housing
  • Need for a navigator/interlocker role to connect the resource to the need for each industry and coordinate each pipelinesome text
    • Healthcare:  Connect K-12 students, college students and potential workforce from hospitality industries to healthcare systems/HR. Map out various medical/healthcare tracks that are available for employment, map out financial plan/needs for various medical/healthcare tracks. Work with MEDB’s STEMworks that has K-12 career awareness and articulation to UHMC to see if healthcare programs are being filled and, if not, plan on how to fill them.
    • Construction
    • Natural Resources/Agriculture/Food Systems/marine industry
    • Government 
    • Education: Build expanded articulation between K-12 CTE and MEDB STEMworks programs to UHMC and expand running start plus work-based learning
  • Need an overall navigator to strategically oversee each pipeline

Create social and economic structures, and systems, to expand and train, and attract and retain, with adequate financial support in skilled trades, essential workers, sustainable industries, and education.  Please see the ERC Workforce Development Ecosystem Plan.

Purpose

The goal of this project is to meet the expanding need for essential workers with locally trained talent by:

  1. Training and retain existing and graduating Maui residents/students in a skilled workforce with stable and higher wages
  2. Provide adequate workforce housing 
  3. Connect learning structures with employment opportunities 
  4. Strengthen public/private partnerships 
  5. Provide cross functions and skills development 

By meeting the project outcomes described above, the County of Maui will benefit by developing a comprehensive and coordinated long-term workforce strategy with multiple career pathways that will ultimately result in higher retainment of local labor and higher placement of entry and mid-level positions

Alignment with West Maui Community Plan (WMCP)

Goal 2.4 - Economic opportunity through innovation and collaboration.

2.5.12 - Support missing middle housing types (multiunit or clustered housing types compatible in scale with single-family homes such as ‘ohana, duplex, tri-plex, fourplex, courtyard apartments, bungalow court, and live/work units) and simple style single-family homes to meet the growing demand for a diversity of housing options and affordability.

Policy 2.5.16 - Increase the inventory of long-term housing units, whether owner-occupied or long-term rental, and whether single-family or multi-family.

Interdependencies and Roadblocks
  • Affordable, adequate housing
  • Access to agriculture land and natural resources
  • Classroom space
  • Integrate new housing development with space for classroom/training sites and green space for home gardens
Next Steps
  1. Work with ERC Project Management Team to establish and finance a fund development team 
  2. Fund development team to develop proposals to fund positions
  3. Identify and provide executives on loan including: (grant writers, communications specialists, project managers, compliance and fiscal managers)
  4. Increase outreach (intentional), multimedia, and communications to utilize social media to market and share information about programs and opportunities 
  5. Provide resources with equipment, connectivity, and language/cultural support to bridge the resource with community groups
  6. Data to demonstrate the shortages and job needs to stabilize the local and state economy
Project Details

Cost Estimate: $3,024,000 over 3 years (Maui ERC WFD Estimated Project Cost)

Potential Funding Sources:

  • Private funding (Bezos, Bennioff, Chang-Zuckerberg, Peoples Fund)
  • Healthcare systems (Kaiser Permanente)
  • Weinberg Foundation
  • Harold KL Castle Foundation
  • USDA:  Rural Development, Agriculture Marketing Services, Economic Recovery Services, Food and Nutrition Services 
  • EDA grants
  • HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration)
  • US Department of Labor
  • US Department of Energy

Project Lead

Office of Economic Development

  • Non-profit partners to execute strategies and programming
  • The Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act (WIOA) falls under the office of Economic Development, which is federally funded for workforce training
  • The American Jobs Act, under the Office of Economic Development 

Project Partners

  • UH Maui College
  • DOE & Charter Schools
  • Kamehameha Schools
  • Maui Economic Development Board
  • Maui Economic Opportunity
  • Maui Chamber of Commerce
  • Chamber of Commerce Hawaii
  • Workforce Development Board
  • Economic Development Administration
  • Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement
  • Alu Like
  • Papa Ola Lōkahi
  • Labor Unions
  • Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority
  • Maui Healthcare Sector Partnership
  • Large employers like Mahi Pono, Hawaiian Telcom
  • Small Business Administration
  • Healthcare Association of Hawaii Healthcare Workforce Initiative
  • Good Jobs Hawaii
  • Goodwill Industries of Hawai’i 
  • DLIR Workforce Development Division 
  • JobCorps
  • McKinley Community School for Adults Education 
  • Division of Vocational Rehabilitation

Other ERC Projects

Back to ERC

Key Highlights

ERC members share from the ERC process:

  • The opportunity to get to know and work with others, who they normally would not meet, in meaningful ways
  • A new way of doing business together for shared goals: Time to build foundations and relationships, to learn, and to think broadly about what Maui needs for long-term recovery has been really appreciated and is crucial for real impact
  • Witnessing a de-siloing of government (across levels) and experiencing working with agencies and across sectors provides hope
  • Mayor Bissen announced that there will be private funding to support two years of project management, so relationships, new ways of doing business together, and the projects will continue through implementation, and our administration will continue to support the people of the Maui and the County after this warm hand-off