the legislative center. thank you, thank you, thank you. (applause) [inaudible]. (applause) >> thank you, supervisor mar. thank you for the poetry. i would like to acknowledge our next colleague who has several commendations for this afternoon, supervisor olague. >> is it by coincidence that everything happens this week. we have two commendations now

and we'll have one when we offer the mental health commendation. so, that's coming a little bit later. but i will start out with acknowledging coreen mayfield. this past weekend has been amazing for the world of professional sports here in san francisco. world champions in baseball and a convincing division in football on national television have put san francisco in the limelight for being a world class city with world champions, caliber athletics. also in the world stage, coreen mayfield, an unbeaten boxer from district 5, was shining on hbo against maurico herrera, winning a 10 round unanimous decision and in the process defending his north america boxing organization junior welter weight title in the process for the second time.

outside of the ring he volunteers his time with a number of youth outreach programs, coaching and mentoring youth to lead positive lives. he is a local celebrity, not only for his talents as an athlete, but also for his commitment to lifting up the young people of san francisco through sports and discipline. in 2003, having put the street life behind him, this young man walked into a gym and four years later became a professional boxer. what an amazing story. (applause) [cheering and applauding] >> he has truly overcome the odds and utilized his talents to help inspire others. it is with great honor that as district 5 supervisor today, we

honor and recognize the accomplishments of the western addition's very own karim mayfield. >> thank you, thank you. (applause) thank you, christina. i want to say, you actually said i grew up in western addition all my life. been around, i was one of the mischievous. i'm in the street, talking to the youth, letting them know whatever they put their mind to do they can do it. if they're not going to become champions in the boxing ring, they can become champions in life overall.

i just want to say i'm happy to receive this award and thank you, christina. (applause) is that your body guard? [laughter] [speaker not understood]. [laughter] (applause) (applause) >> and my next honor is for

linda avery herbert who i worked with for 7-1/2 years at the planning commission. she mentored me and she mentored so many other people in this city. serving on the planning commission is not a very easy task. it's like hours and hours of work. we sit in meetings for 10 hours or more. and linda was my mentor for a long time. she was my guide. and without her, i don't think i could have gotten through those meetings or served the city in the manner that i was able to. with your example, you always have such an incredible amount of grace and [speaker not understood]. i don't know what else to say other than i'm really grateful to be here today, to be able to honor you. i know you're retiring i think at the end of this week is it? >> tomorrow. >> tomorrow, wow. (applause) >> so, i don't know if any of

you know linda avery herbert. she's incredible. if linda could stand up. [cheering and applauding] >> thank you. thank you, supervisor olague. it's a pleasure to be able to say that. i was so enthusiastic about you being a supervisor and i'm so proud of you. but it has been my rare pleasure to serve the citizens of san francisco in my role and i'm going to cry again, as commission secretary. the honor has been all mine. thank you. [cheering and applauding]

>> today is actually -- i forgot to mention. we're still waiting for the official vote. today is actually we're declaring october 30th, 2012 as linda avery-herbert day in the city and county of san francisco. [cheering and applauding] >> thank you very much, supervisor. ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to kickoff a set of commendations that each of our colleagues will be presenting. in commemoration of the fact that this month and october, it

is mental health appreciation month. i know this week we have been celebrating our san francisco giants, but we also wanted to take a moment and really celebrate the giants among you who have been truly stepping up and taking care of our residents in san francisco who need mental health and mental health services. so, without further ado, i'd like to first start, and i think today we'll go in alphabetical order and start with supervisor avalos. but also i wanted to take a moment and see if supervisor cohen who had suggested that we have today's ceremony, if you had any opening comments you'd like to make. >> wow, thank you. it's good to see you all. hello, san francisco. how are you today? [cheering and applauding] >> i'm so excited to be here because today is actually the first time this chamber has had an opportunity to recognize, like supervisor chiu said, the giants that are on my list, our mental health community.

so, it's a pleasure to work with the mental health board and the department of health to kickoff today. i don't want to belabor the issue. i have two giants i'm excited to be introducing today. so, without further ado, supervisor chiu, please, let's begin. thank you. >> let's start with, begin the alphabet, supervisor avalos. >> thank you, president chiu. i'd like to call up to the podium inez bettencourt. (applause) >> inez is an excelsior district resident. she's also a program director at the southeast child and family therapy center which is actually part of the southeast health care center on silver avenue. but she's also working in the mission district on mission

street. and she fought hard to maintain a center that is on mission street. but we weren't able to maintain it. i know you were a strong advocate for making sure that we can have those services serving especially [speaker not understood] children and families, children youth and families in the excelier district. your work does continue at the southeast clinic and i want to thank you for all your great work in san francisco. not only are you involved with your regular clinical work at the center, you're also doing a lot of community work in san francisco. i think it's really about your vision for what mental health is really all about. it's not just an individual, but it's the context, it's the society, it's the community that we live in. i was looking at your resume today. i was impressed. we're just going back 25 years to your work in el salvador working with refugees and understanding what the connection is between people who are living here, who have immigrated here from central

mark, to their experiences here and experiences there and how they affect -- what their emotions are like, what mental health is like and you address all of that in your work. i just want to say congratulations and thank you so much on behalf of the board of supervisors for your work in this city. i know you have many more years to give and you started very, very young in your life's work. so, i congratulate you and offer you our commendation for your work over the years in this city. thank you very much. >> thank you. (applause) thank you very much. and as john said, i do believe that mental health is more than just the individual, it's about creating community. and i feel very honored and very proud of the board of supervisors that you are acknowledging the importance of mental health in this city. i've worked for the city 23 years in mental health and i often come every budget year,

you know, as john says to kind of fight or advocate for the needs of the community. and i live in the community and i work in the community, and i feel that a lot of times when the most stressed people in the city are suffering different traumas and the violence and the different pressures of immigration and other things, that they isolate in that moment and that when we can bring them back to community activities or partner with other agencies and schools and work all together, that's when we create more of a family and healing. so, thank you for acknowledging me and the need for mental health in our sector. so, thank you. (applause)

>> thank you, supervisor. our next honoree will be acknowledged by supervisor campos. >> thank you very much, mr. president. i'd like to ask lauta guzman to please come on up. [cheering and applauding] >> well, you know, what can you say about laura? i don't know that there are enough words to express what a special person laura is. so, it's truly an honor for me as the representative for district 9 to honor laura. just recently she was doing work technically in district 6, but with redistricting now, i can say that she's a proud member of the district 9 family. laura guzman has been working on community health issues in san francisco for decades.

while studying law at new college school of law, she worked to provide benefits access to disabled communities impacted by mental illness and substance abuse. she also worked for the california pell project doing a medical and mental health history of a mexican national on death row. after law school laura began her work here in san francisco's mental health system as an outreach counselor for the then aids benefits counselors. today that's the positive resource center, where she supported homeless and triple diagnosed persons by providing them access to mental health services and documenting their disabilities. in 2001 she was hired to direct the mission neighborhood resource center in the mission district right on 16th street, and since then she has been committed to providing crisis intervention and mental health

support to thousands, literally thousands of participants who have been impacted by trauma and mental illness from an early age. at mnrc laura has partnered with the san francisco psychiatric foundation and the harm therapy center to provide psychotherapy and psychiatric services to mnrc's participants. presently mnrc is developing its own mental health team by hiring social workers and ftes who are bilingual and buy cultural and practice harm reduction therapy to meet people where they are and to collaborate with them in the direction of positive healthy change. laura's passion for work stems from the fact that she herself is a survivor of childhood trauma and has been working through posttraumatic stress disorder and working on her own healing and recovery. i don't know that anyone who has done work in this area not only in the mission district

but in the city and county of san francisco who doesn't know laura guzman and what she represents. i don't really know what the right description for laura is. in my mind i think laura is sort of a force of nature that she has the ability of bringing people together. and what's remarkable about the work that she does is that she works with a population that is very challenged, that the work doesn't happen in a vacuum, it happens with the involvement of community. and laura has done a tremendous job of bringing into this picture the residents of the surrounding neighborhood who are her strongest supporters. and the fact that she's residents themselves are part of the solution and are committed to helping these individuals is a testament to what laura does. i don't know that there is anything that laura sets her mind to that she will be able to accomplish, that's the kind of person she is. it is my honor to get to know

her and to call her one of my constituents. on behalf of the board of supervisors to laura guzman, for your decades of community work with individuals confronting mental health challenges, for your steadfast dedication to oppressed communities, for the love and kindness you i am nate in all your work and providing me advice and guidanttionv on issues related to homelessness and mental health, you are a true community hero and i thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you do. [cheering and applauding] * guidance * eminent first, i'm here to celebrate. thank you, david. thank you to the board. you have truly supported our work in the mission neighborhood for the last 10 years. if it wasn't for you we would

not be doing community mental health in the mission district. so, to the entire board, specifically also to district 6, jane kim who has been an amazing supervisor, david as well, and the last 10 years to allow me to not worry about budget gaps [speaker not understood]. that gave me tremendous -- (applause) i want to say in taking this award is i want to actually thank our amazing team. i have personnel here because everybody is in the mission. we have a tremendous team and that's what it takes. it takes a village to really do this work. it takes love and compassion. it takes having professionals inside, subverting our pa model. and that's what we really look for, leadership and guidance and actually bringing more money to community settings to the mental health because sometimes mental health institutions are now where folk go for. we leave them on 16th and mission. alejandro talked about [speaker

not understood]. we have people living in [speaker not understood]. for people who live on the streets, and it takes really to have the right resources to be able to do that. i also want to thank the mission mental health center that has allowed us to really grow the resource center to what we are. today we have a full-time clinic for homeless people and we're trying to really merge behavioral health so we can do the best we can do. and finally i want to honor my [speaker not understood] who has given me [speaker not understood]. (applause) and to all our allies who [speaker not understood]. you guys are going to be looking for us [speaker not understood]. [laughter] okay. so, it is the community of [speaker not understood] coalition of homelessness who has guided us that our motto really seeks the need of our people. i want to say to the thousands of people that allow me to touch them with love [speaker

not understood] so we can heal together. thank you. (applause)

>> congratulations. it is my honor to make the next presentation. and i want to first just say that as the last honoree just stated, it does take a village to keep our community healthy and to make sure that we are all thriving. and i want to just take a moment and thank each and every one of you for what you are doing in our village of san francisco. as we all know, it wasn't too long ago that mental health was not a topic that was discussed in our communities. and all of you have helped to make sure that we are treating mental health as an issue, as an illness like any other, not something to be ashamed of, but something for us to address as we address all of the issues that we have in san francisco. the woman who i have selected to be our next honoree is

someone who has really helped to make that a reality within my ethnic chinese community, someone who has been working within our community providing mental health services to children, youth, and families for the past 37 years. she is someone who when i was asked to think of who i wanted to acknowledge today, it took me about 30 seconds to select this person. and i actually hadn't seen her full bio, which i'm going to read right now. but before i do, nancy lamee, could you please come up to the podium? (applause) >> nancy is ridiculously over educated. she holds due masters degrees, one in special education from the university of san francisco, one in social work from san francisco state. she has been a licensed clinical social worker, active in our community, serving on many boards and committees

including the nicos chinese health coalition, the asian pacific islander social work council, the head start program, the [speaker not understood] coalition, association for the chinese families of the disabled. she's the co-founder of the association for chinese families of the disabled, has been a co-coordinator of the san francisco chinatown technology disabilities project, and a strong advocate and partner with my office on how we as a city provide culturally competent and linguistickly [speaker not understood] to under served communities. she has so many awards, i'm beingv going to read them all. her most important role is she is the head director of the chinatown child development center, a children's mental health clinic of the san francisco department of public health, one out of the community behavioral health services division. nancy, i want to thank you for taking care of our kids, taking care of our parents unction taking care of our families, chinatown and our chinese community and just being part of the amazing fabric that is our mental health community

here in san francisco. congratulations. (applause) supervisor chiu, thank you so much for this honor. thank you, board of supervisors also. i wanted to say that our chinatown child development center just celebrated our 40th anniversary and thank you for being there. and also, you know, before our agency formed with greater, there was only one chinese child receiving mental health services in the entire city of san francisco. and, so, the pioneers in our city decided that we needed bilingual services, chinese bilingual services in our city. and, so, our agency was created in 1972. and so 40 years later i'm happy to say that every year we are able to serve over 350

children, youth, and their families at our clinic. and, so, it's really important, i really like to, you know, thank the board of supervisors for recognizing mental health awareness month in this city. and i really thank you for recognizing me and for providing services here. but i want to also, you know, -- taking on the excitement of the san francisco giants winning the world series, you know, i think every time the giants or, you know, [speaker not understood] is interviewed and any number of the giants' team is interviewed, they always talk about good teamwork. that really wins the game. and i really want to thank the department, i notice that as people are entering this room, that there are many members of our departments who are here this afternoon. i'd like to thank them for

their support of the work we do in our department. it's difficult work, the everyday work we do with our children, youth and families. i'd like to thank the members of our community that do the work in our mental health to provide mental health services. and i really want to thank the wonderful staff that i have at my clinic. i cannot do the work that i do alone. and i really want to accept this great honor on behalf of everybody that does this workday to day. and, so, thank you again for this really nice recognition. (applause) * work day

>> supervisor cohen is up next. >> thank you. hi, everyone. good afternoon again. there are a couple thank yous that i need to give. first is the executive director of the mental health board, [speaker not understood]. david [speaker not understood]. (applause) >> an amazing woman, we absolutely owe the whole thought and creation of honoring our historic and heroic mental health care warriors to this lady.

this woman heads up the mental health care board, which is a board of 17 members. each one of the 11 supervisors has the ability to make an appointment. and i just wanted to give you two minutes, put it on the clock, two minutes if you want just to talk a little bit, give a commentary about today and why we're here. thank you, supervisor cohen. and i also want to publicly thank bevan dufty. >> that's next. you can thank him, too. bevan was on the board years ago and we really appreciate him. for his support of us. * but i really appreciate the board of supervisors for doing this. when i hear people talk about civil servants and things like that and 30% of our mental health providers are civil servants and the other 70% are the nonprofits that work tirelessly for us.

but when people say -- talk about lazy civil servants, i'm [speaker not understood] at 7:00 and 8:00 at night when joe robinson is there, half the staff is still there working. we're working very hard for the city and i'm so pleased to have so many fabulous people honored. thank you. >> thank you. (applause) >> excuse me, ma'am. i need to make public comment. >> excuse me, ma'am. we have already done public comment today, but thank you very much for being here. thank you very much, ma'am. [inaudible]. >> excuse me, ma'am, thank you very much. [inaudible].