[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 37 (Tuesday, April 9, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E444]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        IN HONOR OF MIMI SILBERT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. NANCY PELOSI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 9, 2002

  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise to salute Mimi Silbert, President, 
Chairman and CEO of the Delancey Street Foundation, on the occasion of 
her 60th Birthday and the 30th Anniversary of Delancey Street.
  Mimi Silbert is the cofounder and director of Delancey Street; a San 
Francisco-based self-help residential education center where drug 
addicts, criminals, and the homeless go to turn their lives around.
  Since 1971 more than 14,000 people have successfully been through the 
Delancey Street program and are now leading crime-free, drug-free lives 
in mainstream society. Residents have learned to read and have acquired 
skills; they attend college and are part of the work force, they are 
raising families, they are clean, they are sober, they are reborn. And 
each and every one of them has the extraordinary Mimi Silbert to thank 
for changing their lives.
  All of this is done at no cost to the taxpayer or client. One of the 
most unique features of Delancey Street is that they have never 
accepted government funds nor do they have any staff. Delancey Street 
has started over 20 business training schools which generate income and 
train the residents in marketable skills.
  The psychiatrist Karl Menninger has called Delancey Street ``the best 
and most successful rehabilitation program in the world.'' There are 
now five facilities throughout the country: San Francisco, Los Angeles, 
New Mexico, New York, and North Carolina.
  Mimi Silbert is an inexhaustible dynamo who does what she does not of 
love, commitment and belief in the value of humanity. She has been 
called the ``Mother Teresa of America's down and out''. In San 
Francisco she is our treasure who has touched and miraculously changed 
so many lives. We love her and are forever in her debt.
  I am proud to join my constituents to thank and praise Mimi Silbert 
for her marvelous achievements, indomitable spirit, and her 
inexhaustible service to San Francisco and our nation. As we celebrate 
her birthday we will keep in mind all those who have been reborn 
through her extraordinary life work. Happy Birthday Mimi!

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