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]. >> thank you very much, ma'am. [inaudible]. >> thank you, ma'am. ma'am, we will hear from you later. thank you. >> there are many people in the [speaker not understood] today in the chamber. but also i want to acknowledge supervisor bevan dufty, if you can stand up, please, sir.

former representing district 10 supervisor, now in the mayor's office. (applause) >> >> i'm sorry, sir, you don't have an opportunity to speak. >> he will have an opportunity at the end. >> okay, after. he's got his own proclamation. of course. leave it to bevan to have -- [speaker not understood] to have his own. okay. one more person i do need to acknowledge and that is the citizens advisory board. if we have any commissioners, any folks here in the office -- in the chamber that are serve san francisco, can you stand up, please, so we can acknowledge who you are? okay, you're not here? come on, david, stand up. wave your hand, david. aren't you a commissioner? all right, thank you, all right. (applause) [inaudible]. >> that's okay. and our partners in the department of public health, general hospital, san francisco community of behavioral health services, and all of our health

care providers, thank you for being with us today. but the real reason why i stand before you is because i come to honor two women, and i actually would be remiss if i were not able to honor -- i could not honor one without acknowledging the other. please put your hands together and please give a warm welcome for ms. lavonne kelham king and wanda [speaker not understood]. [cheering and applauding] >> as you can see, they brought their own fan club. i'm not the only one that's a fan of these ladies. i want to read you some shocking statistics. 67% of the youth particularly those that are found in bayview are ex poemsed to at least one adverse childhood experience. 12% are exposed to four or more. this is a testament to the reason why we need our mental health care warriors on the front line every single day. we as a legislative body have a

social and fiduciary responsibility to make sure that we continue to fund organizations and fund our community partners that are helping us address thoughtful culturally competent programs that are reaching everyone. so, without further ado, let me introduce to you la vonnekelham king. (applause) >> she is a bay area native, i don't want to tell you her age, but 40 years in visitacion valley alone. and she's a parent of a mental health care service recipient and she is also a warrior. she's been working for the city and county of san francisco also for almost 40 years. and she is standing next to her partner in crime, ms. wanda, wanda. [cheering and applauding]

>> wanda is also a bay area bayview native born and raised in bayview hunters point. she, too, works for the city and county of san francisco, going on 30 years in december. she's worked for departments like general hospital, the emergency department, as well as san francisco community behavioral health. and collectively these women come together to do work on behalf of an organization called nami, the national association of mental illness. and they organize walks. they raise money, and they are sounding the alarm of the importance of doing quality mental health care work. and also giving voice to those persons that are receiving the services and the care. and putting a human face and a human story on many of these statistics. so, please. (applause) >> thank you.

all of the supervisors, thank you for this opportunity. i sit on the mental health board with bevan dufty. we tackle some heavy duty situations. i'm grateful to be here with wanda. i want to say to paulette, don't think our hearts don't hurt when we see those pictures. that is why we do the work we do. we received an award in chicago for teaching over 10 classes, family to family. and now we are on class 15 and still counting because we don't want to see any more people laying in the street. we want the parents to get involved and that's why it's called family to family. and i make appeal to everyone in this room to reach out and touch a young person's life. and i could go on and on and supervisor cohen, thank you very much. and i'm happy for all of my family who is here, my daughter is over waving, my brother, my sister. this is my sister from the neighborhood. and i told wanda, if we bring both our families up it's not going to be any room up front.

but i'll give it turnover to wanda. thank you all. (applause) i just want to thank the supervisors and thank you, supervisor cohen. the work that we do is very hard because it's a lot of significant stigma around mental illness. i want to say the families we teach in our 12-week program they come in and they're hurting, they're really hurting. * and they come in like a little kite. by the time the class is ended, they're opened up like a blossom. and it's such a joy to see that happen, for them to get the resources and the information that they need to take care of their loved one. and a lot of times, la vonne, come on, let's go. she would say to mement we work great as a team together and i just want to say thank you. i also want to say thank you to my family and friends, and also to my office staff that's here.

i work for [speaker not understood] and i want to thank them for their support. [cheering and applauding] you're making our supervisor famous today. (applause)

can i get your autograph? >> thank you, supervisor cohen. our next presentation will be by our district 7 colleague, supervisor sean elsbernd. >> thank you, mr. president. my honoree today is mr. fred martin. fred, if you'd like to come forward. fred is a long-time resident of district 7, right there in the heart of the district [speaker not understood]. to be quite honest, to be quite frank, mental health is not an issue that rises to the top of a lot of district 7 concerns. i don't hear about mental health issues often at neighborhood meetings, letters, calls. but fred always makes it his top issue. and this is a gentleman who has had a very long successful business career, who has made

mental health advocacy really a great part of his life today. and he has done more than just about anybody else to educate me about issues in and around mental health. he's opened my eyes, opened my ears to a lot of issues that prior to coming to the board i had no idea about. and i'm very grateful to fred for doing that. and just within quite frankly the very parochial world of district 7, i give great credit to fred for making this issue far more prevalent in the minds of the residents of district 7, helping everybody understand maybe to get back to present truth comments about it takes a village, fred is definitely a very strong advocate on these issues and brings out the message to a lot of people who need to hear that message. and i'm very grateful to you, fred, for all that you've done for me, educating me about the issue, educating the residents of district 7. and separate and apart from mental health, thank you for

all that you've done for me on many other issues, all that you've done for district 7 and all that you've done for san francisco over the course of your lifetime, your dedication to all of us is something that is absolutely commendable and i'm very grateful to you for everything you've done. thank you. (applause) i want to commend the board for recognizing mental health and for recognizing the people who have devoted so much time and some wonderful effort. but i'd also like to say that this city, when it comes to the treatment of mentally ill, is a failure. and the reason you're a failure is because you've abdicated and you've left the responsibility in the hands of the police. you've put more people in jail and fewer people in the hospital than just about any major city in the country. that's right.

you began and supervisor chiu, i want to talk to you at this time. you said mitch katz convinced you laura's law was wrong. laura's law works. nevada shows, city of new york with kendra's law shows that kendra's law can and will save lives. it gives the police a tool so that people can be treated instead of jailed. and your mental health court in san francisco proves it. i think that all of you would do well to attend the graduation ceremonies and see the people who have been treated and rehabilitated. dr. peter [speaker not understood] described mental illness, it is a physically-based illness, a disability of the brain and the person. unless the person is defeated -- unless that person is treated,