COFA Migrant Program Update

The Office of Community Services recently awarded three contracts to service providers to assist migrants from the Republic of Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshalls. Each of the contracts are designed to do three things: 1. assess the clients' need through a survey, 2. obtain data about the COFA migrant and 3. refer the COFA migrant to service providers and government agencies that can assist the client.

The three agencies who received the award were Goodwill Hawaii - Hilo, Bay Clinic - Hilo, and Pacific Gateway Center
on O'ahu. In total, all three agencies are expected to intake close to 1,450 COFA migrants.

This year the US Office of Interior did a survey of COFA migrants and reported 12,000 migrants living in Hawaii. Anecdotal evidence suggests the figure is much higher. While these contracts will not attempt to count every migrant it is our intent to get a more detailed analysis of who is living in Hawaii, the reasons they migrate and the chief obstacles they face while here.

The referral program we hope will be able to assist not only COFA migrants, but assist the state of Hawaii in prioritizing
our spending during future budget discussions. We have heard many anecdotes on why Micronesians come to Hawaii - for education, employment or medical reasons. The providers will document these reasons and give the State a solid foundation when
determining how best to spend state monies in the future. Many organizations are willing to help our friends from the Compact states, these contracts will give us a better idea on how best each of our partners can help.

This is the first step in gathering data and we hope more monies will be availablein the future to continue to provide assistance. For now, it is our hope these three contractors will be able to provide accurate data to help COFA migrants achieve self sufficiency.