 Good morning, everybody. Good morning. I'm Stuart Kaplan. I'm the CEO of Self-Help Community Services. We are proud to welcome you here this morning. We are proud to welcome Mr. Mayor, Deputy Commissioner Cortez Vasquez, and a number of other dignitaries who will also be mentioned this morning as we the program proceeds. We are here today near the Benjamin Rosenthal Prince Street Older Adult Center, one of the one of the innovative senior centers from several years ago, and it's one of five centers that Self-Help operates. In all, we have over 8,000 older adults who come through our doors every day throughout the year. At this particular center, you might hear Cantonese opera, ballroom dancing, Tai Chi, beautiful, beautiful artwork that you would see, and the delicious and nutritious meals that are prepared by Chef Chang Wang, his stir-fried chicken. Chef, please. 25 years. This is the reason older adults come to our center for Chef Wang's stir-fried chicken with tofu. Mr. Mayor, Commissioner, we welcome you back to have that with us one day. Thank you, Chef. We also get to show off today some of Self-Help's affordable housing. The three buildings around all are operated by Self-Help. There are additional three buildings across the street, and we have three new buildings under development, two of which are being built on NYCHA property, Mr. Mayor, under the next-gen Senior First Project. All of what we do is geared toward ensuring the independence and dignity of older adults throughout New York. But today's event is about virtual access and about tablets, giving out tablets, a city program that we applaud haughtily. In fact, it was through virtual access that our older adults have been able to thrive during the pandemic. Self-Help's virtual senior center, conceived of over 10 years ago, partnered with the city virtual programming, was able to bring online access throughout the pandemic and now with these tablets going forward. We are grateful to DFT for that recognition and the support that they have provided throughout the pandemic. Through the virtual senior center, over 120 live classes are produced in five different languages, just like at our older adult centers, and there have been hundreds of thousands of hours of programs delivered. And Mr. Mayor, all of these programs have measurable outcomes, because we know that if you can't inspect what you expect, it is all suspect. Is that good? I heard you last week. And so we take, so the tablets today are actually going to change lives, thousands of lives. We take for granted these days that we can speak with friends, colleagues, families, even research opera on the net. But more importantly, these tablets are going to provide access to banking. They're going to provide access for grocery shopping and increasingly access to healthcare and improve healthcare literacy for older adults. So we do believe that recognizing that older adults are part of the technology community was a myth that people didn't believe existed. But we here, by the turnout today, are demonstrating that it is no longer a myth and seniors belong in the technology world. In partnership with DIFTA, we and the city, we are delighted to be closing that digital divide. It is now my tremendous pleasure to introduce DIFTA Commissioner Lorraine. Lorraine. Thank you, Stuart. You know, first of all, good morning to everyone. And I know that you want to hear the mayor. But before you hear the mayor, I need to let you know how proud we are of this program and the importance of this program. And I also want to emphasize something that the mayor talks about. No one does this alone. We have to do it in collaboration. And it's about partnerships and relationships that have been built and sustained over the years. It took one phone call about two and a half weeks ago between Stuart and I to make this happen. Once the mayor gave us the date and the go ahead, it's about partnership. And it is exactly. And Stuart said we'll get this done. And here we are today. So thank you for that self help. I also wanted to say that it was great. And for the rest of the day, there's going to be a lot of celebration and cultural expression for the API community. Stay and enjoy it. It is something when we get to know about each other, we get to bridge bridges and we eliminate all of the misinformation and the disconnect that are in our city. That is just as important to all of us. I also want to, in addition to Jane, I mean, in addition to Stuart, I want to thank Jane. We put a team of different swammers all over her and she came through and has been very helpful. Thank you so much, Jane. But also, Jane, thank you for everything that you do every day in this, in this older adult club. Self help established virtual programming in 2010. Well before the pandemic, Stuart, you know that you were a leader, you were a pioneer. So much so that it was your work that helped inform Diff the roll out a virtual program during the pandemic because we knew that that was important to not only break social isolation, but more importantly, it was important to make sure that people get connected for the rest of their lives. A computer in the center is great. Computer in my hands gives me independence and choices. That makes a difference. So tens of thousands of New Yorkers have now used virtual programming in the last two years. Older adult clubs were closed, but they had a connection. You led the way. Thank you for that. And he's always telling me we have to do more and your library is the best library. We're getting there. All right. For years, this has been a dream to get people more and more independent so that they can make the choices in their life. And that is why we have a community care plan. We we distributed 10,000 tablets in nature residents. And now we've done 20,000 with the mayor. Thank you so much for this kind of help. When older adult, um, we plan to build under success. And I also want to really part of this is partnerships like the one we have with T mobile that gives us free internet until the duration of this program. So I want to thank T mobile, but I also yeah, give them a hand. But I also want to thank our congressional leadership and our state leadership for constantly fighting so that we could have accessible and affordable internet access. That is the lifeline for these programs. We need to make sure that that happens. And we're very pleased that the city CTO has a plan for night your facilities. We're talking to him about having it for senior affordable housing, too. So I want to really thank you for that. Mayor. This is all part of the five year strategic community care plan, a plan that the mayor has already begun investing in. And we can't thank you enough. Now. The mayor always at every major and momentous occasion so far, I am proud to be part of his team, not only because of his leadership and his collaboration and not because, as he said, we go for the back of these chairs. I don't even remember the expression, but he's just showing me how old I am. Um, but more because he always pays tribute to his mother, who he calls mommy. So Mr Mayor, you have 1.6 million mommies in New York that count on you every day to make sure that they have nutritious meals, home care services, tablets, Internet access, safety in the streets. That is why we're working with the police department and every one of these agencies to make sure that this is the best and the model age inclusive city in the of the world. So here you are, Mr Mayor. It's your for you and all the mom. And you know, leadership starts with the right leader or movement starts with the right leader. And you know, just just an amazing friend and public service in Lorraine is correct. We go so far back. We go. I say we go as far back as car seats, you know, and she just throughout her years of government. And this very important role of taking care of our seniors means so much to me. And we tend to believe that once a person retires or once a person decides to go to another form of living that they don't still enjoy all the fullness of life. And that is just untrue. Our seniors, they want the same things that Children want and what we want as we move towards our senior hood. And so I just thank you and I thank Difter and all the partners and I think self help. This is some good stuff we're going to chat after because there's some good stuff with their doing of empowerment. People don't realize that one of the top concerns that health professionals are examining is loneliness, social isolation. It feeds into some of the pre determinants of health of being able to interact either online or inside a center means so much. It's more than just talking to people. It is really part of the overall health. And that is what we understand. And I remember the first time I bought my mother an iPad. She was afraid to use it. She was overwhelmed. But I showed her how to look up her Bible scriptures. And she started, you know, using it more than all of a sudden I showed her how to use an email. And she started emailing me every day and what my chores were, you know, so it was all about that introduction. But we could do none of this without partnerships. Partnerships are so important. And, you know, we have a few electors here that are just fighting on behalf of their constituents. Grace Ming, our congresswoman. But Grace has done for us and the New York delegation during COVID, bring the resources in. I'm just blown away how you were able to pull it off, get all this stuff for us in New York. And so we just need to really thank Grace and the entire congressional delegation from New York. And who works harder than Ron? Ron, Ron Kim, you better not be on his wrong side. Ron fights on behalf of his constituents. And we just thank him for that. Sandra Ong, who's now the Council member of District 20. You know, just excited and getting things done. And our good assembly women up in Albany fight on our behalf from the 25th Assembly District, Nellie Rosie, you know, Nellie, thank you so much. You know, so we want to get to giving out the tablets. As you know, this month is older Americans month and Asian American American Pacific Islanders month. We were proud yesterday when we rolled out the first AAPI curriculum that we're going to be putting in our schools to teach history, history, and the input of the AAPI community. And so it's great to be here. We are moral grounds, solid grounds of doing what's right for our older adults, all the years of wisdom. You do not lose your wisdom because you hit 80, 90, 100. That wisdom is still there. We're going to tap into that wisdom with our intergenerational experiencing experiences, having our old adults mentor some of our young people as they go through some challenging times in their lives. COVID has brought so much of mental health illnesses, trauma stress. And if we know that if anyone knows how to overcome trauma and stress, it's our older adults because they've gone through so many difficult moments and we can help with that intergenerational communication, particularly as our children are coming from coming out of school over the summer months. So we want to be clear. We value and respect our older New Yorkers and the API community. We want to thank our partners with AARP. You know, I'm a member. I'm a member, you know, and just we want to ensure that we continue to build these partnership. And we saw throughout the pandemic how government digital services matter. Everything from staying update, updated on what is happening. As we move into hurricane season, being able to communicate through digital platforms, telemedicine, you know, being able to check in with your healthcare professionals. This is the way of the future. So by giving out these 1000 iPads today, we're going to start to put 1000 more seniors in contact with communicating, even if they're home or if they're in a social setting. And Commissioner, giving out 10,000, you know, amazing number, just an amazing number of 10,000 iPads given out. And age should not stand in the way of being in contact with the people you love or you want to communicate with. Or as was indicated by the Commissioner, attending online social and educational programs, having these programs online, how to sign up for these benefits is crucial. And that's why this is so empowering, what we're doing. And you mentioned, Commissioner, I too want to take my hat off to T-Mobile, who's providing a free internet service through December 31. So important to do so. Thank them for that. And these tablets are already preloaded with programs like Zoom, Gmail, and the New York City COVID Safe Act. These are already, they're already on these devices, and it's just a real win for all of us. So, you know, you can learn how to use your tablet at your local senior center. And we want to empower seniors to teach seniors. It's a great way of getting everyone engaged. Our campaign on this, transforming our technology, not only to reach certain parts of the city, but to reach the entire city. And we're leaving no one behind, particularly our senior population. And so I cannot thank all of you enough for coming together and understanding that our age should never get in the way of ensuring we continue to live very vibrant, healthy, communicative, and interaction with each other on every level of our lives. Thank you so much for doing this today. I wanted to say that we are going to also upload the virtual senior center onto these tablets after today. Self-help is going to give that to each one of the tablet holders. So thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. I will bring on my colleagues. Yeah, you're gonna do that. Yeah, so why don't we, why don't we, you know, we're gonna start with you, start on your run and just go out of line, just say a few words to our colleagues in government. Okay. Well, actually, let's start with our congresswoman, because we got to keep getting resources from DC. Thank you so much to our mayor for once again, coming back home to Flushing and to Queens. We are so thrilled here at Self-Help with Stuart and with Jane, and everyone who is here that takes care of our most beloved senior citizens right here in our community. Self-Help does such an amazing job, and I know our commissioner knows that, in providing culturally appropriate foods to Asian dances to virtual saders. And this was all before the pandemic. And so we are so grateful. I think I have almost all of the Self-Help senior centers within my congressional district, and it's just been such an honor to work with them and to be back here today. And I will keep fighting. One of my biggest priorities has been to fight for and successfully secure billions of dollars for our Internet access programs here in New York and around the country. 12 million people don't have Internet, 12 million kids, I'm sorry, don't have Internet. And this was before the pandemic. They can't do homework because most of their textbooks are online right now. And during the pandemic, we saw programs expanded like the E-Rate program, the Emergency Connectivity Fund, which we're seeing through subscriptions at the libraries right now, literally connecting the 30% of children who in New York City prior to Mayor Adams did not have access to the Internet. 30%, that's a lot, guys. So thank you so much to Mayor Adams. I want to give a shout out to our good friend and fearless leader, Beth Finkel, from the AARP who has been doing programs throughout the pandemic to reach out to our seniors. And thank you all for doing this today. Good morning. I'm the City Council member, Sandra Oh, representing District 20. I want to thank the mayor, the New York City Department aging for making today happen. I also want to thank Self-Help, our leader, Jane. I could attest for the digital literacy program that you have in Self-Help because I was actually on the Self-Help Zoom program for the last two years, talking to the seniors. So it's a great program. I also have a mommy at home. Let me tell you, it's been interesting two years, okay? So again, I want to let you know that in the City Council level, we will be fighting for funding for the senior centers, for the seniors in this district who does need culturally sensitive and linguistic services. And just a few words in Chinese. 大家好,我是紐約市議員,黃敏儀. 我们真的很高興今天有這個機會 在這裡可以見面. 我這兩年在 Zoom 跟你們見面. 那希望有什麼 問題, 還請很歡迎來我的 辦公室. 謝謝大家. Good morning, everyone. My name is Ron Kim. I'm the member of the State Assembly. Thank you all. Thank you for that one clap. Thank you. But I do want to thank the mayor and my good friend, the commissioner Lorraine Cortez for really stepping up to the plate for supporting the older adult population of the city of New York. Loneliness isolation is one of the biggest threats that are not only our community, but all older adult communities go through. But in particular, Asian American older adults suffer from the highest level of depression, anxiety, trauma. So these tablets are life-saving tools right now. I know we know we just, you know, these are just giveaways we celebrated, but you have no idea the impact these tablets will have. It's intangible, you know, when they take these home and feel connected to the world. So this is a tremendous, tremendous day for our population. And a personal note, I was just telling the mayor, you know, I lost my mother last year as well from COVID. So, you know, when we, when I come to my community and I see all these older adults, I see my mom's, my mom all over the place in need of support and aid. So this is what drives me every day as a chair of the community in aging to work with my colleagues. Thank you. In the state legislature to get things done for the state of New York. Thank you. Is it getting things done or getting stuff done? Good morning, everyone. I'm Assembly Member Nellie Rosick. It's such a great day to be here with our mayor and our commissioner handing out these amazing tablets for all of our seniors. When I first got elected in 2012, self-help was one of the first places I came to visit to learn all about their new innovative senior center program. And throughout that time, we've learned about aging in place, aging with dignity, aging gracefully. But now we can say that our seniors right here in Flushing and in Eastern Queens will be able to age in a more connective, innovative, and thoughtful way. So we're so grateful for this program and hopefully many more to come. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We want you to go see the distribution center. Are you at time? Yeah. Why don't you go with the mayor to see the distribution center. Thank you all very much.