Pelosi Statement Regarding the Announcement of the UCSF Pritzker Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health
San Francisco - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today regarding the announcement of the The Pritzker Center at UCSF:
'Thank you UCSF Vice Chancellor Dr. David Kessler and Mayor Newsom for inviting me to help announce largest single donation ever given to an American university for child and adolescent mental health services. Although pressing congressional business keeps me in Washington, I join you in celebrating the creation of the Pritzker Center at UCSF.
'I want to thank Tipper Gore for her commitment to understanding and caring for the emotional wellbeing of America's children and adolescents, and for her outstanding leadership through her own courage and example.
'And I would like to extend my deep and personal gratitude to my good friends Lisa and John Pritzker and their family for their generous support of this center, and for their outstanding leadership and contributions to the civic and cultural life of our City.
'The Pritzker Center will be national model of excellence and a beacon of hope for young people in San Francisco. The Center will provide an unparalleled level of comprehensive care to San Francisco's children, especially those who are underserved, at-risk and in need of culturally sensitive approaches. The Center's breadth of clinical child mental and emotional health experts and focus on the impact of domestic and community violence will help address the needs of our most vulnerable children so they may become contributing members of society.
'Yesterday was an historic day in our Nation's Capitol as Congress convened a National Summit on America's Children. When I was sworn in as Speaker, I did so surrounded by children, because they must be the center of our work in Washington.
'Great strides have been made in understanding how children's brains are shaped and developed, how positive behaviors can be encouraged, and how investments in early childhood create success in later years. We must match every aspect of our current policies on early learning, health and mental health, and family and income support against the wealth of information produced by our leading scientists and scholars so our children who grow up healthy and happy become contributing citizens as adults.
'Thank you again to UCSF, Mayor Newsom, and especially to Lisa and John Pritzker, for your commitment to caring for our Nation's most vital resource - our children - and to creating a prosperous future for them and for our entire nation.'