i really believe this program is doing that. fran, talk to us a little bit about what samhsa is doing to prevent youth from getting into trouble? we're actually doing a lot, especially in the last couple of years. we have, with our new administration, samhsa has made prevention of substance abuse and mental illness a priority, which has really put a lot of energy across the country into doing prevention programs for our young people. the biggest, which we've been doing a lot of talking about, approach, is to get to the parents. we just released a media campaign that showed that 40 percent of our young people between the ages of 12 and 20 have used alcohol and are experimenting with it. now that means 60 percent have not. so we are seeing a steady decline but not enough. we don't want 40 percent of our young people using.

so we are working with our parents in programming, we're working with increasing our community program. we are mixing together both evidence-based programs, which mark talked a little bit about in the treatment area, we have the same type of programs and prevention that are based in evidence with what monique talked about a little bit about environmental programs, changing the conditions and the norms of a community, one community at a time, and adding to this a huge focus on collaborating with all of our federal, state, and local partners. we have found that's really the key, that we need to work with our fda. we need to work with the center for disease control. we need to work with criminal justice and departments of education along with parents and help people see that substance abuse and mental illness is just another illness that we are dealing with in our country just like we are cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and the rest.

and the underage drinking campaign as well. the underage drinking campaign continues to be a focus in this year and the next couple of years samhsa is putting a greater emphasis on underage drinking because underage drinking still remains our number one problem with youth, and it's a preventable problem. so if we can package up everything we've been talking about, put our resources behind it with our collaborative friends, we will begin to make a positive difference and once and for all really bring these numbers down to a manageable level of use. monique, you've mentioned that it is a limited footprint for recovery schools. talk to us a little bit about what the regular school systems, both on the private side as well as the public school systems need to be aware of in order to provide the best possible opportunities for youth who may get in trouble with some interventions that may basically allow

them to have a normal and productive school experience. sure. well, i mean, some students that are chemically dependent are always going to need a recovery school of some sort or that type of support. however, the public schools and the private schools can do a lot to help prevent, as fran was talking about, using some of these collaborative efforts at the state and local levels. and also the schools can provide education prevention intervention services. maybe that would be through a student assistance program, maybe through having something like a chemical health specialist in their buildings to help facilitate and support those students. or if their local community doesn't have a recovery high school or collegiate program, maybe being able to support those students when they're returning from treatment so that they can have access to an adult who is trained in dealing

with addiction and recovery. mark had mentioned earlier that, you know, an adolescent coming out of treatment and working on recovery is going to have issues and they're going to need support and the families need support and education on what that's going to look like. and the schools can also be a part of helping facilitate and educate those families and support those families and students when they return. and just to add one thing, there's also this emerging peer-support models in public schools that we're seeing in connecticut and we're seeing successful uses of support models within a school system where they're addressing, you know, alcohol and drug use, maybe not always to dependent, fully dependent kids, but maybe at risk youth so they would bridge sort of that prevention and recovery sector and have kids acknowledge and talk about their use and sort of connect their use to their consequences, you know, in a school setting because kids are there, you know, 6 hours a day, so it's a great place.

greg, talk to us about what you would have done differently when you first started to experience problems. well, i mean, i think that, you know, as an individual going through adolescence i didn't, you know, i didn't reason, i don't reason, i don't fear, you know, it's the science of it, you know, i do what feels good. and that's true adolescence. so i don't know necessarily, you know, i could say that i as an individual would have done something differently at 14 or 15. i mean, obviously i could have made better choices, you know, but it's that support system around me that could have helped to influence like, you know, if i was in a public school that had a peer support model, you know, i would have been acknowledging the consequences of my addiction earlier, you know, because i just, you know, at 16, i just liked to party, you know, that was what i said and that's what i believed. and i was in denial that, you know, because i liked to party, i was cut from the baseball team. i was in denial that now i'm getting "c"s

in school, you know, that it was related. i didn't have any, you know, i really didn't want to believe that and i didn't have any idea, where, from an outsider it's obvious, you know, what's going on. but for me as an adolescent, you know, i never connected it. mark, do you use student assistance programs? do you tap them; do you tap other resources, community resources? student assistance programs are a vital part of a continuum of care and it accesses young people at an early age and one of the things we know is that if we can access young people when they're initially starting to develop the problem that we can short circuit the length of time that they'll have problems and that's a huge finding so that the average amount of time they'll have problems is far less. so student assistance programs are vitally important. unfortunately, student assistance programs are not in abundance. and as states have experienced revenue

shortfalls, that's one of the first areas they cut. in my home state of illinois, we've cut funding for student assistance or early intervention programs because the state is always going to see their mission first as taking care of the sickest of the sick. but it's a vitally important component and so we need to have that for that early intervention and those kinds of programs can and are successful. i think, you know, you've hit on something that i think every single state...i was just listening to a radio show yesterday and they were talking about the dire circumstances, budgetary circumstances that many of the states...under that particular outlook, fran, what really should families be looking to? in other words, if in fact they don't have student assistance programs, if in fact the treatment system is going to be affected by budgetary constraints,

what can we tell our audience to do under those circumstances? first and foremost, look to see if you have one of those community coalitions near you, because the federal government, we're putting a lot of money and we're working in great partnership with the office of national drug control policy, the u.s. department of education, the u.s. department of justice and of course, samhsa, to bring dollars to the local level so people can come together. if there isn't a coalition, parents could consider bringing people together themselves and going online to the samhsa web site and be able to learn how to bring a coalition together, who should be there at the table, how do i get expertise, and it's very accessible. we have a facebook page now. everything is becoming far easier to approach and to get our messages out. have the power of a coalition of every single

person in a community that touches a child come together and talk about what needs to be done and then learn the tools of bringing in, to do an assessment as we do in treatment, we do in the community, we can then begin the process and start. our new health reform legislation is going to help us because we are bringing in the attention and the dollars to support the funding for prevention, for treatment, and for recovery services. so our future is very bright but a parent needs to see that they are in the driver's seat and that no one program is going to do it. so bringing multiple kinds of approaches together throughout the continuum is the best advice i think we can give parents. i could just illustrate what fran's talking about in our hometown of bloomington, illinois. we have a parent coalition that was supported in part by samhsa's funding and one of the things they've done is they've created a parent-to-parent network. and they sign up and they agree to notify each other

about parties and to check things out and one of the most gratifying things when my daughter was in high school and she was having a party, we got a call from a parent who wanted to check out to make sure that we were going to be there and that it was on the up and up. so they're effective? well it can be effective and it's a good thing, you bet. okay. final thoughts, monique. well, i think that there's a lot of hope out there for adolescents and young adults that are struggling with addiction and i also think there's a lot of hope in providing prevention and intervention for those students at an earlier age to prevent or delay the onset of use and ultimately we're going to have healthier students and adults. greg, your thoughts. i think just, you know, we need to move away from sort of this punitive, you know, don't talk about it, kind of hide it from everybody, you know, because it's happening, it exists and until we accept

it as a society and communities that alcohol and drugs is an issue, you know, we're not going to address it and we're not going to be able to solve, you know, it as a, as it really is, a public health crisis. and that recovery is in fact possible through adequate treatment and family supports. thank you for being here. we've had a great show. i want to remind our audience that september is national alcohol and drug addiction recovery month and we celebrate it every september. we want you to get involved, get engaged, and support those in recovery and those who serve them. thank you for being here. for a copy of this program or other programs in the road to recovery series, call samhsa at 1-800-662-help or order online at recoverymonth.gov and click "multimedia."

every september, national alcohol and drug addiction recovery month provides an opportunity for communities like yours to r raise awareness of alcohol and drug use disorders and highlight the effectiveness of treatment. in order to help you plan events and activities in commemoration of this year's recovery month observance, the free recovery month kit offers ideas, materials, and tools for planning, organizing, and realizing an event or outreach campaign that matches your goals and resources. to obtain your copy of this year's recovery month kit and gain access to other free publications and materials related to addiction treatment and recovery issues, visit the recovery month web site at www.recoverymonth.gov or call 1-800-622-help. it's important that everyone become involved

because addiction is our nation's number one health problem and treatment is our best tool to address it.

streaming ♪ ♪ and the rockets' red glare ♪ ♪ the bombs bursting in air ♪ gave proof through the night that our flag was still there

♪ ♪ oh say does that "star-spangled banner" yet wave ♪ ♪ oer the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪ >> please remain standing for the fill inine national anthem. ♪ -- fill inine -- fill iine national anthem.

philippine national anthem. ♪ [singing] ♪ [singing]

>> please take your seats. good evening, ladies and gentlemen, i'm camina constantine of the fill in -- philippine channel as we celebrate filipino history month. of course this won be possible without the support of the marry's -- marry's office. and this shows the community is strong and united. to better showcase this spirit

of camaraderie and solidarity, let's watch this. >> they are our pioneers. our heroes. our parents. our selves. le coming to america, to a country who did not understand who we were, what we have done, and what we do, would do in this land of opportunity. it is this older generation that paved the way to make this country our own. from coast to coast we've built our communities, raised our families, fought injustice and stood stronger than whatever tried to bring us down. it is the community spirit that beats in the heart of every filipino and it is in communities where fill in -- filipinos find their strength and celebrate their triumphs.

fill i inoes across the country joined the charge for progress, for change, hope, and helped elect america's first black president, bronalt they are the kind of person who generously shares their heard-earned delarkss extends a helping hand, puts together needed goods to send aid back home. it is a success story of business leaders, athletes, artists and others who use their talents to help advance other fill i inoes. it is the flame of democracy rekindled through the burning legacy of the common desire for freedom. this lives on today in the younger generation who enhir -- inherited the wisdom of their

forefathers, the passion for activism, and the commitment to vigilance in order to build a strong community. as we observe filipino-american history month, let us celebrate the land of the brave, the land we have come to call our own. [applause] >> doesn't that just make you proud to be a filipino american? we'd like to thank you all again for being everyday heroes to the filipino community awed -- all over north america and especially here in the bay area. we would like to welcome a

member of the san francisco bay school board, hydra mendoza. >> thank you very much. it's always such an honor to be celebrating our community. my parents are actually here visiting from the seattle-tacoma area and it was so wonderful so -- to see my parents and my children together. and it just reminds me how important and valuable family is and the importance of our community. mayor newsom came down earlier this evening to welcome everyone and he asked me to share this proclamation for all of you here in our community. this is a proclamation from -- from the city and county of san francisco. in october 1587 the first

recorded filipinos landed in what is now moro bay, california, on a spanish galyon. since that time, americans of filipino descent have played a significant role in the civic, cultural and economic development of our city and whereas october is fip floe history month, recognizing that they have enriched our cull are -- country and in san francisco contributed literature, art, and dance and in world war ii countless americans of filipino ancestry accepted the call to serve in the u.s. military and fought courageously in defense of their home lap and providing support to the united states of america in the name of course freedom and democracy and whereas over two million americans identify their

ancestry as flim noe american, making it the second largest asian-american community in the united states and whereas earlier this year california star leyland yi passed the bill sell -- acknowledging the importance of flill -- filipino americans in our history, now be it resolved that gavin newsome, mayor of san francisco, in recognition of the bonds between the philippines and america do hereby proclaim october, 2009 as filipino history month in san francisco. i'd like to give this honor to our deputy general consul,

santos. at this time i'd like to welcome my colleague and friend lisa ongoing who -- ong who serves as liaison to the office of community affairs. lisa? >> thank you, hydra and thank you call -- all for being here today. i know the circumstances in getting here might have been a little more difficult for some of you but i do appreciate you coming out on behalf of the mayor to help celebrate filipino american month. the mayor was here earlier to stop by and say hi and make sure everyone recognizes the importance of of the filipino

community in the united states as well. i want to touch on a few points about why it's important we celebrate filipino american history month but biff do that i would be remiss if i did not acknowledge the many people here to support us, the president of the board of supervisors, david chiu, supervisor maxwell, the representation from congresswoman jackie spears' office and assembly woman fiona mars' office for being here and without your support we wouldn't be able to have the impact on the community that we have throughout the city and we can't tell you enough how important it is that we see your faces at this event and that we your support in all of our endeavors. so it is a great pleasure that we're having this event because

filipino-american history is very crucial in moving forward in our progress for our community. it's very important that we recognize our veterans, that we bring the bahty of the philippines to the san francisco count and there are many people behind the scenes and up front who do that for us so i recognize you for that. i have seen you throughout the months at the many events the this has been one of the busiest filipino-american history months that i can remember and i want to commend you all for your important work. we couldn't have done it without the efforts of a.b.s.c.b.n. international. they've been a generous sponsor for not only this event but for many event throughout our community as well as their relief efforts and i can't thank them enough for all they do to publicize positive youth

efforts for our community. can we give a hand to them? [applause] once again, thank you all for being in here tonight. you're in for some great surprises. surprises. i thank you again for coming out. >> at this point, ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to welcome from abfcbn international director of community relations and a pioneer in owe beloved community. miss mito sanlta esteban. >> good evening and thank you for being here tonight. as we celebrate filipino

america history month i would like to thank mayor gavin newsom for the warm welcome as we celebrate in this beautiful room. isn't it baffle? we are happy to celebrate our month with all of you. tonight's meeting is more meaningful because the california legislation has approved the legislation just this september to officially recognize the accomplishment of philippine americans. the bill offered by senator legal anled yi declares october as philippine history month. it is been a long time coming and i would like to say i am proud and at the same time privileged because through the many seasons, the various

trials and triumphs, the filipino channel has captured those years. we have the chance and the power to magnify the voice of the community 10 times over so that what may appear to be a tiny ripple is actually a steadily increasing rumble that proves that flip nosse are indeed -- filipinos are indeed represented in different fronteers of society. the filipino american community is a vibrant, influential force in our dwerks multicultural nation. california is home to over half of the flill noe population in the united states. i'm honored to be in the company of trailblazers and remarkable teachers. a fearlesso