Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Mohammad Razvi, Executive Director of Council of Peoples Organization
7:20:13
ยท
103 sec
Mohammad Razvi, Executive Director of the Council of Peoples Organization, testifies in support of a mental health initiative. He describes the urgent need for more mental health resources in his community, particularly for children and domestic violence victims.
- Razvi's organization serves 45,000 clients annually but struggles to meet the demand for mental health services.
- He highlights the fear and anxiety in immigrant communities due to current rhetoric and policies.
- Razvi mentions the creation of emergency "go bags" with guardianship information in case family members are detained.
Mohammad Razvi
7:20:13
Thank you.
7:20:14
Thank you for the committee.
7:20:15
Can thank you chair chairwoman Schulman.
7:20:18
My name is Mohammad Razvi.
7:20:20
I'm the executive director and founder of Council of People's Organization.
7:20:24
I run the largest Muslim Arab South Asian organization in Brooklyn.
7:20:29
We serve about 45,000 clients annually.
7:20:32
During COVID, we were servicing over 30,000 clients weekly.
7:20:37
The reason I'm here is because I'm here to support this initiative because we are one of the few who actually have a mental health counselor on-site, but we don't have enough resources.
7:20:48
We are barely going we are barely doing it.
7:20:52
And most importantly, it's just we have a waiting list over hundreds and hundreds of kids also and domestic violence victims who actually need the counseling.
7:21:02
It is more and more difficult to provide those services as we are moving forward in this time, especially with all this rhetoric that's happening with immigrants and all these individuals who are being, I I guess, scapegoated.
7:21:17
The most important thing is the people who we are servicing, especially the people who are on our food pantry line, we have seen a decrease only because people are so afraid and their friends are actually coming on the line and saying, can we pick up this grocery bag for my friend?
7:21:35
She didn't come this week because she's afraid.
7:21:37
We actually have an emergency go bag which actually has information where a person, a family member has to have a guardianship to a friend just in case they get picked up.
7:21:50
These are the things that the people are going through and the kids.
7:21:53
We desperately need you to support this.
7:21:56
Thank you so much.