everyone and canoeing had k347d in 2009 was about that it's lived up to the promise we want to make sure that the residents can take advantage of the federal benefits and the determination that wouldn't have come about without the support of the mayor and naomi and one who wasn't mentioned was a gentleman who (clapping) has done a lot of outreach in district 11 and in the filipino community and the young people that's served and thank you naomi and the may it's been a long time coming it's a great victory all the major victories that happen in the working with communities this is one and many

more good things to come. thank you >> thank you supervisor avalos. so we're here at the bye hi, 91 had an center. one the programs is the veterans equity centers to honor the veterans in world war ii to provide culturely and listen giving justice. the leaders is a woman that should why in the community for many years please welcome the director (clapping.) thank you frrment i would like to thank the community for role moving this issue forward in a bye tin spirit we are resilient

and making sure that everybody comes together in moving forward. i want to thank did leadership of the board of supervisors who are present karen downey. supervisor avalos and supervisor kim for listening to the constitutes and your responsive to whatever they're asking for the language access. we thank you to our mayor, mayor ed lee for making sure he supports our community. i know about decades it is so telling how will i other people but a service provide out of market inform 23 years and i see the mayor smiling because i was the interim he always mentioned that but thought 23 years in my previous life i was working with at risk youth in the juvenile

justice system you don't know how it's been difficult to to the parents who are responsible for the courts system. there are at that time, i believe there was only one filipino probation officer at the center so you can image there's a lot of them and few of us to speak tagalog. let's fast forward to my work of the 15 years. language has been very, very important because a lot of them have been fighting for their benefits, a lot of them have's have been denied their benefits and going to hospitals and that's been difficult to get the service because it would in their language. and even if they say do you

speak english they'll say yes, but when it comes to an official document understanding the system they revert to their and a half tongue and a lot of them them speak tagalog what does it mean it have thank god for our languages for our immigrant community in the area of housing what side if mean how many people have not applied for available housing because of the language how many people have not been able to voice, you know, a lot of the, you know, if they have housing they don't understand there are laws and ordinances that protect them. for workers how many actually have been very silent sb about injustices in the workplace

because they don't speak the language. so today is a celebration it maybe like we said it came a little bit late but in the near future once we get a lot of the services in the city in los angeles materials in los angeles we open a lot of gates and hopefully, the number of people who are not can you tell me services in the city will come forward and that's a victory because we're truly responsive to the needs of the filipino community. thank you (clapping.) thank you luis. next i'd like to have - say a few words is the filipino consul general (clapping.) thank you administer kim and mayor edwin lee and supervisor chiu and supervisor avalos and supervisor kim and the members

of the filipino community. i would i want to say you can't imagine how appreciative we are and i'm sure it's significant for them because right here the very core and home the filipino community of san francisco we've started to take tagalog lessons from everyone starting with the mayor. serially speaking mr. mayor, we take great pride in being in the city of the care of the community. san francisco as you said is a city of diverse community. very the ordinance that's being passed rec the filipino has a third language is certainly a recollection of the transcribes of this great community the

filipinos. and certainly its very significant for them because not only is it access to language and services because it makes them open up the city to themselves and feel like a home to them. certainly for any filipinos for the first time in the bay area this is wonderful and truly different when they're far away from home. i want to thank you. again mr. mayor and supervisors ms. city administer ms. kelly for the camp poosht timing for the community >> (clapping) >> thank you next i'd like to introduce terry valencia who the founder the community center

terry served as the national alliance for filipino concerns and a great partner with the office of urban affairs part of the network and was helpful during the 2010 consensus so terry (clapping.) thank you all for being here today for spornl this press convention and i went talking about this specific, you know, issue in our community and i thank you, again, for lending our area in moving this forward. i forgot to say (speaking foreign word). i'm not a fluent tagalog speaker i want to ucla but with my

limited focuscy i had to do we have to help our filipino members access service and helped people to get food stamps and get legal assistance to fight for their reporters. a lot of the folks are doing this in district 6. i want to thank you naomi kelly for your work and supervisor avalos for proposing the amendment and passing it in 2009. your staff amy and so many folks to thank supervisor kim and supervisor avalos and april and supervisor avalos office staff and also a couple of supervisors not here supervisor campos and his office and supervisor ed mar

were helpful in the process. there are so many people that helps to make this happen we're standing on the shoulder the filipino community that's been here almost a century fighting for housing and workers to live in san francisco. i i know supervisors that have been representing their districts 6 and 11 we know we've hit the 10 thousand folk people saipg i don't speak enough english and the united states is so important there is an under count of folks so we're very happy to get thirty to this point it took sprierns are pioneers of the community we're happy we're here today. i mention everyday nonprofit

staff nurses and government employees and even school acknowledge children have translating for their parents and grandparent and they're not being recognized but they have to the tagalog the official language in the philippines is a great thing it's a city of gunpoint and welcoming of immigrants and all those english proficient consultants. the filipino center is a proud member of the language access network and we're proud to work with the network with adrian and others and our new speciality santa draw who will be working with (clapping) going forward so. the process is new this is the

first language certified under the language act and we look forward to working with other community partners to certify other languages and hope to backing make the process better so we can make it a strong step forward as possible. we looked at to working with sandra and with the burn heights center and f ad s when is our sponsor today and bishop there are members of active leadership and grassroots we want to thank everyone for coming again, this is a big step forward a century of filipinos in the united states and this is >>right. step to recognize the contribution and the strength of

our community in san francisco. thank you all for coming here today and all your work (clapping.) thank you terry. i would like to introduce grass lee for affirmative action dpras focuses on racial justice issues. c aa is part of the language access network and is with the immigrant affairs. grace (clapping.) so i'll try to make this quick i, you know, today is wednesday i'm thinking of the irony because the staff is asking for the reform so today is a wonderful celebration of how lucky we are in san francisco is have so many supervisors and mayor here in support of the

community. as was mentioned we were involved if the effort of the access language and all those were in putting in place a policy that would allow our city to adapt to the changes here we are today, we have partners with the access here the burn heights center and we have a new partner we know this work is difficult it's resource intensive it takes time and money and train but at the same time the community partners we're going to go back to our offices and continue the hard work to work with the community they feel awe ashamed or whatever in light of that today there's no important,

important to recommend that. today is exciting and as terry mentioned the community has been doing this work for a very long time. we have our elected officials it's san francisco at its best today. so thank you (clapping.) all right. well, thank you this ends our press convention and the mayor and others are here for limited questions.