MCSC building a healthy Moloka'i community

Moloka’i Community Service Council (MCSC), Kaunakakai, HI, has a mission to build a healthy Moloka’i community by providing and sponsoring nonprofit human services, charitable programs and community building projects.  The MCSC staff is program and administrative workers, all residing in the community that they serve, and most were born here.  Eighty percent of staff  are native Hawaiians, which is consistent with community demographics.  The Board is composed of respected community leaders who all have long track records of public service.

The current economic downturn has threatened the survival of key services in this low-income community.  Toward the end of the last fiscal year, the island’s only domestic violence shelter was threatened with closure due to budget cuts.  In order to save it, boards of both organizations decided that the shelter should merge into the Moloka‘i Community Service Council (MCSC).  The merger was finalized in June 2009, and the consolidation of administrative costs saved the shelter from closing.  Then in November, the State announced new reimbursement procedures that would have forced the shelter to close despite the merger.  MCSC mounted an aggressive advocacy campaign on behalf of the Moloka‘i shelter, and in December the State decided to continue funding it at adequate levels.  Hard times have seen an uptick in the number of domestic violence cases in their community, and preserving the island’s only domestic violence shelter has been a major accomplishment during this difficult year.