[cheers and applause] >> hi, i am 86. i am -- i came to the united states in 1993 from ukraine. [unintelligible] i have been attending the jewish

center for more than five years. a significant health problem. now i want to address, dear mr. mayor, dear board of supervisors, look at tasks, look tasks218 sick, elderly people, and see your parents and your grandparents. we're sick. we are isolated. do not commit this crime. do not leave us without the center. and if you ask me what it means to me, i will answer. it gives life. do not leave us without life. do not take life away from your parents and grandparents. do not leave us without this sort of life, and do not leave me with out the center. thank you. [cheers and applause]

>> all right, now sue is going to assist the less talked about stepping stone presentation adult day health. -- is going to talk to you about stepping stone presentation adult day health. [applause] >> [speaking foreign language] >> i think everyone for giving me this opportunity to share my experience. and from china, i came for 20 years. i used to work for a health care center. i was in a severe car accident. i had a head trauma and had several fractures.

911 send me to the emergency room. i was in a coma for three days. three surgeries, six hours. i still have many metal pieces in my body. 40 days in the hospital. they wanted to send me to the nursing home. there was a long waiting list for the nursing home. i had to go to a hotel. a health-care worker came to visit me daily. once there was an opening in the

beltway house, i went to the presentation community. very helpful. nursing care, therapy, exercise, activities. i have been living in a presentation for three years. 80 seniors, and we have been there for 10 years. hearing the news about adult day health being closed, we felt very, very sad. after listening to the mayor and several supervisors supporting

adult day health coming as a very happy and thankful. if the adult day health is saved, we have a home and we have help. if i need any help, i can always count on telling my adult day health staff peter i am very thankful. thank you, everyone. [cheers and applause] >> of henne. on behalf of what you just said, what do we say? we will not go in a nursing- home. >> [all chanting]

we won't go in the nursing home we won't go in a nursing home we want go in a nursing home newlin >> she did not go in nursing home because she had adult day health care britta that is what we need to continue to have. we're going to hear from a family member who has been a participant at the bayview adult day health care center who relies on the center to help her to take care of her mother. here she is. [applause] >> thank you. my mother promised not to talk, and i get to do all the talking for a change. let's see how that goes. here is my story. monday through friday i leave my house at 5:45 a.m. to begin my work day. once i arrived at work, i call my mother. here she is. good morning, mom. it is your daughter.

how are you? well, yes i guess it's all right -- that is mom. but what am i supposed to do today? mom, it is school. that is what she calls adult day health center. she calls it school. it is school today, and your helper will be here soon to help you get your back, get dressed, breakfast, and make sure you get on the bus safely for school. what time does the bus come? that is mom. 9:00. again, now what am i supposed to do today? my mother has alzheimer's, among other things. if i did not have -- if we did not have adult day health care center, can you imagine what her day would be like? being at home possibly by herself all day. or in a nursing home away from her friends and the care providers that do all the things that i cannot do, all the things

i do not know how to do. i am here standing strong with my mother, because i realize i made times she stood strong with me. please, please, state of california, do not close adult day health care centers unless you want folks like my mom to be at home, either by themselves, without friends, or in a nursing center. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> thank you. good job. thank you could i am sure you spoke for a lot of families right there who are counting on adult day health care to be there. we are about ready to wrap up, but i am going to get the crowd fired up and ready to go. you know how the president always talks about getting fired

up and ready to go? are you fired up, ready to go? [cheers and applause] ok, i have somebody who is really going to fire you up and get you ready to go. that is penny kelly from the california association of retired adults. >> well, let me introduce myself one more time. my name is henny kelly, and i am here from the california alliance for retired americans. i want you to know how lucky we are to live in san francisco, because we see that san francisco cares about all its citizens. i will tell you, other cities in this state are not going to pick up the adult day health program. we are different in san francisco. we care about each other.

we care about the children. we care about the parents. we care about the grandparents and the great grandparents. we care about all of you. [the cheers and applause] but we cannot let the state government, especially governor jerry brown, off the hook. he is the one person who single- handedly cut adac from the budget, and he is the one person who can turn this around. as a reminder, the governor proposed elimination of the program in his budget plans early this year, after countless hearings, alleges that of visits, rallies, and more. the legislative developed a compromised decision to cut the funding by about half but would

leave the medicaid waiver in place and allow us to have some funds from which to build back up. this proposal as both houses of the less it should -- legislature and was sent to governor jerry brown, and he vetoed it. >> [crowd boos] >> and then, our governor promised to come up with a transitional plan that would provide needed services to those currently using adac's. to date, there is no plan. funding for the centers will terminate on december 1 of this year. the governor should be ashamed of himself. say it with me -- shame on you. shame on you. >> [crowd chanting]

shame on you shame on you a shame on you >> whoo! now the ball is in his court and the responsibility to find appropriate medical, psychological, social, and recreational services for the 37,000 people who might be locked out of adult day health care centers across the state. so a group of us, us, the people in a san francisco, constituents who vote, people who live in this state are going to go over to governor brown's office right now. hey, it is right across the street over there. we are in his hood right now. or maybe he is in our hood.

and we're going to demand that his staff get him on the phone so he can tell us what his promised transition plan is. we have to make plans come december 1. so far we have heard nothing from his office. i want to ask you, are you with me? the city of san francisco should supplement this program. it should not pay the whole fare. you know that. we need more in adult day health care. we do not need less. so you need to really be with us. i would like you to start with a little chant that i usually do. and then, we will talk about the logistics. ok? you just repeat after me. we're going to get in the happy

mood. ♪ everywhere i go -- people want to know -- do we are -- so we tell them -- we are the seniors -- mighty mighty seniors -- fighting for our health -- fighting for respect -- we are the seniors -- mighty mighty seniors -- hey [unintelligible] we're going to win

we will get health care -- our dog they health care -- the adult day health care -- is our right -- get out of our way -- give it back to us -- everywhere i go -- people want to know -- who we are -- so i tell them -- we are the seniors -- mighty mighty seniors -- and we will win -- and dold de health care -- an adult day health care ♪

[cheers and applause] all right, james is going to tell us exactly what we are going to do. we're going to walk over there. we're going to meet in the room. he will tell you which one. and then we are going to see the governor's people. are you with me? i cannot hear you. are you with me? >> [crowd] yes. >> all right. >> all right. you see that building over there? that would be the governor's building. the governor has an office over there. so everybody who can make it over there, and if you're in a van, then we'll take you up over there, let's follow henny right across the street to let the governors know that we needed to stop the elimination of adult day health care, right? so follow henny.

>> connect is so important. every quarter we have a chance to come together to get so many volunteers and so many providers to provide some hope for people who are homeless and you guys are the most precious people that we have ever assembled. all right! [applause] so i understand this is the 40th event. i was 40 19 years ago. but i feel younger every day. but the city has so much to offer, and when we concede to this idea -- and i know we're going to honor a great leader,

robert garcia today for her wonderful leadership on this whole idea today, and she's so much deserves it, but you know guess what? this idea has not only resonated here in our city, we have not only helped over 22,000 people for medical services, with mental services, with housing referrals, but we've caused some 220 other cities in our country, in canada and australia, to model their approach similar to what we're doing here in san francisco. so we've got a great idea. today we have a thousand volunteers. you're part of a great force. [applause] we have over 200 providers and, of course, lead sponsor i want to give a thanks to blue shield. thank you! thank you, tom epstein for being here today. in our corporate citizens are joining us because they know

this is a way we can touch a lot of people. since 2004 there have been over 12,000 homeless people that have gone through the program not only project homeless connect but housing first. got in touch with people who cared about them. talked about what they needed and now are in long-term permanent housing. isn't that wonderful? that's the way to do it. it's not good moving people -- about moving people off the street or shuffling them from one corner to another, it's about care. it's about humanity. it's about how they do if right. and that's how we get people to look at their long-term future. if they're not caring about themselves and they don't think anybody else cares about them, we're lost. we're going to increase our homeless population. so we're doing it right. we've got to plan, the plan is in place. ten-year, plan and reflects our policy here in san francisco that is permanent housing,

long-term care for people. that's how we involve ourselves as better human beings. thank you for being part of this great, great cause in our city. thank you for producing the wonderful hours you're going today. thank you for volunteering your work and also thank you for changing people's minds about who our homeless are. there are people right on the edge right now. i know there are fantastic protests going on on wall street and so forth because they're hurting our. financial causes in our whole country is hurting us. causing a lot of people to become homeless. we have to lead with our humanity. that's the way we should conduct not only social services but business this a more humanitarian way. getting people jobs, finding houses for folks on a daily basis, not to just be up to project homeless connect. but we have to lead the way and lead with our hearts. i want to thank awful you for being here today celebrating the

40th day event. thank you very much for being here. [applause] >> thank you. that gets me excited. what is, is is a collaborative effort. you didn't have to come out but you saw the need and said it's rainy and cold but i will be there. that's what makes this group so exciting. give yourselves a hand! this project would not work without a collaborative effort. and so we want to thank you but we also want to thank some of the founders. gavin newsome who couldn't be here today was very influential and many other people that we want to thank. but sometimes we don't even see. you guys all know judith was very important from the very beginning. let's give her thank you for all that she's done. and also the next thing today i will honor one of the other people who believed in this and who said we have to do something. and we're together going to come as a community and that's

barbara garcia. [applause] so she does not know this but today we would like to celebrate her. as -- she doesn't even know i'm connected to her and in the '80's, she worked in watsonville and worked in getting people who didn't have food, food. and for a very short time, i was a child teenager, let's say. i was a teen in the early '80's and we didn't have food. we were there a few months doing migrant work and i was there hungry. because of a project she had done as a child she didn't even know, my family had food. this is the type of person i can believe in because for all of these years, she continued to say, you need food. let's get you that. you need health care, let's get you that. so today i'm going to have one of our other volunteers for the garden we have. how many of you know about ph.d. garden? a few of those. this is one of my favorite things. another thing barbara believes in is sustainable food, having a

safe place people can come to every single day and being in a space, be comfortable. we have home grown foods. we eat together on mondays. one of our volunteers from the garden who is now one of the staff is here and he's going to talk about what the garden has meant to him and honor barbara with a basket of goods of things we have from the garden like tomato and apples. so, welcome. [applause] this is ty. thank you, ty. go ahead. >> well, yeah, i work at the garden. i'm the garden educator. if you didn't know, it's a garden on lily and octavia, which is right off near page and oak. and everyone is invited to come by and check it out. it's a great garden. it's just a place for homeless people and recently housed people and just all types of people, any people, people in the community, citizens of the

city to just come by and enjoy a time in nature and just be at peace and also learn job skills and, yeah, it's been a great experience for me. i just appreciate it a lot. so everything in this basket was grown in our garden and we have some mental health herbs and plants that are good for making teas. people say tomatoes don't really grew in the city but we grew some. if you want to learn about those plants that are in there, just come by to the garden octavia and lily. thank you very much. appreciate it. [applause] >> thank you. >> so thank you to barbara and all of the other founders that we get to celebrate today and we look forward to our 50th event. and 60th and 70th because as

mayor lee said, this is a pioneer project. which what makes it pioneer isn't the city or just me, it's all of us. it's you, it's the city, it's the leadership of this city. it's all of us coming together and saying, we're going to do something today. so thank you so much. blue shield has been a sponsor since the very beginning of project homeless connect. today we have tom epstein, here from blue shield, who will say a few words. we have a lot of volunteers today. i see a lot of blue shield cares. so thank you! tom has been helping people for many, many years. he served in the clinton administration. he's worked here in this city with blue shield. so it's a pleasure to have him here today and he's going to talk a little bit what it means for blue shield to be part of homeless connect. >> thank you, and it's an honor to be on the same program with mayor lee.

he's showing outstanding lordship on this program from the very beginning and it's very exciting. wow, look at all of you. so many people, awesome show of commitment. it's really great. anybody who spends time in san francisco realizes there's a great need, a lot of people who need help out there and the people lined up outside, of course, are a reflection of that. what's needed is a collaboration between government and the community. that's what homeless connect is all about. it's led by the city but we couldn't exist without all of the people involved here today. it's really an amazing show. the blue shield of california has been in san francisco for more than 70 years and we're a not-for-profit, based on admission of serving community. so we have always been very involved in activities trying to help the community. we have shield cares program that we have talked about with over 1,400 employees involved in that. i believe 125 of them are here

today. and we're proud. i want to thank jennifer murray and rhonda will kin for putting that together. shout out to all of the blue shield people for being here. thank you. [applause] more important than that, all of you out here are going to fan out on this huge arena and really help people all day. glorious thing. i thank you and congratulate you. [applause] >> so again i just want to end by thanking mayor lee and barbara and all of the volunteers and blue shield and thank you and all of the other people we weren't able to celebrate today who have been here for the 40 -- all 40 events or have really put in their work. so thank you. this could not happen without you. i will say that at every single event but it's so true. thank you today. i'm looking forward to an amazing day. what do you guys think? let's do it. ok, thank you. have a good day.