 Welcome to the Business in Hawaii show. I am Daylan Yanagida and we are broadcasting live from the ThinkTech studios in downtown Honolulu. If you want to tune in live, we are at www.thinktechhawaii.com. And while there, please subscribe to our programs and get on our mailing list. The theme of Business in Hawaii is to share with you stories of local businesses by local people. Our guests share with us their journey to building a successful business right here at home. In the ThinkTech studio today is none other than our very own Ms. Keisha King. Keisha, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you Daylan for having me. It's a pleasure to be here as a guest. I am so excited to have you on the other side because I do know that you are one of the most humble people I know and I think it's a great opportunity for our audience to get to know you a little bit. I do know you in different circles, but I know you're a special education teacher. Can you tell us a little bit about that, how you got into that? Well, thank you first off for the compliments. I got into teaching a dozen years ago after being an HR director, human resources director for several years. I climbed the corporate ladder and thought that was exactly what I wanted. I had a great time doing it for as long as it lasted but I felt like there was more that I could do. My own children were in middle school at the time and I started to see the needs that their teachers had over and over and over again and so I decided to jump in and help where I could and one of those areas was in, I was the PTA president for both my children's schools and that opened my eyes to the greater needs of the teachers and the education system and I just thought I can do so much more so why not jump in with both feet on the ground and somehow ended up thinking that teaching as my profession was a way to really help and so that's what I did and special education just so happened to be the perfect niche for me. I have always been an advocate for those that society would like to forget and there's no better place to do that or to be than in the special education field and being an advocate for students who have unique learning abilities. It's no secret that I have a tremendous amount of respect for our teachers, our public school teachers as well as our private school teachers because it's a difficult job. You're influencing the lives of our young people and it's very difficult but more than that is taking on the responsibility of being a special education teacher. I think it's just the amount of patience and understanding and dedication that you have to have to your skill just unbelievable so I commend you for taking that on and embracing it and making it a part of who you are. As I had mentioned I know you from other circles as well and I do know that you're an active Rotarian so tell us about what you do as a Rotarian. Oh it's um first of all such an honor to be a Rotarian that happened for me. I was inducted this past July and I was so excited and I still am so excited because it embodies everything that I love giving back in so many different ways. I am not always able to attend the events because I'm at school but the ones that I can attend bring so much joy to other people and I think that's just an expression of who we are as Rotarians and then who we are as individuals. You and the others in our East Honolulu Rotarian club mean so much to me and have helped to make me feel very welcomed and we do a lot of good things and I love that service above self so I really am happy about that. Rotarians around the world do an amazing an amazing job for all of us and for our communities and I think it's you know it just comes together with you know your your belief in giving back and how you wanted to pay it forward because you and I were talking earlier and and you really felt compelled to to pay it forward and so through your special education teaching and now being a Rotarian you definitely are doing that but I know that it doesn't stop there. I know that there are still other other things that you do and you give graciously of your time. Do you want to share with us what some of those things are? No but I will. I've taught my children my biological children and my students for years that it's important to give of your time your talents and your resources and one of the biggest components I have is time. I have a lot of time to after school to do different things right here in Honolulu and I've done it where I'm from in Virginia because I had great examples. I was raised in part by my parents and my grandparents and they were all givers. They gave from their hearts so freely and we all had a very privileged life and I didn't recognize it as a child because everyone around me lived that same privileged life and then as I got older and matured I started to recognize not everybody lives the same and if you can help someone you should do that. So I tried to do that through different community events. Feeding the homeless is one one. Giving in other ways to the homeless such as making sure that they have pillows from my own house or you know different blankets and things that they need like that. But yeah there's a lot that I do I don't necessarily want to share it all but I am often on the scene on my Facebook live page saying this and that that I'm doing but there's so much behind the scenes that is equally important and I would just encourage any of our viewers to do that. Give up your time, your talents and your resources to make a difference in the lives of others. I don't think that we're here just for ourselves and I would say I'm blessed to be a blessing. Well you are a blessing. So I do know that one of the roles that you're taking on and it's ramping up pretty quickly is that you are a crucial part of our 2020 census. In fact you are the NAACP complete count chairperson and my goodness that sounds like a huge title. First of all tell us what you do in that role and then tell us about the 2020 census that you're doing that for. Sure as a member of the NAACP I'm actually the chairperson of the education committee and one of the things that falls under that position is to make people aware of the 2020 census and to educate them on what it's all about to help identify and answer the tough questions and alleviate some of the fears that people have had in completing the census and then of course to make sure that people understand the importance of the census. Give us a little background on the census and I know that it doesn't happen every year and 2020 is a big year because it is happening. Could you give us a little background on what the census is and why it's important? Sure so the census is a complete count of everyone in America in their homes so who is living with you now is what the census aims to discover and the census is completed every 10 years and I'm excited because this year is or this decade is the first time that the census will come in three forms so typically in years or decades past the census was completed via someone coming to your home or a form being mailed to your home and those options are still available but what's new is the electronic count the electronic count so you can use your smartphone you can go on your home computer and you can complete the census information so I want to talk to you about why we ask okay the 2020 census is very easy and then the questions are simple so it's not like a test per se when you fill out the census you help determine how many seats your state gets in congress you guide more than 675 billion dollars in federal funding and it's distributed to states and communities each year so not every 10 years but each year and then it creates jobs provides housing prepare for emergencies and build schools roads and hospitals now that last point is very important to all of us here in Hawaii I know you would agree on that so tell me about how the census reaches everyone okay so we want to have a population count where we determine the number of people living or staying in your home any additional people living or staying in your home can be counted at that time doesn't matter if you are an owner or a renter just who is with you there then we also ask about you we ask you for your phone number and then your name and the names of those living with you and the reason we gather all of this information is because we want to make sure that we get everything that is due to us as a state as I mentioned once we find out this information and make determinations about what the population is here in the state of Hawaii not just on Oahu but all islands then we can create jobs for our area or for our state help to provide housing and prepare for emergencies build schools roads and hospitals so when I think about our roads right now if they have a complete count exactly we know about all the potholes and what roads to avoid just imagine if we were able to get everyone counted so that we would not have the potholes and the way that it's a trickle down effect so the way that that works is that once people complete the census then they can make determinations about what money we receive now I'm looking through my notes because I want to give you the exact amount of money that we have received right here in Hawaii it's a pretty big number I'm happy to say it I hope we get more this time so the number is three billion six hundred eighty two million five hundred forty three thousand eight hundred forty five dollars through fifty five federal spending programs and that was guided by the information gathered during our 2010 census so now in 2010 when the census was completed we had I don't know how many people at the time here but I do know it's a whole lot more here now than there was then so we should be able to receive more money to those 55 federal programs and we might even have more programs that we're able to fund because I will say we're overpopulated here in our state but we certainly are very well populated that number was a mouthful that's for sure yes and I do hope that that we we are able to increase that number Kisha we're going to go to a quick break but when we come back I'd love to hear more about how you got involved and perhaps some of the the specific things that people are going to be seeing out there about how they can participate in the census we're going to take that short break this is business in Hawaii we'll see you back here shortly hi I am Yukari Kunisue host of Konnichiwa Hawaii Think Tech Hawaii's Japanese program broadcasting every Monday from 2 p.m. I usually invite a guest in Japanese language community who does interesting things and I'd like to share stories with you guys please tune in and listen to Konnichiwa Hawaii Aloha I'm Stan Osterman Stan the energy man every Friday here on Think Tech Hawaii if you're really interested in finding out what's going on in energy especially here in Hawaii but also all the way around the world and especially if it has to do with hydrogen look into Stan the energy man every Friday 12 o'clock Think Tech Hawaii either Aloha welcome back sorry this is business in Hawaii and with us today is none other than the Miss Keisha King a very familiar face here on Think Tech in our Think Tech studios Keisha so we were taught when we went to break we were talking about how you are volunteering um to help with the 2020 census tell me about how you got involved and perhaps some of our viewers want to get involved is it too late oh no not at all I got involved through the NAACP the NAACP was the first complete count committee formed in the state and so now we have several different complete count committees and I should mention that all of our forms that we're sending out and all of the information regarding the the census is in 13 different languages so every group on island can participate in the completion of the form because most of the most prominent languages are represented um and I was simply in as a member of the NAACP I was simply invited to attend this committee meeting and um really I was honored because I think that it's an important thing for us to do for all people across the state now to your question is it too late for people to get involved no it is not we need your help here are some important dates as I mentioned earlier in the show we have electronic means of counting people now so what that means is beginning on March 12th 2020 you can go online or use your smartphone to answer all the questions on the census right then and there and there are several organizations both those that are affiliated with the NAACP and those who are members of the other complete count committees throughout the state who are organizing different means of communicating that information to their individual groups so what that might look like is a group of people might get together let's say at their church and they might have a census day anytime between March 12th and April 1st they can have a complete count committee send information to all of their followers and they can complete the census right then and there and it's really easy so anyone can do it but there are a lot of volunteers who can help now the actual census day is April 1st so when I did my show on the census I said don't be fooled be counted and of course April 1st is April Fool's Day but it's more important for that to be complete count day for the census so as you know Governor Ege and Lieutenant Governor Josh Green both worked together here recently as a matter of fact but starting a year ago they determined that they were in full support of the census and they tried to get the word out so that others could help and participate well just Tuesday I attended the census day at the Capitol where both gentlemen took the time to address all of those participants and we gathered more information about the census we spoke to the crowd or they spoke to the crowd and helped everyone to find out the most relevant information to their groups so we had a Filipino group or table for that particular group of people and then we also had people who were members of AARP and for some reason somebody asked me if I was a member of the AARP I was like come on give it a break but I thought why are you asking me this but I didn't realize you can join early so keep that in mind you can join early that's what she said to clear that up but every possible organization nice save that's what I said every possible organization the organization was represented at the census day on the Capitol and it turned out to be really informative so as to your question about is it too late no anyone can go to census.hawaii.gov or census2020.gov and as soon as you go to the front page there's information about employment we still need to hire and train people who are going to go door to door or help with other tasks as it pertains to the census so if you'd like to get in on a federal job as easy as it well normally it's not very easy to get a federal job but this makes it very easy to get in and do something that's important for our state and the entire nation amazing it's never too late I think some general questions that people might have about participating in the census is how long is the census how many questions are we talking about okay let's address that what we ask in addition to who's living with you whether or not you're an owner or a renter your telephone number and your name we also ask for sex age date of birth whether you're you have a Hispanic Latino or Spanish origin we then ask your race and whether a person lives or stays somewhere else we ask the relationships of each member in the home and then there is that issue regarding citizenship okay and that raised a lot of questions now there's always been a citizenship question on the census but I want to make it clear to anyone who has a concern this is not citizenship information that can harm you in any way so if you are not a US citizen if you complete this form and you say that you're not no one is going to come and get you it is not developed or it's not for that purpose and I want to address the fear that people have had in years past even within my family I have family members that lived in Pennsylvania and I remember the 1990s census when I was I'm just going to lie and say I was two but some of them were talking about not completing the census they were afraid about Uncle Sam knowing too much information or more information than he needed to know he doesn't need to be in my business is what they were saying and I want to address that by simply saying you shouldn't have any fear about that okay let's erase that fear because it is not designed to harm you in any way it's going to help and I just want to read off some of the committees that actually receive the help and Dalen you tell me how we're doing on time because I don't want to over speak but here's a list of a few of the programs okay and this is financial assistant programs so medical assistance programs such as Medicaid federal direct student loans supplemental nutrition assistance program Medicare supplemental medical insurance part b highway planning and construction federal Pell Grant program section 8 housing choice vouchers temporary assistance for needy families very low to moderate income housing loans title one grants to leas state children's health insurance program national school lunch program and the list goes on and on we talk about week and head start in foster care and health care centers school breakfast program public and Indian housing low income home energy assistance child and adult care food program vocational rehabilitation grants to the states and as I said the list just goes on and on these are the places some of them because there's over 55 who receive that 3 billion 0.6 or 3.6 billion dollars worth of program obligations now in the fraction of that list there are so many great programs that we know even we take advantage of and and our loved ones take advantage of whether it's Medicare whether it's and so I see the the importance of that I want to ask you a question about safety security and fraud right so for those folks who are going to be taking the census because somebody comes to their home or or whatnot will they ever ask for a social security number no no they will not how do I know if someone is an official representative of the census before I give out my information they'll have enough proper ID to display to make sure that you are aware that they are official again now these are once they're hired they become members of the federal government okay so they'll be something representing that and if you have questions or doubts about that you can contact the census.gov via the internet there are phone numbers that you can call and to avoid that simply do it online between March 12th and April 1st and I just want to emphasize one more time no social security numbers right that is correct and I think that's a concern for a lot of people once once someone asked for their social security numbers will folks from the census be taking in information by phone as well you can contact them by phone it's when we say by phone though we're specifically meaning your smartphone to answer the questions online in that way and I want to talk about the safety again okay I want to read directly from their website so it says the Census Bureau is required by law to protect any personal information we collect and keep it strictly confidential the Census Bureau can only use your answers to produce statistics in fact every Census Bureau employee takes an oath to protect your personal information for life your answers cannot be used for law enforcement purposes or to determine your personal eligibility for government benefits fantastic so thank you so much for that I you know I think that's valuable information I think there's so many questions that people have and and they don't know that they can go right to the internet to learn more about the census and have any of the their questions answered um is there anything that you want to leave us with we have about 30 seconds and I want to make sure that we give you every bit of time well I want to make sure that people know that beginning March 12th you can go online and answer the questions for the census okay so you don't have to wait until April 1st to do this in fact the sooner you do it the better that's thing one that I want to emphasize if you do not do it between March 12th and April 1st you can simply complete by online by mail or by telephone on April 1st and remember don't be fooled be counted Ms. Keisha King thank you so much for joining us big thank you to the production staff here in the studio if you would like to be a guest on our show please subscribe and leave a comment below business in Hawaii airs every Thursday at 2 p.m. and we look forward to seeing you here next week