[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 3]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 4094]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 HONORING MARIA GUZMAN-KENNEDY, DEDICATED PUBLIC SERVANT FOR THE STATE 
                             OF CALIFORNIA

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. GRACE F. NAPOLITANO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 15, 2011

  Mrs. NAPOLITANO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Maria Guzman-
Kennedy, a good friend and committed public servant who is retiring 
this week after twenty years of service to the State of California. 
Throughout her career, Maria has shown resourcefulness, creativity, and 
dedication in improving the lives of the people of California. Her 
energy and compassion will be greatly missed.
  Raised in East Los Angeles, Maria began her career with the State of 
California in 1991, when she was appointed to the Department of 
Consumer Affairs as Assistant Deputy Director. She created the 
California C.A.R.E.S. (Career and Resource Exchange Seminar) program, 
which helped find new employment for workers who were laid off by the 
closure of the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo. Acting without 
the benefit of additional funding or staff, Guzman-Kennedy organized 
more than 100 private businesses and government agencies for a one-day 
job-finding seminar for 5,200 former base personnel. Maria built upon 
this success with the second California C.A.R.E.S. at the Long Beach 
Naval Shipyard, and her program was duplicated again at Castle Air 
Force Base in Atwater. Her efforts brought new employment and 
opportunities for thousands of base personnel who had lost their jobs.
  When Maria Guzman-Kennedy moved to the California Department of 
Social Services in 1996 during the implementation of the CAL Works 
welfare-to-work program, she created several new programs to help 
welfare recipients who were returning to the job market. Maria created 
the Fast Track Family Child Care licensing program to quickly establish 
qualified child care providers for the many parents participating in 
welfare-to-work. By helping provide trustworthy and effective 
childcare, her program made work possible for many parents who might 
otherwise have been forced to stay at home. Maria also ensured that 
many of the new childcare centers hired mothers who had previously been 
on welfare, creating new jobs. She continued this work with a 
collaboration between White Memorial Medical Hospital and the Mexican-
American Opportunity Foundation (MAOF) in Boyle Heights, which helped 
many low-income parents in that area with child care and continues to 
operate successfully today. The Fatherhood Conference program, which 
Maria also created, helped CAL Works fathers with education, 
counseling, and networking opportunities by pooling the resources of 
several private partners and community groups.
  When Maria Guzman-Kennedy moved to the California State License Board 
in 1998, she developed two innovative seminar series that used public 
education to combat scam artists and fraudulent contractors. The 
Consumer Information Fairs helped Spanish-speakers avoid exploitation 
by scam artists who saw them as vulnerable targets. Through this 
program, Maria educated 15,000 people across California, again without 
budget or staff and relying on volunteers and community partners. She 
continued this model with the Senior Scam Stoppers seminars series, 
which educated senior citizens about fraud and helped protect them from 
scam artists. To date, 132 Scam Stoppers seminars have been held in 5 
different languages, serving an estimated 90,000 Californians.
  Maria Guzman-Kennedy has been a great partner and defender of the 
community. She has used her creativity, passion, and perseverance to 
deliver new services to Californians who needed help, and she never 
allowed a lack of resources to stand in the way. I ask my colleagues in 
the House to join me in congratulating her on her many years of 
service, and I wish her much success in her future endeavors.

                          ____________________