ResCare Honors Activist for Youth and Human Rights

By Mary Anglin

(San Francisco, CA) San Francisco City Councilman Harvey Milk formed coalitions across the political spectrum, working to change the nature of what it means to have human dignity. His fight for human rights spanned the public gamut from senior citizens and the disabled to disadvantaged youth, before his assassination in 1978.   

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown joined the ResCare-operated Treasure Island Job Corps Center in honoring Mr. Milk as a civil rights advocate. Speaker Pelosi, one of the original founders of the Treasure Island Job Corps Center and friend of Mr. Milk, unveiled a bust of him at a ceremony held on Nov. 25, two days before the thirtieth anniversary of Mr. Milk’s assassination.

Youth training advocate and ResCare employee Stuart Milk spoke in remembrance of his uncle, the late youth and human rights activist Harvey Milk, at a building dedication and bust unveiling event held at Treasure Island Job Corps. The center renamed a campus building the Harvey Milk Memorial Administration Building to honor Harvey Milk's work with disadvantaged youth.

“I was talking to some people about Harvey, when we were all volunteering with the Democratic Party,” Speaker Pelosi said. “He came to everything - every cause - he came to everything because all of it was important to him. No matter who you talked to, anyone who knew him always said the same thing, 'What a great guy.' He was a great guy, he led a wonderful life, and he was comfortable in his own skin and he wanted everyone else to be so as well.”

Treasure Island Job Corps Center renamed a campus building the Harvey Milk Memorial Administration Building as an additional honor for the youth and civil rights advocate. The center was considered a good choice for the celebration because minorities and children from lower-income families, the same population served by Job Corps, were among the many Mr. Milk worked to give a better quality of life.  

Mr. Milk's nephew, youth training advocate and ResCare employee Stuart Milk, was among those who spoke at the event.

“Congresswoman Pelosi, who represents this area, has long been an active champion of Harvey Milk's message of acceptance and pride of individual expression - values that are especially poignant at this Thanksgiving time,” ResCare Vice President of Program Development Elizabeth Coley said in correspondence to ResCare employees following the event. “She has also been an influential supporter of funding for the Job Corps program. So, it was particularly significant that this event took place at a Job Corps Center - and one operated by Stuart's employer, ResCare, which was well-represented by Board Chair Ron Geary and several other company officials.”

The event received national news coverage and a new movie, “Milk,” based on the last 8 years of Mr. Milk’s life, released in theaters Dec. 5.

"We know how blessed we were to have Harvey Milk among us,” Speaker Pelosi said. “What a wonderful person, what a wonderful life. What a wonderful day for us all to be here to remember each in our own way the cavalcade of impressions of this one man. For some of you it is history, for some of us it was our youth, for all of us it is a cause of celebration."

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