>> good morning, this meeting will come to order. welcome to the april 18, 2024 regular meeting of the government audit and oversight committee of the san francisco board of supervisors. i'm dean preston i'm joined by voice chair catherine stefani and connie chan here with us as well. for the first item supervisor walton. our clerk is monique and we

would like to thank sfg tv for staffing this meeting. >> clerk: when your item comes up in public comment is called, please line up to speak on your right. please note that we have comment cards and you may submit public comment in writing in either of the following ways, email them to the email and oversight committee clerk, at sf gov.org. if you submit public comment via email submit as--and you may also send your written comment to our office in city hall, 1 dr. carleton room 244 san francisco california 94102. if you have documents that would you like to be included as part of this file. please submit them to me by the end of the meeting. to prevent any interruptions to

today's proceedings. finally, they're expect today appear on the board of supervisors, unless otherwise stated. >> thank you, madam clerk, please call item 1. >> item 1 is a resource dream keeper initiative specifically on which program have been allocated on the 120 million. >> thank you, madam clerk and supervisor walton is here with us. i want to thank supervisor walton for all of your work in getting this program started in the first place. and with the on going work, with the human rights commission and other departments to ensure that these funds are getting out the door and also that we're having transparency and oversight and you've called for a number of hearings and i think they've been very beneficial. i would say in this district 5, i especially appreciate all the

work as many of our organizations in district 5 have directly benefited from the dream keeper initiative. so supervisor walton with my thanks, the floor is yours and you can give any remarks that you would like as well as introducing speakers. >> thank you very much, president. good to see a good turn out this morning. so i'll just start off with should pretty brief words, according to several sources, dreams are suppose to last about 5 to 20 minutes. but we know that some of our dreams take a lifetime like achieving equity, righting the wrongs of the past and even treatment. as stated on the san francisco commission website, the dream keeper initiative was launched in 2021 to reinvest 60 million dollars annually into san francisco's diverse communities.

the dream keeper initiative seeks to address and remedy racially policies to that the dreams of young african americans and their families are no longer differed and they have the needed resources to support and thrive in san francisco. today, we're here to learn about all the great work of the dream keeper initiative and about how every one is working together to make a difference and an impact. this extremely small yearly commitment to the black community has lead to positive outcomes, community lead change, arts and culture, workforce, home ownership and these resources and supports are accessible to san francisco families who are most in need. when i say small investment, i mean a minimal investment compared to the entire city and budget of san francisco.

con trayerly to false narratives and i gnorant makes less than 3.001 percent of the san francisco budget. and yet the outcomes of initiatives have proven fruitful for this entire city. we will continue to highlight the fact that this is a very small percentage of the budget, especially when you factor in the fact black people are over criminalized in this city, plaque people are disproportionately homeless in the city. black people have the highest infant mortality rates in the city. black people are most likely to die by violence in the city. black people have the biggest gaps in education system in the city. black people are dis po portion

ately--black people have higher unemployment rate than other races in this city. black people are dying from the fentanyl crisis at disproportionate lehigher rates in the city. you name the negative outcome, unfortunately, and the black community is over represented. so it is extremely important that we highlight the positive outcomes because of the dream keeper initiative and the policies to fight inequity in the city. we are ever more under attack as a black community and it seems at times that people would love to see the black population zeroed out in san francisco. but we are not going anywhere. today's hearing will highlight the dream work keeper initiative and demonstrate the successes that we can achieve when we provide resources to combat inequity. i want to thank mayor brief for championing this investment and

also want to thank the human rights commission executive director dr. sharyl davis and her entire team, dream keeper initiative director burch, and this morning we will hear from both of them and a couple of other presenters and then we'll go to public comment and of course colleagues if you have any comments or stauments, we would love to hear from you. so with that, would i like to call up, director dr. cheryl davis. [applause] >> good morning, i'm going to ask if the slides could be put up from the computer and while na is happening, i just want to say, you know, a lot of people may know and some people may not, i'm a women of faith and i woke up this morning, extremely grateful for the leadership of this board but specifically supervisor walton and mayor

breed for launch thising program but more than that just the ability to be a steward in this work. i'm just really grateful for the visibility of the community, right. to be part of something that was launched, this dream keeper initiative is really a blessing, so i just wanted publicly say that, because, god has been really good to me, i just felt compelled to say that this morning, sorry. so the dream keeper initiative, i'm going go through some of the why attain and we'll talk a little bit about the impact. so promises made and i didn't put promises broken but we know that across the nation in 2020, there were commitments made for addressing what we saw with george floyd, brianna taylor and those promises that were

made in san francisco in corporation sxz in other places, did not actualize and in some of the places where it did happen, we actually saw the money go out and then it was canceled out. or in many places, the money that was given was a loan. make it happen but it's another to trust the people to move the work forward and so i want to

thank you and recognize that. i want to bring up our newly c.f.o. samuel tomas who will talk about the financials about that and some of the questions that folks may have just to give a context. >> speaker: thank you, director davis and good morning, chair. i'm samuel and the cfo for the san francisco human rights commission and it's my great honor, privilege and pleasure to be with you serving this this role. i'm going to go through some top level to inform where we are in terms of progress in using the dollars that have been allocated. and just to be dealer, the

point here is not that we are spending money, we are deliberating services and impacting communities. please keep that in mind as we have, some of the important points. fiscal year 22, and our current year is fiscal year 24. so dream keeper initiative has been in action for three fiscal years, 22, 23, and 24. as director davis mentioned the allocation was 06 million per year which cumulatively to today totals 180. of that 180 over 107 million has been spent and additional 33 million has been encumbered.

so it has been expended or committed. of that 59 million has been expended on grants and another 30 million encumbered on grants. some of the points where this is going, grants is a big piece of it and these are just a few statistics regarding spending over 22 million has gone towards homeowner assistance and i think our colleagues from oawd, or excuse me ocd may have some additional updates so that may be higher. 2.3 million dollars has been disbursed through many grants for basic needs like food and clothing, things that keep people stable so they're not falling into the river, right. i think a lot of intervention that's we need to take care in the city were pulling people out and the point is to go up stream.

and we've had another 3.1 million go towards supporting entrepreneurs in starting their businesses. 7 million was earmarked for budget adjustment as part of the mid-year reductions, that the mayor's office requested. and overall, we currently have 24 million dollars that is available and we are r in discussions with the mayor's office about how to best use and allocate that, given the overall budget climate. and some of the things that the hrc is propose ising to use a portion of that for the hbcu satellite and also for neighborhood activation. so really doing our best to align with the recovery of san francisco and building a pipeline hopefully of folks who are going to come and settle here in san francisco and who have been under represented in the past.

in terms of how how we got here, right. dki has been three years in action. and i think it should be pretty obvious to every one that to stand up a set of programs that can utilize 60 million dollars per year, is herculean task. we have a process here with the city that we know is extremely difficult and takes time. and we did circulate with the community to get extensive community input to create all of the programs. so that takes time and what that looks like is a ramp up as in fy22, we spent 15 million and fy23 the city spent 23

million and fy24 we already spent 43 million and we anticipate that 57 million close to that 60 million allocation. i'll stop there, but just in close, i want to point out that these figures that i'm talking about here, are city wide and hrc we are up here presenting as a whole, but the hrc is a department. our slice of programs is much much smaller than that 60 million per year because it's right across the department like dph and other partners. so i'll pause there and turn it over to director davis. thank you. >> so the next piece that i wanted to say and then we'll invite dan adams is that dki has worked the investment. so what we're talking about we want to you understand that we're really trying to understand and being able to share the return on investment. because the imperative is not

the motivating factor for why people do the things. sometimes they only care about the bottom line, so we're also doing our due till jens to explain how this investment benefits the city overall. i think supervisor walton mentioned from the beginning, the importance of investing in dreams, a lot of research has been done and it comes out with no surprise that black people are the most optimistic in america, that given everything that has happened they continue to believe that things can be better. and that optimism transforms communities and help to infer to actually spread hope and that is really important. the other piece around housing, we know na it costs more money for folks to be unhoused than it is to house them and this initiative has helped to house 40 families in addition to the homeowners that director adams

will talk about. the education piece has been shown to be the best investment that we can have both from early ed which is known to be the best investment but college, financial aid, and giving money to students who are in college actually benefits long term their personal growth but it also benefits their tax brackets which also improves neighborhoods and communities for folks to go to college and graduate college and come back. and overall economic justice whether we're talking about entrepreneurs or whether we're talking about meeting basic needs. this shoulds viewed as an investment not as a hand out, not as we're giving money to black people. and you'll learn that this is not just for black people, this is an investment that the sfaoe gets to reap and benefit from and that's the message that we want to focus, it's not what

you did for black folks, it's what black folks did for san francisco. [applause] i want to invite director adams to talk about the work that mocd has done lately. >> thank you so much, director davis. and so pleased to be with you this morning, the mayor's office of housing. delighted to be able to highlight some of the successes that we've seen, our role in that initiative and i want to recognize the leadership of deputy director maria and can answer any questions that you may have. couple of notes to start, this refer to, this is not only been fantastic for black residents in san francisco, 80% of the beneficiaries have been black san franciscans but we've been able to take lessons and policies, that we've

implemented through this initiative and apply them more broadly. so the program are becoming more successful through this work. and i'm going to focus on home ownership and it's been a catalyst for hope for people who have long been excluded from the opportunities of home ownership and who bear the brunt of the mortgage crisis. we're delighted at the success of the programs and excited to be able to highlight them for you today. in addition to the original $500,000 investment in program development, our department has expended over 28 million dollars in dka funds supporting two programs. down at the same time assistance, doan program primarily. through that program, 52 market homes have been purchased from

low to middle income families. 5 families were able to move back to san francisco after being priced out. you know we hear people leaving san francisco because it's too expensive, how wonderful that people are moving back thaws they have this opportunity. we have 1 more than 100 folks engaged in counseling prepared to purchase a home. and we had monthly dream circle circles where folks can drop in and learn about how to purchase homes, how to get questions answered really lowering the barrier to entry for people interested in this work. so, those are really the highlights i want to call out today. we are working across other areas encouraging emerging developers to be more participants in our development work. and undertaking implicit bias

and trainings but it's really the home ownership work that deserves to be mentioned and highlighted today. again i want to appreciate the work of dr. davis and dr. sai and i'm available to answer any questions. thank you so much. >> so this is just a little timeline, in terms of the investment, some of the things that samuel shared with you. first contract, the first contracts were not started until 2021, we didn't move through things and have funding be annual eyes to that ramp up it took a little bit of time. and so it makes it harder for us to move things. we started an external evaluation process and then, we're really celebrating the

opportunity to work from the homeowners as well as the evaluation of the program which we can send to you all and then this year, we are putting in data collection processes, we're trying to our initial goal is to try to make sure that folks who have not been engaged in programming but had great ideas had an opportunity to be part of this. so we've had some learnings, so we're going back about how we move this work forward and who is in the next round of the work. but very excite beside that. and then i will turn it over to dr. sai to talk about the accountability. >> all right, so with respect to increase in accountability since insensing, or at least since i joined the human rights commission just two years ago, we wanted to practice accountability, for the first time in my experience you can see what ever department, ever sing the grants see what they

were fund asked what they were funded to do. additionally how dki, not just what our daem black neighborhood in san francisco but in fact every one of your districts in all 11 districts of this city. we also implemented extra layers of review, such as internal audit of grantees and exit interviews with grant he's so --grantees. we're excited that dki invited new vendors so prioritizing capacity so they can go on to get more city contracts. we do monthly meetings across department with our 13 partners, must community committee. committee some of the members who are in this room as a community feedback loop and liason so we can be responsive

to that feedback report. we completed internal and external assessments of the work as a researcher scholar, data is responsive and finally, we hold town halls community update meetings on a daily basis and hours that were launched in 2023 so they can be in direct contract with those who are benefiting from the initiative. >> so i'm not going to carry on these other ones so, i started my career as a kindergarten teacher so i'm big on visuals and simple. the unicorn resonated with me because i think sometimes, and some may find this offensive, i think sometimes smart black people are treated like

unicorns. and i just want to say, there is a benefit to investings in dreams and unicorns and smart educated black people, you can call them unicorns but they are everywhere. that was something that i just wanted drive home is that, they are special, they are unique, they are unfortunately, mythical but they are real. so sin vesting in this, it's not going to look the same as everything else because we have not doing anything like this before. so going into this frontier i want us to recognize and see that there is something special. something na is unreal and unbelievable. but i challenge you that it can be real, it can be done and then to just open your eyes and see that it's being done. so i've often shared with folks this line from maya angelou, we have to create a space that

it's not so hard to dream that the world is better instead of just accepting that the world will be horrible. i hope you don't stop investing in that dream. [applause] >> and as we think about dreams, many times or this initiative has allowed the opportunity to realize those dreams so the next slides i'm going to share what the impact is and this is also available on our website a fuller report. so as i mentioned earlier, investment by neighborhood, you can see the footprint san francisco we're not just only investing in what folks would say fillmo or hunters point but throughout the city. when if comes to economic mobility, not only are we investing in workforce development so hundreds of folks being trained and getting employment above minimum wage but also businesses launching,

in fact later this afternoon, many bell is coming back to filmore, we're really excited to fulfill that investment and to contribute to thriving corridors, we're proud to get as in a reference earlier, bring back a number of homeowners to san francisco. when we think about education and enrichment it was already referenced but we have a number of students, 196 dollars who are in post secondary education and many partners who are here are continue to go support those students not only through school in providing the financial aid and scholarship as well as book scholarships so they can thrive in their post secondary spaces as well as making additional investment in partnership with dec on the early education side.

culturely--san francisco is still references as the harlem of the west with and we know that arts and culture is the heart. so we want to share those traditions with not only our own community but also visitors to san francisco so welcoming thousands of folks to the various events in partnership with the art commission as well as oewd has been a tremendous effort. and then health and wellness, not only investing in culturally relevant for folks who are speaking therapy, i think mental health has been taboo in the black community for a long time. but when we're able to humanize mental health and have relevant practitioners many who are in the room, community healers is what i like to call them is how we like to see the people access the services and get services to food as well as

housing stability. and then brighter features is our multi generational so working but also the parents and the care takers so we know that many of our households are multi generations so how are rewrapping around the entire family so they're nraour flourishing and thriving. so investing in basic needs, what is required for us to not only survive but thrive on a day-to-day over 3 million dollars allocated in that space. really finally capacity, we're excited that grantees can learn how to navigate city bureaucracy and the grant-making system while also leaninger where our guests may have been for organizations who were new to the city system. it's not easy facilitating a grantor operating a grant with

a the bureaucracy and all the paper that needs to be done. so we've taken special care to wrap around these grantee who actively seek services. wore happy that many of the grant he's that are new to the city are stabilizing at this point. so as we look forward, we will continue to prioritize and center community voice we will continue to maintain the accountability as well as enhance the accountability structure. data always a priority, i think it is no no, it shouldn't be understated, the folks the community that is in this room are a testament to the community that we have to community voice as well as being data informed we'll continue to practice our, enhance our practices on streamlining our grants administration. the last thing that i'll say before we bring up the last couple of speakers, maya

angelou may also say you may be down in history in the dirt he's lies like dust i rise, as we're met with vitera everyday to day with concerns how black folks deal with the money, we're also a very resistant and resilient people. [applause] what dream keeper has been able to do. what dream keeper has been able to do and accomplish in three years, is in my opinion, more than what i've seen as a daughter of the city for the last 35. so i stand behind. [applause] everything that we've done. and so the next voice that you're going to see or hear from representatives from folks that represent our elder

community, somebody who representative our pacific islander and young folks and early childcare folks who if not for them this work would not be possible. i'll bring up ri rishad from curry center. >> as rishad is getting ready, what i really want to hone in on and this is why i'm so grateful why you provided a space for this hearing. the narrative with what is happening with resources in the city and the caout city that is happening with nonprofits, folks are rightfully so, very afraid. there is concern that the city loses site on the people and focuses from one mistake and demonizes every one else. there are some that are afraid that they're going to lose

their job no dei and no focusing on the most in need that san francisco is going to follow suit. there are other things that are happening that have community members and city employees all afraid that being a person of color means there is a target on your back. so i just want to thank rishad and fokz --folks for being here. >> thank you. >> before you start your presentation, can i just make an announcement that room 263 is open for the folks who are standing up if you would like to be seated. room 263 is open. >> speaker: good morning, i'm a program for curry center, they've been serving older adults and adults with disability in the tenderloin primarily low income and homeless. they've been proud to be known

as an organization in the city proudly serving a commitment to serving the tenderloin communities specifically around older adults and adults with disability. integrated wellness model provides wrap around and responsive services including onsite and at home primarily care. access to technology and digital literacy, pier, and support groups as well as 7-day a week dining room and drop in center and lgbtq plus specific programs. the dream keeper would launch to remove the stigma associated with the african community. neglecting to ask asked has robbed us from an opportunity to hear an honest perspective. these are the people that they serve and we feel along with

hrc and dream keeper that it's important to let those experiences be heard directly from those people in the community. they're stories are rich with history in a world that is volatile and unredictable. it's time that we listen to the voice sxz learn from the wisdom that they have he --emasked. some of the work will be brought around in the form of a book. and i would like to play a small video for every one. >> powerful relationship with our clients is at the top of our mission here at curry center. i look at it as a one-stop shop for older adult population. being one of the few center

seniors in the tenderloin, this is like a hub for older adults to enjoy programming to get medical, see a social worker or just to see other people that are going through the same situations as them. >> my brother wanted to be a rock-n-roller. >> life changing. >> so what we did here today, we have five volunteers from my life my story come in and sit with the older adults. they had a list of questions but it was a free discussion of the client just sharing their personal and life experiences here in the san francisco bay area. >> i had a blue grass. >> first i went to burbank, i'm

one of the best athletes in the city. >> i grew up in filmore street and they were like big parades and all kinds of stuff. >> black panthers initiated in oakland and i used to sneak out of the house examine go to their meeting place like 100 years ago. >> i'm glad i--i'm a san franciscan i would not want to be anybody else but here. this is my home. >> today for me, it made me want to call my grandma. and just hear for of her stories, i think she is hesitant but just encouraged me to talk to my elders especially the black elders in my life that are still here and not

bombard them with questions but be gentle in a safe place and they can't talk about those things. just having that space of care and safety was good to wit. >> that was a small video piece that was done by a couple of grantees including citizen film and clarity media. thank you. >> thank you. so my life my story collaboration which is the book that you have presented in front of you was collaboration between the dki and my life my story which is a nonprofit that brings volunteers to meet with participants, around the dream

keeper initiative to help share their life stories in written form. so we bring in volunteers to sit with their life stories, they describe those, they get a photo of the client and we gather those and create chapters and create a book out of it. some of our demographics were through this program, that 64% of our participants were african-american, 32% women and 4 percent ser were trans african-american individuals. our expanding out reach, we recognize the communities and understanding that we have a large homeless population, that's 60% of the participants were also homeless. participant testimony so what we like to do is give a survey prior to the experience of the dream keeper program and a

survey after to gauge if the work was powerful for them. so a lot of these testimonies, you'll see but a common pattern was that our older adults really want their stories to be archived and they want them to be shared. a lot of these clients, again, being homeless felt that this was a way that if something did happen to them that they have a legacy to live on for other people to see and that it also works, it also works with sharing for youth as well as their peers as older adults. lastly, the book that you have in front of you has been a very innovative piece that a lot of programs have been using. we have an lgbtq plus program at curry senior center who recognized the book and thought it would be a great idea to put in a request for funding through the horizon funds and

were granted funding to replicate this book that dream keepers in curry center have produced. and this year, this he have a waiting list of about 17 participants that would love to go on and be a participant in the book. so they actually got a 5,000 expension to their grant to include more participants. and the biggest is that the mental health service act which funds our senior drop in center, did an audit of our program, we showed them the book that we have worked on with the dream keeper initiative and they went on to fund a peer cantonese and mandarin speaking staff member to replicate for our mono lingual clients to expand the book to include other demo graphic who's voices also need

to be shared. so with that, has not always affected and been affective for our african-american community but it has been a want and to be replicated by other no --demographics. so thank you for your time. [applause] >> of course we want to look to our generational leaders so we have some champions that will share some of the experience as well. >> hi, first off, i want to say thank you for allowing us to have this space and share the amazing work that our people are doing. i'm alejandra i'm 21 years old

i'm the supervisor for the youth leadership as well as potrero resident. i've been doing the work for 3 years and i'm a student pursuing my major in public health. >> iefm jose hernandez 20 years old, currently i'm finishing my second year in state. and i'm purchase seeing a career in social work. >> i'm anthony, okay, i'm anthony thompson, i'm 20 years old from allison griffin, and i'm a sf champion 22 graduate also. [applause] >> hello i'm coley i'm a hope of champion and i'm from sunnyvale.

>> so we are the hope sf leadership program we're an 18-month paid internship in district 10. we recruit young people from district 10 and train them in political and civic engagement. >> so now to talk about the work we're doing with the dream keeper initiative so. the dream keeper initiative start beside three years and through that hope sf have partnered and pushed this workout together. so they were pushed by civic leaders who wanted create a more inclusive community for district 10 communities. so with the hope u.s. f, we have released a funding proposal every year since this initiative started. we have given out 150 and we have done extensive leadership with partners and nonprofits.

>> okay, reiterating a little bit of what she said, in our first years of operation, we have granted about 150,000 to all four sites. furthermore, we have received about 25 youth funding proposals. of those we hope to fund three more by the end of this fiscal year. we have trained over 30 young people and civic engagement and if we put our 30 young people together for 25 youth funding proposals, the largest demographic are youth between the age of 14 to 13. let's talk about the impact as well. so our impacts of the youth, we have served we have molded futures. our young people are the same ones distributing the taxpayer dollars into the communities that need it the most. they have done the research and lived the experiences to know

what the communities need. >> on top of that, our grants have doubled from 10k to 20k within the first two years of this initiative starting as well as receiving feedback beinger the feedback was that our application was very youth friendly and negotiate for first time applicant as well as the category most chosen being health and wellness and alice griffin being our most served followed by sunniville. this is important because youth have developed the understanding of building within their communities and can now, giveaway resources that help the community and their needs. as well as youth have now moved away from the scarcity mind set. like a lot have mentioned theretion a lot of money going out in the city and it's crazy that a lot can go to youth and development of youth as well. >> well let's talk about the

ecosystem of hope sf with the larger hope sf eco sem it allows us and our program to have a more holistic approach towards community development. what does that mean? that means we're able to focus on the immediate needs while also trying to create sustainable change within our communities. >> going back to youth leadership, prior tiges the youth not only backs up everything about youth development but it also creates a sense of empowerment and belonging for our youth in many of these communities as well as just giving youth the platform and the opportunity to make their dreams a reality and really put to work what they want to see in their communities. >> before we end off today, i want to thank, i want to thank director davis, supervisor walton and dr. safai for being able to uplift our voices today. all of these youth today

started out in the projects but through the advocate, they can come and odd va indicate for why the dream keepers initiative is so important. >> and lastly, i want to mention as we talk about the dream keepers initiative this is only part of the work that hope sf champions do. as you know, the request for funding proposals was made public and our program was not, we didn't receive funding so in order to carry out this work, not only do we need the dream keepers initiative, we need to keep our program alive, we are finance only that serves youth only. thank you guys for hearing us out. thank you. [applause] >> and finally, i want to invite.

>> to the community, who would want to go behind these young people? who are just beautifully made to be the next emerging leaders of this community. but i stand before you on behalf of the, let me go back. my name is pat, my name is dr. patsey at tito i'm at the of community leader of hill and visitation valley. i'm here to speak on behalf of the pacific islander community along with other faith base

leaders. the young people of the pacific islander community as well as other leaders here to just say a little bit about how impactful the dki, the dream keepers initiative has helped our pacific island community in the last past year. when the initiative came outlast year, you know, it was in my mind finally, the city was looking specifically to the asian pacific islander community to be able to have these different resources so that we can make an impact on the pacific islander community. a lot of things were said today and it resonated to me.

because as a daughter of immigrant parents who came to america as they say where the milk and honey grow, we were given opportunities that a lot of us immigrants don't really get. and so as a native san franciscan, you know, i've always you know, loved being in the city. and then the last the last along with other organizations, i feel like we're finally being seen, being heard, and now, all of a sudden there is all of this chaos where a lot of the resource right side going to be on or taken away.

then what do we do? so the impact of this dki is last summer for the last 28 years. last summer we served over 240 young people in a school building that is almost falling apart in sunnidale, yet, we've been able to use what we have the best we can. i'm going to speak for the psalm one community, culture is rooted in who you are. and i want to quote, dr. fanafi, her quote is there is no language there is no culture, where there is no

culture there is no people and when there is no people, darken falls upon us. so when we're finally in a place where we're being seen and heard, don't just see us right now, but see us in the future. there is a lot of young people here, not only the black community but us brown people as well. all the young people that we staff grew up in our program, in our programs where we built, individuals to be part of the community so that they can serve the community. there is a psalm 1 proverb that says, the leadership is to serve. we are servants of god but we are service, we are servants to

provide and do right by our people. as i stand and use this platform for this community, i just want to say these, you know, it's it's about the relationship that we build over the years. and there is two letter word that means, that has impact that says vau, vau means space. so we as community leaders in any ethnic group we want to nurture the spaces between the relationship we have between community and with people that have power that can make change. and so when we, when i stand before it can be daunting but i

would be remiss if i'm not able to be able to be a voice. one of the many voices here for my pacific islander community. so my last thing is dr. davis stand here, is that, you know, continue to not look at the color of our skin but as people who are trying to survive in this country that just kind of pushes us away because of the color of our skin. as you go through the day, this is what i say in my man drank, no matter the struggle, no matter the shade of the sky the sky is still blue. because we have faith, in god and you know, the all the things that we do here as we

continue to serve the community. so thank you dr. davis, thank you dr. sai for this platform, i'm able to stand before you and speak. be one of the voices of my psalm 1 pacific islander community. thank you. [applause] >> i want to thank you for indulging us, i know we went over our anticipated time. and i just want to go over to trailer, and i'll relin --relin quish the floor. thank you for indulge us in

this. >> speaker: i'm stuck in this shit, i'm i was born in shit you god dropped me off back in this shit for a purpose. >> this is the most desired zip code to live in in the world. and i think there has been a legacy of displacement and each time we have a displacement episode in the community you lose that diverse history. it makes me proud that people are thriving with the right assistance. >> there is narrative about what san francisco is. when we learn with narratives we're not really looking at the people. and i think what i'm hoping will happen is that we will not

generalize and stereotype or categorize people but that we will actually see their face and see them be able to want to see the pain, the hurt or the anguish or to see the joy. >> if you want in a good situation, and you needed help, these are the places that you go. it has really touched the lives of more people that we could have ever imagined. >> sometimes we allow ourselves to be the people of our environment and as somebody that went through certain things that was not so good, this was a safe haven for me. >> i am hopeful for two generations, three generation to see come to understand that success and wealth is their

birthright in the investment and program confirming that really institutionalizing. >> how can i be a resource of other community. how can we lift them up bring resources into other communities. >> weigh want to share the dream with all of our children, this is a great city. this is a model city and i am honored to be part of it. [applause] >> we want to thank our

presenters and the community. i'll save any questions or comments, for public comment. if not i would like to go to public comment. >> thank you supervisor walton and thank you dr. davis and dr. sai and all the presenters and we will go to public comment. i do want to say usually such a large crowd on public comment, we would, we sometimes would reduce the amount of time on public comment. i do not want to do that and would like to hear from everything but i do want to encourage folks that we give two minutes if folks are here in a group and don't all want to speak individually but introduce themselves that's fine too, in other words, fine for folks ton use their two minutes but we will allocate so that people can have that time. let's open up public comment on this item. >> okay members of the public who want to speak on this item should line up now on along the

side of the windows, all speakers will have two minutes. first speaker. >> speaker: it's an honor to be in the room with so many game-shayers, thank you very much dr. tasi and davis. i'm a proud team member of new community leadership foundation that has been doing a tremendous amount of work within the city. the underlined themes that we're hearing is that when you pour resources into the black community it benefits the entire city. there are three major components that we have been thriving in in terms of

support, that's our small businesses, our nonprofit and our artist. i'm proud to say that we have been doing such a great job in those areas that we even get referrals from other organizations not only to service their member but also to collaborate on other initiatives. two major things that we have been able to do is we've produced two albums through the dream keepers initiative that brought artist together and collaborate to bring these together. also we have nonprofits that are even in washington dc right now with some of our california representatives fighting for our rights here in san francisco because they are able to thrive. when you give resource to see black communities, we all benefit as a people here in

this great city of san francisco. please continue to please continue with the dream keeper initiative. >> thank you. next speaker, please. next speaker, please. >> hello my name is sharyl shanks and my father wrote a book in the 70s, he golden glove boxer club. and i wanted to keep his legacy alive. he also wrote a poetry book block world. and i want to thank dream keepers initiative for the grant to be able to republish the book and to be able to get

the resources i needed to help me put the book back out there. and it means a lot to me. i also wanteded to say that as a native i've never seen since i have been alive so much collaboration with the black people all around the city. we've really come together with dream keeper. i see people thriving all around me. black people thriving all around me. and i just want to thank you shamaamn dr. davis and dr. sai and i ask that we keep the funding going. i also want it say thank you to crawford, new community

leadership foundation. for helping me organize. >> i'm william rose it's an honor to be here. i'm the inter generational director at bay view senior services. first of all i want to make it very brief, the dream keeper initiative has not only impacted what has taken place through bay view but impacting all of these other organizations in the area. for example, there are many schools in the bay view that don't have arts program, music programs, through the dream keeper initiative we were able to bring seniors in to actually go into those schools, give those kids some art, some

music, some things that are not actually there. everyday of the week, except for mondays, we have classes and i would like to invite you all to be part of the classes. whether it be art, whether it be music, whether it be writing, theater, all of these things are taking place. and we've also impacted schools such as academy of the arts because they have also engaged. these are all of these schools that have heard about all of these things that have taken place and want to be part of these activities, these inter generations which means the connection between youth and seniors coming together. and actually doing creative collaboration. so i'm coming to you with like

a person with his hat in his hand asking for something with you i'm coming as a person that this is fair exchange which is not a robbery. what i mean by that is, the funding in the things that you give to programs such as this, benefit every every one. and i want you to please -- ~>> sorry, we have to enforce the two-minute for every one. >> thank you all. next speaker, please. >> speaker: hello beautiful people, i'm veronica i'm an artist and music coach. i'm here in support of the dream keeper initiative and i when everybody was talking about the youth, sorry, there was a lot, i'm getting emotional. you were talking to people like me, there is a lost things that happen when you grow up and you need people to mentor you and to guide in the right direction

and give you options and that's what they do. they're very hands-on. i was introduced to them through a compilation project and i was able to be invited to other events, which is new technology of the future. the women's networking events where just woman who are established and i don't want that to be taken away, i would love to continue and learn and grow from this organization that is pours into the community. i'm sorry, i'm young, i get emotional sometimes but i appreciate the energy and the community that is here to speak of the dream keeper initiative and ncl love. and that's all i have to say, thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please.

>> speaker: good morning, everybody my name is jessica bailey i am the residents program manager at falco dance thaet and her i'm going to chat about two of our programs that are served by the dream keepers. the first is our youth performing arts program developed to enhance classroom learning, educating the mind and the fiscal body. in my opinion, the program has a legacy that truly speaks for itself. local art organization, community leadership, site this program as a positive influence in their lives. in the last years, we have served 287 children, 692 teaching hours and artist and

audience member of 1398 people come to our events. our emerging and established artist called to express the black experience through arts practice that inspires dialogue and builds community. we do this through tangible support, stipends and people who apply get feedback on their application which is very rare. through professional support and workshops and community support. this fund ising necessary for the artist in the city. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker, >> speaker: i'm straight out of hunters point. and i would like to say thank you to director davis for coming up on the hill looking for me.

dr. sai, supervisor walton, we like little city up on the hill. we don't have much help, much assistance, however when i came out and spoke finally, all three of them, came, and okay, we on our way and they came. not only did they come, they made sure that they understand and over stood what was up on that hill and what we needed. the dki, it has helped me so much because i am a grantee who has received the grant after receiving the dki grant. and without that support, i would not survive with the city and county grant it wouldn't happen. that grant is not for us, period.

is to with that being said, so what you ever receive a city and grant, you know how to maneuver through that system. if you don't know how to navigate you'll not be able to last and you'll be a one-hit wonder, peteder. --period. that's just me. thank you for the dki, without it we will not survive in black communities. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> speaker: good afternoon, i'm a native born raised and live in san francisco. i fully support dream keeper initiative keyword also investment and education. out of a mountain of despair is a stone of hope, i quote dr. king.

the dream keeper initiative programming has enhanced critical services supporting children youth and adults in the city and dki has especiallily made spaces as you heard the voices of our young people and adults.

going to come to us, about a few pennies, how about the chinese? they got everything that they wanted and in no time did they testify about that? what about the mexico they got money who said anything about that? how about the other national the russians and nobody said nothing about that! why are we here? what is going on? we're getting pennies. we're not getting a lot of money, we're a jazz musicians for jazz historians, and dream keepers with the human rights commission. without that, we would have no foundation, shame on bringing us in here for this.

shame on you. [applause] >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> good morning, i'm long time educator recently retired. to the board of supervisors, to the favorite son of san francisco walton, to dr. davis, scott, marrian jones, every thursday at 11:45 i'm in the drive for dream keepers initiative. all those across the city, they're doing great things. what are you going to do with that bell? i said i'm going ring it. before there was facebook or twitter 100 years ago in a small town in tennessee my

grandpa would go to the town and ring the bell when somebody happened. so for me i'm going to ring this bell, because the dream keepers initiative is something good that happened to us. thank you supervisor walton. 116 years ago,--started by me which want want to honor our african-american children. please keep the money going, we need it, thank you, thank you, thank you. >> thank you, next speaker, please.

>> beloved supervisors thank you for allowing me to stand before you today. you know, there are 1,000 topics that flow through my mind before an opportunity such as this, my voice belongs to my creator so i never know what i'm going to say until it comes out. but what i'm clear is when i speak it's meant to be spoken. strategies that have saved our children's lives. i'm a mental health person i get to see our black children our youngest most vul ner seek death and out in their tepder response to disparities and now, as a direct and intimate result of dream keeper support, i get to see those same children and their parents, hung row with optimism, dripping with dreams, realizing and actualizing the potential

that was put in their soul before their birth. i can go on and on but the strategies of mental health to watch homeless folks day in and day out walk out of the shelter into homes in one of the most expensive places directly as a as a result of housing support and equity that dki demands it's life shattering important so i implore you. listen to what we say but listen to what we've done even more, and so it is. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good morning, board of supervisors i'm director of programs at the homeless children network. and i'm here to share the impact that this initiative has had in the san francisco

community. when dream initiative was launched, we were able to start the el monte program, workforce development program but not but also a program that focuses on the mental health and well being. we train that they go and have fruitful careers to director health services, case manager services all while helping and trying to develop them. we're training future community so we heal our black community here. we have graduated and educated over 1100 black san franciscos. put more than 40 people in roles and profession and we are truly nurturing and really to take director dr. davis's words we're nurturing the black unicorns of the city. and thank you for your time. >> thank you.

>> speaker: i'm marcela and i'm here to share with you that it has allowed us to give youth and children thousands of hours of individual and family therapy. they're meeting with therapist that look like them and that is unique in america. and they share their stories, a lot of states are passing laws anti dei, trying to erase cultural theory from textbooks. their fear in children when we know that american history is black history. i stand here to ask you to

understand the dream keepers initiative, keeping it alive tells them that they are seen and heard. we do not want to ask them to pretend to live in a world where we ignore that that we ignore that back people and community of color have experienced have experienced discrimination and disparities at the hands of the racism. the dream keeper initiative is telling them that their culture cannot be appropriate ated, that it needs to be celebrated. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. thank you for providing me the opportunity for my dream to come true. my name is nitia, ceo of power.

i just wanted to become that made a change in my community, thanks for the dream keeper initiative it's been true, it's come true. in 2026 it will be 20 years and i'm just grateful that this initiative gave myself and i gave the possibility to make change and difference in our community. district 10. >> speaker: i'm with ladies in power and i want to thank dr. davis and sai and walton, we've been in san francisco programming for over 15 years because of them we had our first grant and we've been able to go on camping trips and boxing events, mother, daughter bonding events, teaching them how to live healthy and live healthy all because of the dream keeper initiative. these programs are needed because we're pouring it into

our youth and without them, it would not be possible. thank you. we appreciate it. >> thank you. next speaker, please. i'm a recipient of dream keeper program. [applause] i was born and raised in filmore and i was raised in martin luther housing development. and my grandmother worked two jobs, they worked for the san francisco school district and she also worked for mount side hospital to purchase her home which was in her coop

development which never came to fruition because of mismanaging the funds so she was not able to purchase her home through the redevelopment, it displaced many families in filmore. so the dream keeper was really a dream i never saw myself buying a home in san francisco. i went through many communities, i have family and family members who were lost through the whole epidemic to see my grandmother seeing me purchase a home in the city is really important. thank you all.

>> thank you a reminder for those filming or taking photographs, you cannot come in through that gate. there is a press box so members of the media are able to be in there and photos but not after that gate. welcome, next speaker. >> speaker: hi my name is lanet mackey i'm the founder of maggie's corner prophet to suicide, i lost my 12-year-old grandson to suicide without any signs. i never thought that was my job to bring awareness to suicide, thank you to dream keeper i'm bringing awareness to all communities. every 11 minutes a youth is committing suicide. my job and what i'm dreaming to do is change those numbers.

and with the dream keeper giving me the opportunity that i've given that i've been given, that's what is happening. i've talked to youth that i have redirected and i'm grateful and just only wish that i had this opportunity or this existed before my grandson took his life. i will say this, if the dreamer keeper gave me one million dollars to safe a life, i'm saving many and each child is worn more than a million. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. i just wanted say and i know it ain't a lot to say after everybody is spoken, this is just telling their own story. i want today say to from my

heart, walton, thank you for pushing this initiative. thank you jill davis, thank you dr. sai for doing this work. it would not be right if i didn't say something. the research but i don't want to talk about that i want to tell you about a story that hit my heart just this morning. i had somebody tell me told me that her brother died of aids. she said my brother is going to put in a hospice house, he has

aids. and in the process, i was actually saying how much is it? she said it's like 4,000. so through the dreams we were able to pay the 4 she called and said my brother died but he died with digity in the process of everything else. i just want it say thank you all from my heart and i see the work. impact has been used a lot. we're making a impact. >> thank you, next speaker. >> i'm deputy director of washington community service center. i'm proud to stand in solidarity with the tki initiative. i want today share a testimony

from one of our parent that shows the impact of dki. i'm a mother doing my best to raise my three sons. when our lives took a challenging twist when my landlord wanted to sell her home and left us homeless in san francisco going from house to house hotel to hotel. my youngest son was in booker ts after school program and it was during that time that i had the good fortunate of meeting the team that became our angel. we were supplied with a hotels for half a year, it was a sanctuary for our family to rekindle our spirit and forge our bonds. against all odds, six months later, we were in our own apartment if it was not for daoker tee, in a world that can

often seem indifferent it resonates a reminder of immense compassion and support and selflessness, our journey from homeless to stability was arduous yet booker tees turned struggle into triumph, dki is important of advancing our work keeping black families together and i'm expressing my support for dki. thank you for your time. [applause] >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> speaker: really quickly, we want o ask that you show your support by not clapping we have the finger snapping or you can do the happy hands just to minimize interruptions, thank you. >> welcome. >> speaker: hi supervisors and guests my name is haley neilson and i'm here in solidarity and behalf of new newly

organization called farming hope. it's a justice organization and we're located just two blocks down at 690 vaness it's an old auto showroom and we think about the legacy of the sit-ins in 64 all the time in our building. wore proud to carry that legacy. and we're proud to uplift our job training apprentice like adrian, omar donald devin, jason, the list goes on. from devin, of our program, it transformed my life when i got out, i was very quiet, i knew that i had kitchen skills but i didn't believe that anyone else believed i did. chef devin is now a cooked trainer and he cooks beautiful

three-course meals every tuesday and wednesday just down the street. not apprentice and culinary team took 3500 meals from scratch a week that gogh to organizations across the city many in this room. they bring their unique skills across the city. sometimes even starting their own like hengrisha savory and dkf funding is a huge part of that. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> speaker: good morning, i'm menard president of the invest black, i represent the omi leg view community. i'm here to stand in front of you and let you know that dki is making incredible impacts in

our community, organize our, early childcare. we all need resources i'm not here about self, there is a lost things going around but a lot of things go to the people on the ground actually working with our community and make them strife. we're black people so we're always going to be survive, we've been surviving up until this point. and dki is allowing us our community to strife and we're impacting so many not just the black community. the black community need support but we're supporting every one else. when people asked us to come out and talking about the api, who was in the frontline of that? the black people, we always standing up for everybody else, sometimes we need y'all to stand up for us. [applause] >> thank you. next speaker, please.

good afrp, i would like to thank mayor london breed, and her dki team and a special thank you to any of the supervisors seated on this board in support of the dream keeper diary today, thank you. lastly, i would like to thank all of you in attendance, the dki granted's delivering what they promised honesty and transparency for the entire world to see how black people build. i'm alisha a proud multi racial san francisco born and raised inaugural storytelling and narrative shift cohort and founder and ceo of clarity media radio and media,

clarifying human stories and grass roots solutions like this. i try to tell our stories in corporate media in kcbs, iheart media, total traffic and weather, i did all that, i was i'm a pioneer, i launched the first national digital news broadcast called crawl on in december 2019, making $30 an hour. today, as a dream keeper initiative cohort, i'm able to hire multi racial media professionals. i am able to tell the stories of multi racial san francisco. including we the people, the bay area mental health hour, clarity conversation and dream keeper diary. i'm a proud san francisco native representing san francisco to the best of my ability with pride with my head

held high, please continue to support the dream keeper diary and all of us who have benefited and reflected our beauty here in san francisco. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> speaker: good morning, i'm john executive director of both sides of the conversation. first i want to thank our mayor london breed and mr. walt op, i come before you to support the initiative because if we didn't have a dream keeper initiative it would be no both sides of the conversation, our organization has uplifted and every district also highlighting the work from different community work and impact has helped young people, elders bringing community together and making sure that the resources are out there. that they get access to the resource.

continue to enjoy the joy that dream keepers are bringing to the community. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors and community. who's mission it is to listen, educate and advocate with and for black families within sfud. i'm also the mother of two beautiful babies who attend hunters point. through broader future funding, we have created safe places. scholarships and stipends have aided families and affinity groups with school sites. together we're building brighter futures for our community. i'm here to support the dream

keeper initiative especially for my generation, it's time for decision-makers to prioritize selfishness over selflessness, you will not hold these seats over, one day it will be my generation's turn, we'll ensure the black community let's the resources for every one to thrive. our city succeeds, setting a global example and we know sf loves to be the first. i stand for every black family student urging continue funding for dki, let's not reinvent the wheel it's build on dki's good work. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> speaker: hello my name is niqua i'm a 5th generation san franciscan and i want to say a lot but i'll leave with numbers. dki created opportunities for black services and organizations in san francisco to make abundance impact within our community. this is allows aware services

to be in the hands of the people. i'll repeat a quote from a black african-american quote. san francisco persistent pour in the city where the average household income is the highest in the nation. this pattern is seen black african families do not generally benefit from the prosperity. for example, as the great depression,--2020 essentially they were left out of the recovery. and resent study puts white-black appointment in san francisco among the highest in the nation this. result with families in very different resources, children in san francisco live below the

federal poverty level in comparison to only three of white children. i bring these particular numbers. dk is a resource that helps improve the lives of black people due to the harm done by the city and others. it's time for the city to support the program. said before they created a site for me with the quality resources is a birthright. support longevity so my daughter with experience this as well. thank you. >> thank you. >> speaker: good afternoon, i'm greg i'm a native san franciscan here and i'm not coming to represent any organization i'm here to represent myself. i had written a speech but i

think i'm going to talk from the heart. supervisor walton, i would like to thank you for your inside and your determination for putting forth this and initiative. i too am a recipient of one of their grant. i've been empowered to turn around and hold events that brought my community together and was allowed to find and enjoy each other's company. i was able to throw events for the lgbtq youth and allow them to be able to display their arts examine show their crafts to the community. i have also been able to create a lgbtq senior group that is thriving. and i want to give dr. davis and dr. sai their flowers as

well. three years ago, i had a dream. today i am the dream. i don't know about anyone behind me but i've been black all my life and i do wish that you continue to support us in our efforts to heal. thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker. >> speaker: hi i'm we're the directser of transgender here in san francisco. the transgender district was founded by three trans women. our mission is to create an urban environment that fofters the rich history, culture legacy and empowerment of trans jer people in the deep roots in the southeastern roots of the tenderloin where many of our

trans siblings work and live. our organizations aims to stabilize and empower the transgender people here in san francisco by sharing models, programs that lift and thrive our community. we are supported by crucial funding by the dki initiative and want to share some of those. we are able to support our transgender community by helping them with eviction protection. we also provide name and gender name clinics, among some of the programs that we're able to have because of this important initiative. i want to thank mayor breed, dr. davis and their incredible staff for this funding. this funding is a model for this country. just this morning, i was sharing with anti los angeles

diversity inclusion initiative as they research models to replicate county wide. we urge the board of supervisors not just to keep this important initiative but to expand its important and xraoushl work for the rest of the country. thank you. >> speaker: good afternoon, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. i am here on behalf of the ucsf department of psychiatric and behavioral sciences, i'm dr. juliet and i'm one of the dki capacity building grant he's. and we received funding to be able to offer training and technical assistance in conducting program research and evaluation so all the tools and resources and knowledge that are needed to create and report on the data that demonstrate

measurable impact for the organizations that are providing the services for black youth and families in san francisco. so many of the organization that's you heard from today or who are also dki recipients have participated in our training, we worked with 50 organizations to date and some of the outcomes that they've been able to walk away with things like evaluation model, data collection systems and strategies as well as for reporting and did did des sem nation. to take what they've learned and implement their own program evaluation. so i'm so honored to have been part of this and very grateful

for all the funtding that has been made available to support this and i hope you continue to support this because we have a lost interest. so thank you for your time. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> speaker: i'm founder ever why not unite for peace. i'm here as part of the dream keeper initiative. i thank you all for your past support. i became a doula helping those with the higher maternal death rate. i'm training to become a competent research on us by us. please appoint dki to support the positive impact from the womb to the tomb from the cradle to the graif, through education, mental well being,

behavioral health, mental health, physical health and financial health programs and services. thank you mayor breed, dr. sai, really everybody and some of the young folks that spoke today just really touched my heart and i want to lift up ms. director smiley, she is doing the job. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> thank you. my name is christine feigner i work for food wise and food education program, we have a lot of partnership with the school district and i'm here in solidarity and a lot of community partners back here that have the grace to work with us. in 2021, we had a juneteenth celebration and it was one of the best answers from that celebration is why are you not doing that more often of food

entrepreneurs from the black community more than just in june or more than just black history month. and we heeded that response and now we're running--and the point is to build on the infrastructure to highlight of all of these food entrepreneurs. >> thank you. >> okay, thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> speaker: good afternoon, supervisors, first of all let me just say that i appreciate you guys showing up today, you know. it's an honor and i'm dreylin drirm, i'm not just a business owner i'm a dreamer, a believer in power of community and proud resident of the debut district.

9 years ago, i embarked on a journey to turn my passion into a livelihood by starting my own business here in the heart of san francisco. it has not always been easy and it's been times when the odds seem unsur mountable but through hard work and determination and the support of community, i've been able to keep my dream alive. that's why i stand here in support of the dki, the initiative is not just about providing grants to call businesses like me it's about investing in the dreams of our community members and ensuring that everybody has the opportunity to succeed. but we can't stop there. we need to continue to nurture these dreams to water them with resource sxz support and to provide the fertile ground in which they can grow. that means more fund anding collaboration and more opportunities for small business to see thrive. san francisco is more than a city, it's a beacon of hope and

a place where dreams with born and nurtured but it's time to step it up so i'm asking you guys to double down and double the budget. [applause] >> thank you. >> next speaker please. >> speaker: good afternoon, i'm monica and producer of love never fails a anti trafficking. we're a grantee and proud to support this initiative. which should not be loss if you consider the first two years, this is only the ging, the scale and scope of investment of black san franciscans should only grow from here. looking ahead to the next five-ten years, even more, the city should create a space for new opportunities following the dki model to expand into other

areas of policies and programs. at love never fails, we've been success in connecting to financial aid, housing and healthcare. we need these youth where they're at and have assisted them through times of need. we have also, we have also helped our program members achieve their for the future. whether it's financial literacy, getting permanent housing or helping them get into college, the dream keeper initiative is an investment in san francisco and i beg that you continue this program and add more funding. thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> speaker: my i'm jan and i'm also with love never fails and we have the privilege of partnering with dki. this is not just about us, we're just a sliver of what is going on here. i was once asked what is a safe

place, a safe place is where we feel comfortable doing the work that we do. it's when cbos can stop competing with one another, with one mission, with one voice and with one heart. it's not enough for me to have an isolated space, it's an enough for to you have an isolated space. it's when a young person can be in the city and they can turn because we're holding hands, that is a safe place and that is what dki is building. >> speaker: my name is safe and i'm 24 years old and from the la troy hill i've been in this program for four years now. and i learned a lot of things. it's a safe place to come to. and you can talk to them about anything and they will help you. and help you get your goals

done. i got kicked out of my house last year and i asked them for help. i'm so thankful. next speaker, please. >> hey, halofa, umbula, had to acknowledge my other sisters from the other island nations, that's within the states. my name is john, i'm one of cofounder of salt. our dream is weeping and nurturing loss of consciousness in san francisco. some of you may know pacific ocean with ut it's for people

of the ocean for myself growing up here, starting to learn and figure out who, my samoen is, some of you know sa moan, there is 24 tation that's makes up the nasa, they're not empowered enough to stand up and speak for themselves, right, to be organized to have people in spaces. this initiative for us and i'm going to speak for us and i'm going to tell the truth. a lot of people say things to our community. sister tito said it earlier, finally we've been recognized as a community even though we've been standing in front of everybody for a long time, hard to miss us, for real like, everybody when they need, you know, that person standing next to them or that bodyguard or security guard or a home monitor, guess what, we have

more than that. my ancestor were sailing in the biggest ocean in the world when the rest of the world thought the world was flat. we're more than that, thank you for the dream keeper our dream is uniting ourselves, weaving owler sells, believing in our selves. we're tired of people telling our story, right. we're tired of people talking about us, we're tired of people with the culture making the billions of dollars, you go to hawaii and all you see is a billion dollars everywhere but my relatives and sisters on the island, don't even have sovereignty. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, next speaker, please. time is up sir, thank you. >> speaker: i aipt following that guy. my name is sweet, i'm also one of the cofounder of salt soe,

pacific islander. i want to dr. sai and cheryl davis, dream keepers initiative. with the funding that we've been receiving, we've been able to make progress in our foundation and capacity building. we've been able to learn from our different cultures, there is 22 to 24 island within the vasa and we've been able to just listen and learn from each other. you know and most importantly trust each other as we're building this thing out. as a marginized community, they have allowed us to rewrite our story and have impact in our community. with our pacific islander, we've been able to serve 1,000 people with employment, housing, immigration, food, education, the list goes on with many of our disparity. with dki has done, it's allowed to keep our dreams alive.

the salt association needs this continued investment into our pacific islander community so that we can address all the disparity that our people have been suffering for so many years. i want to thank again, dr. sai and also cheryl davis and also supervisor shamal walton who has blessed our pi community. thank you and god bless you all. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> speaker: good morning, and thank you. i'm mary evelyn tomas i'm an early educator and we started because of dki and also director davis. she came to, when we were saying help, we are african-american early educators and we need support we're not the only ones that need help. she came there to support us, we started the african-american early educators, we also have

good rule, if you see this, we have a good rule has started all the programs that they have for math and science, stem frenzy and if you all went to, what is it called? we went to the place and what is the name of the place. we went to chase center and every one participated, it was not just african-american children, all children. we had families there that were so excited and this is going on for three years. this is what dki was doing for us. early educators during the pandemic, black early educators were not even knowing that we had a pandemic. they knew we had a pandemic but they didn't have the support and we got the support from good rule that started because of dki. i want to thank everybody, directer daif, dr. sai, supervisor walton and the mayor

of san francisco. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> speaker: hi, my name is efraud i'm a san francisco native born and raised in hunters point. i started a foundation with my brother where we throw freestyle events for young adults all over the bay area. we had supplied funding out of our own pocket for 15 years until that was exhausted. dki was the first to give us some funding so we can continue our process and keep going. they funded a event where we brought a bunch of performers out from new york, l.a. and other location to see compete with the guys out here in california and it was a phenomenal event, we have another event mrapd for june 8th at the memorial. dki was just the first to keep a chance for us so week keep

this going for the bay area. we encourage you guys to continue to fund the program. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> speaker: good afternoon, board of supervisors and to the dki family. good afternoon. my name is larn ada smith, better known as shug and this is my second year with the program. this is a letter from one of our young people who was unable to attend today. she is expressing gratitude for the dki, thank you to dr. davis and to others who have supported her. dear dki program team, i'm writing to express my heartfelt gratitude to the dki program also known as the dream keeper initiative for providing me with the opportunity to give back to the community.

being a part of this initiative has allowed me to impact fellow community members and inspires others to strife for greatness learning and growth and create valuable networking opportunities. her name is gentle williams, she is my daughter, thank you. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> speaker: good afternoon, my name is andrea baker and i am the executive director of interaction. and interaction is a grantee of dki. i want to let you know that over the past three years with funding from dki, into action, has served hundreds of dreamers who finally are able to begin to realize their dreams. we know that metrics are important but i think every one in this room also knows that

the best incentive and motivater is the modeling seeing others around you who look like you, who are also achieving. it is important that this funding continue. i want to also before i leave this podium, i want to acknowledge and thank the mayor, supervisor walton, dr. sai and dr. davis for their bravery, their bravery in insisting on this program. and i want to encourage all of you to have courage and to advocate for the continuation of this funding. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> speaker: hello i'm a jewelry

artist enter pretour, i grew up in san francisco my mom has been a resident for over 40 years. i'm currently a care provider for our vulnerable community of elders. i learned about into action which is a direct recipient of the dream keepers initiative and i was able to go through the program and create a business e-commerce website through sell black. during the pandemic, it became very relevant for people to be online for you to be able to do business online and to be e-commerce savvy. the sell black program was is a program that helps us to build a website. the monies that we were given through a bank card i was able with my own initiative of money and teaching myself finances, also coupled with the into

actions resources, i was able to launch my website, please you can visit i welcome you, www.cor--beautiful pieces even pearls as well. but, doing the initiative i was able to payoff debt and we all know that right now, credit card debt is at an all-time high and who would be able to get out of credit card debt. i was able to fund my photography and fund the urls and so forth. so through the dream keepers initiative through interaction, i'm able to give back to the community and their drama kitchen program through merchandising, i teach merchandising of food and products as well. 11,000 is what ifls given and i heard that it could go to 1500. >> thank you so much. next speaker.

>> speaker: thank you for doing the work. >> thank you. >> speaker: waiting for my troop. thank you. good afternoon, supervisors, community members, thank you for allowing us this opportunity to speak today. the latino task force is here to support the dream keeper initiative it's timely and the city needs to keep its investment to the black community. we work closely with many of the agencies and the work they do is life changing. investing in community will always result in better outcomes. the san francisco budge set a statement on who we are as a city and it's important to ensure that all residents are included. we're here to ask for your initiative. thank you to the human rights commission supervisor walton for championing this initiative and on behalf of the task

force, we stand in support of this investment. thank you. >> speaker: good afternoon, supervisors, out of respect for public comment, there is only a few of us two of us that will speak but the rest stand in solidarity, i'm valerie and just for the record i'm on my union negotiated lunch break. again the latino task force stands in solidarity, we want to honor the ancestor of the land who's shoulder we stand on and also the black community. we want to thank the dki initiative under the leader ship of dr. davis. you know that dr. davis supported the latino task force and i want to recognize the black leadership in this city. mayor london breed, dr. davis and then president walton, supported the latino community and task force. i want to share with you

briefly, a quick story and i want the community to understand how important black leadership is. for many years the native community fought to have sports team changed but it was not until george floyd died, sacrificed his life, a black man did that movement get any traction. so when we honor black leadership and the black community, we all benefit. thank you. [applause] >> thank you all. next speaker, please. >> speaker: good afternoon, supervisors and community members, thank you every one for being here today. my name is luna robledo i'm juvenile specialist with san francisco court appointed or

casa, casa was recipient of our dki funding. we hired six black and mix race foster injustice involved youth and young adult and paid them to form our youth board who met weekly and reviewed grant applications from youth in the community. grants that improved young african-american lives. black youth and families are disproportionately represented in our welfare system. it means that you rely on other systems and government and mostly your community to survive and thrive. it also means responsive needs to slowed is bureaucratic processes. our pure grant making process was able to expedite pro advicesing of necessary items and support allowing young people to meet their unique needs in a timely manner. needs that the system had not accounted for and was not able

to meet. such as necessary dental procedures for young adults who's teeth were literally falling out of his mouth, laptop for numerous youth to continue their studies. let's see. a room ba vacuum and providing first and last month's health for a person to launch into independent living. i urge the city to keep the d kixer funding. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> speaker: thank you i'm alisha roshell i'm of captured moments will i alisha roshell i'm a native san francisco district 10 and i and i have ben bited of being a part of

zen sans which i was part of that before this dki came through. but after dki came through, i was able to whethers go back to renaissance i was hired by renaissance and they received some dki money and i came into action as well. and also other entities, i'm a photographer, videographer, designer, all small businesses were able to pay me to do the work. so i have now been relevant right here in san francisco and moneys have been allotted in budgets for photography, for video graphy which is something that is in the back end, people have phones but they were able to hire me to do a professional job and i'm grateful to the interaction staff that

accessible staff members and coaches. and they also encouraged us to receive the funds. it was a motivating force so we can reach our dreams. our supervisors who i've seen on the frontline for this. and thank you. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> speaker: i'm owner of bbq, thank you to mayor breed, thank you supervisor walton and every one responsible for dream keepers initiative. i want it say i'm a current local 3 heavy machine operators, i'm currently laid off and in this trade of construction is very racist to african-american especially

with the heavy machine operators and it's not so much the union sends you out, you get a job but you have been compatible these companies are ran by people that are not black. you can show up on time and if they don't want you to work, they wouldn't. i want to say it's a god sent blessing for me to be in that program, somebody referred me to the program i was selling bbq on third street, i grew up in burnle heights. i was closed down by the health department and i didn't have the fund, i didn't have the equity, the capitol to get a food truck or insurance to rent space and so everything i did was illegally, and so this is a blessing that interaction is able to fund me.

i'm able to be a legal vendor at different events. i hope you allow for us to keep our dreams and continue to fund this. i have 20 or so cohort members that are pursuing their dreams and serious about cooking and starting their own businesses. if you cut down this program, you're cutting a i lot of dream. and i have a five-year-old daughter that gets to say my father has his own business. without ownership, black people are in a lose-lose situation. i'm able to own my own business. and they see me everyday. >> thank you, thank you so much. thank you for your comments. next speaker. >> thank you for your hard work.

i'm here to support the funding for the black lead organizations and community. it's very vital that you allow this to continue. i have witnessed firsthand the launch of numerous businesses, organizations nonprofit that's have gotten grant writing service to see allow them to be able to continue on doing what they're doing. i've seen financial stability for their family and it's time that we continue to support those so that they can realize their dreams and the futures of their family's dreams. and break down the walls and barriers that the black community has faced in our community to start build financial security and equality within the community.

>> thank you, next speaker, please. >> speaker: hello i'm a native son of native edition, born and raised. i'm here on behalf of san francisco district attorney office and district attorney brooke jenkins, i know why we're here and i know this is about numbers and government oversight. i want to make sure that we don't lose sight of one thing, today we're talking about humanity, dki is about humanity. dki is a renewed version of civil rights for african americans in this city, this is why dki is important. we have been able as a district attorney's office to partner with the human rights commission for the sole purpose of preventing crime with young people to take young people to the deep south to help them learn and live tlut experiences and construction of the civil rights movement so they can understand and appreciate why

they're able to go to starbucks today. i urge all of you all of you to consider pushing forward, keeping it here, doubling it down, rebirthing and rebuilding that budget so that african americans in this city can continue to live with dig nity and respect. i want to commend superintendent walton and sigh and davis for livinger what we need. dki works, thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. the dream keeper initiative has allowed us to hire three

clinicians we youth go through a lot of trauma. it's helpful to help people who have gone through things that the young people have gone through. so having hundreds of young people be served in our navigation, center. for the purpose of their mental health is important. there is one thing that i want to emphasize about the dream keepers. keep is the keyword in that. this help keep us safe, it's important that we keep these funds in order to keep all of us together in community to make sure that we don't lose another young person. we don't lose another senior due to insecurities around

we're the boat that has risen from these funds and we've been taking every one around with us. so please keep the dream keepers funds alive. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> speaker: hello for some dki was to provide a new sense to go after a dream and provide educational training through program supported and funded by the initiative. i stand before as executive director of san francisco african arts and culture district. i'm april, i'm tasked with god's work of making sure that our community is stablelized historically preserved and properly educated and given the tools they need to build their

dream cars or space ships and fly far away from here, now that's a dream. it takes programs like the dream keepers initiative to support the work that i've been tasked with. it's desperately needed to make sure that our future generation right side supported and taken care of. please please continue to fund this initiative it is detrimental to the future of san francisco and our children. thank you. somebody can have my extra 20 seconds. >> speaker: the oldest black organization with 1105 year service to this amazing city. we're proud dream keeper and we here to make sure that with our

community members here that there are black people in the future. we're able to provide over 2000 hours of free cultural humbly, therapy and grief counseling in the midst of mental health crisis for our children, our families and our seniors. we've pulled parents back from the brink. we've convinced our middle schoolers that their lives are worth living. we've also addressed the ptsd that a lot of our moms and dads have had because they have to bury their kids way too early. because of the dream keeper initiative we have turned house dreams can into house keys. we provided over 3500 hours of case management for dozens of black and brown families here in san francisco and keeping them in san francisco because of dream keeper, we've been able to cover transportation,

moving costs, security deposits and first month's rent for homeless families ensuring a smooth transition into stable permanent housing. because of dream keeper, we're getting families and foster youth out of the street, out of cars and hotel rooms and we're doing it because of a 40 percent of folks are black. too many of our people don't know where the heads will lay at night and we're making sure that it does not happen. because of a dream keeper our booker can graduate and they maintain high attendance rates, they made it to honor role and now preparing for--honor roll, and now prepping for college. the dream keeper alleviates the -- ~>> thank you so much for your comment. >> speaker: we have more work to do thank you every one. >> thank you, next speaker.

>> speaker: good morning i'm felicia and i represent invest black in all mine community collaborative. i'm here to say thank you for helping to expand our covid hub during the pandemic, we were able to provide testing to over 30,000 people in the lakeview and over 3000 vaccinations and boosters because we were able to provide access in community that does not have a health clinic, a health partner, a hospital or even an urgent care. a much needed resource. but most importantly i'm here to make sure that the funding continues because i've now made the list of qualified grantees and i can't wait and very excited to continue providing culturally sensitive activities

to our older adults in the lakeview. my senior house rich but money poor. people think because they have a home that there is no need and in fact having a home there is a greater need. it's sxwruft as a much as a need as those without a home and you're using the downstairs of your home as your essential resident because you're unable to walk up and down the stairs. please continue to have keep the dream keeper initiative alive and i thank you for your support. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> thank you for your non screen time. i'm the director of good rule. and in covid, we banded together and we saw a need.

the african-american educators was born phet and at the time they were getting a third of the resources and a third of the support. and in so many instances they were not seen or heard. with that we've been able to start a community lab, provider support. we have on how long we have to serve you people. and that was just a few months ago, how that providers that care for 0 to 3 the most important part of child's life and still reduce to how long? we have fought, we with this initiative, eveb able to hope doors and a lot of those doors

have been hesitant but when i've been backed bit dream keeper thanks to dr. sai, they're like o being what can we do to help you? it has opened the doors. we're still in the need of breaking the institutional system. system frenzy, 3000 people come into the chase center from a little ol' initiative. kindergartening kits to all the black children. provider support for the legacy providers. we are only 18 out of 400 providers that are getting the els subsidy. and we need that all to change. >> thank you. >> thank you, next speaker.

>> speaker: good afternoon, i'm felicia jones, and i'm here not to indicate all the wonderful stories about black people in the city and county of san francisco that has been told already. and i want to thank mayor graod and supervisor walton and dr. carol davis. not only is he part of the dream keeper, shaaman you know and a lot of the other supervisors know, when you need somebody black in the city and county of san francisco, a voice y'all call an cheryl davis. you call on cheryl davis, the other thing i want to say, dean, is this. three months ago, we walked

around this whole city hall to every board of supervisors initiating and backing of dki. shaaman he was not here that day, i believe hillary was not here that day. but every other board of supervisors was here that day and all of you made a promise, made a promise you didn't say, oh let me think about it, oh you know. we got to look at the budget cuts, you made a promise not to touch dki funding! so stand up to your promise, mean what i say, say what you mean and do not touch dki funding. because if you touch it black people go back 57 years, three

reports studying black people, 57 years ago and we still don't have nothing. you looked at the budget, you see how all of black--. >> thank you so much. thank you so much for your comments. >> speaker: you don't know me sister, i don't stop. >> next speaker. >> speaker: all the programs have been touched. >> all right. thank you. next speaker, please. >> thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> speaker: next speaker gonna

have to wait. >> as you know every one gets the same time in public comment. you can continue this conversation but you do not get to-- >> speaker: mean what you say and say what you say. >> your time is up thank you. thank you. next speaker, please. >> speaker: i am happy to give some of my time to cheryl davis. my name is david elliot lewis i'm co-chair of people's congress and our members and residents have benefited from dream keepers initiative, everything from the new leadership downsing which is in the tenderloins to other groups it's been really important help

to our neighborhood and residents. as you know, the tenderloin have a higher percentage of unhoused residents black residents and unhoused people, we need help, the dream keeper initiative is a miracle that has provided real help and help correct historic wrongs. we need, we need this benefit to continue, we need it refunded. dream keep the dream, keep the promise as you heard repeatedly in public comment. please keep this initiative going and well funded and i'll leave it at that so more speakers can speak, thank you. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, i'm marrian jones oldest black lead community center in the country.

we established the first black clubhouse within a safety net organization that is dedicated to the african-american community when 99 percent of all clubhouses in the world served the affluent white community. so we would not be able to do this without dream keeper funding and also provide the great services that offer license clinicians, that are physicians, nurse practioners, addiction medicine specialist within a system of care like no other in san francisco. we will not be able to continue this program without the funding of dream keepers initiative. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker.

>> speaker: good morning supervisors, i would like to thank queen b, also dr. davis. but listen, let me say this, i've been doing this for years but i cooled down as a activist i'm up here doing cool things. i'm say it in a 1 wol 30, politics can full of tricks, it can make you turn into a lunatic. what i've been doing for the last few years, although i have not applied for money with dream keepers, i've been documenting, i've been tracking, i've been reporting and documenting everything that has been going on for the last few years. and i am tickled, not tickled pink but tickled black to this initiative has been funding all

of these different programs for our community so i'm tickled black right now. but the thing i would like to suggest and tell everybody that we must continue to fight for dream keepers, dream keeper initiative. and i'm so proud to be part of the community. filmore is changing. i used to call it feel no more, and all of these businesses are popping up in the mill for, that's basically because of the initiative. my name is ace, i'm on the case, and i'll be around for a little while and tracking monitoring, documenting and reporting. so thank you very much for what you do doctors, supervisors and the mayor, i call her queen b. >> thank you, next speaker.

>> speaker: good morning, she and she, i continue encourage fund to go lift up the black community. because when we lift up the black community we have the potential to lift up all votes. even during our city's budget crisis that we double down that the most impact can be made because of the initiative because an pound of prevention is worth a pound of cure. i like to say that i'm a poor white person, and our cohort has been swindled into advocating and accelerating in the last ten years all in the name of racist. --racism. what will has the movement done for me and my cohort.

if more white poor people join the black people for social economic justice for all, who knows how much better we can be. to the white supremacist, i yield my time, fuck you. >> next speaker please. >> speaker: drew jenkins i'm in support of it, the dream keepers. i know it impacted the saint hill community making sure that over the pandemic that over a million meals was passed out through young people. when they were saying that black people were causing violence on the older asians we were able to stop and make sure that was not just a astigmatism.

we had the white people walking with over 780 units. we was working together because of the dream keeper, but we forget because the time has passed about what work was put in all the time. so to keep something like that going, i feel like the dream keepers is attacking something that the city is not recognizing, that's getting down and dirty and making sure that the community is being taken care of. thank you. >> next speaker please. >> speaker: good y'all i think i'm last one that is physically here today. so i want to thank you. i want to give honor to god who is clearly the head of my life and got us all here because

we're still breathing. i want to thank supervisor walton, the mayor and tireless people that work endless hours to make sure that continues to work. i want to thank everybody who has already spoken and i think we've answered your question, you asked a question, what have you been doing with the funds? it has been an investment that is only going to grow bigger. so i'm going to leave with some words as you think about your actions, right, we want you to say watch your thoughts for they are your words, watch your words because that's ms. felicia was telling you, don't tell us what you want us to hear tell us what you're going to do. they become your actions, watch your actions because they become your habits, watch your habits because they become your character and last of ca watch your character because they becomes your destiny and san francisco is being watched

globely, make sure that your investment last forever. [applause] >> do we have any further public comment? mr. chair, that completes our queue. >> thank you, with no more public comment on this item is now closed. i want to thank every one for coming out and having so many people talking about the inspiring work being done under the dream keeper initiative and the need to maintain that funding. i have supported it from the start and will continue to do so. i do want to correct the record, which i usually reframe from doing but i do want to correct one public comment that was made suggesting some reversal around my issue of

reparations which i take response for. i was a cosponsor of supervisor walton to fund reparations and deliver on the report supported the report and as dr. davis noted in the beginning, those of us that take that stand earn ourselves significant attacks and hate nationally for standing strong for reparations and something i believe strongly in and have voted consist leon and continue to do so. there are certain challenges that have not emanated from my office, i'll leave it at that around the funding but we continue to fully support reparations as well as the important work of the dream keeper initiative. with that, i'll turn it back to supervisor walton if you have any further comments. >> thank you so much, chair preston and thank you colleagues for hold thising hearing today. i want to start off by thanking

community and all the recipients of dream keeper initiative funding. before i say my final statements, i did have two questions the first one when we talk about the home ownership what does that compare to the numbers that we were previously able to achieve? >> good afternoon, mayor director of mayor's department. dream keeper has been the wings beneath our wings whatever the phrase is, wind! because not only because of the funding and how we're able to target the african community with the funding but also the

will to to target the african-american in ownership. so the numbers of black folks that we're serving now are phenomenally higher than what we've been able to serve through our oem ownership program in the past. >> thank you. i think this is just part of my next question and i don't know if director davis or director if you want to answer this but what would you say has been dki's biggest or where we made the most impact? >> i would like to hear dr. aye's response. i want to acknowledge that we had a lot of different departments that we represented earlier we didn't acknowledge them. and wunts program high level for me off the top which is the

thing that will be criticized the most but i think it's the most important is the are the many grants. so when we talk about how we actually get in the hands of the people of and community not in the hands of non prove pits, right, but in the hands of folks that i are like i want to bring out joy and give ice cream to kids in my neighborhood. or food distributions. they ask for money to put together grocery bags to give out to elder. the grants has touched and it's the smallest investment in terms of 3 million dollars that's one of the things that i wish we could do more of. but because of the way the system works, i don't think the district values how to give people and how that changes neighborhoods and of course the

home ownership to see 50 plus people to be able to buy homes in san francisco when that is ten times that was able to happen before the dream keeper initiative. that is huge and the third which as an educator youth development is the money that we've invested in youth development. to know that nearly 200 college students have received tuition support, housing support, the ability to stay in college because they can buy their books. those rin vestments that have tremendous. i would hang my hat on the many grants but i know other folks would not value it in the same way. >> so there are three things that i would say, the first relative to community. the community and valued which from the outset, was our commitment to make sure that black folks pacific islander valued and they can exercise their power not that we were

empowering bull they can exercise their power as we've seen today. the second is the city coming together as the collective is a heavy list and it's not easy given city bureaucracy. not only to build trust but transparency in government and the 12 city department. and home loan forgiveness i'm really excited where we can sustain wealth building for those who purchase homes in san francisco and then i think a fourth that we're seeing on the cusp we're exploring with this the city economist is about the

multiplier fix and the benefit of the dollars, you mention 0.0.3 percent how that will ultimately benefit the city's economy for the long run. >> thank you. i don't have anymore questions but i did just want to both a luted, but i would be remiss not to think the other department office of mayor housing and community development. department of public health, department of youth and their families, office of education, san francisco fire department, adult probation, the public defender's office and i know i missed a couple, i apologize but we'll make sure that everybody gets acknowledged with their work and investment with the dream keeper.

i want to remind every one that this is city wide work. this is work that is yielding positive results across all of san francisco and these successes need to continue to be highlighted. i want to thank all of the al lies that came out to speak today. this work that making sure that we receive equity and justice for black people, of course it takes every one coming together to make sure that we are heard, seen and supported. i do want to thank our allies for that work. and the last thing that i say, no with one design success for black people but black people. okay, i want you to remember that as we continue to do this work.

so thank you all for being here and thank you supervisor preston for not cutting the time short, you're a little bit more generous than me. community should thank you because you're more generous than me on that one. thank you on that. and i would just ask that we continue this to the call of the chair. >> thank you, supervisor walton. supervisor chan? >> thank you, chair. preston and i have a quick question for dr. davis and i wanted to understand the budget proposed upcoming budget. i heard some of the public commenters have worries and concerns that the budget is going to get reduced? is that what we're looking at? >> i do think that when people follow the news or see information that goes out there, there is concern that

the first place that the city will want to cut is this funding. i know that some people told me and not necessarily here, i heard that supervisors have been saying that the dki budget is bloated and needs to be cut. and that was brought to me by several folks somebody, a supervisor said that to them. so it creates a little bit of concern. when the folks that have said and that was to the point that have said earlier when folks say they support something but privately say they're going to cut that and start with the dki, i think that's a concern. i will say to be totally honest and transparent and probably should not be saying this, i think there is also concern that

the resent announcement around another department's or new rfps people feel there is an expectation that everybody black that was cut is going to be paid for now through dream keeper initiative which means we would have to cut our existing funding to support the cuts that came from another department. dream keeper was never intended to be back fill for other things and there is now concern that that may happen. and i'm going to say again, most folks know that i'm a pretty much a straight shooter people concerned that as we evolve this program that we increase accountability and there may be cuts to programs based on delivery not based on our budget cuts but based on two things. one based on the fact that we're eye city department and

we have to be responsive to what the controller and city attorney requires. and this is meant to be kind of a launch pad and that we hope people will then be able to die if heser --diversify so we can get new people benefit from those funds. but i think that's a process of concerns around dcyf and concerns about what supervisors have said publicly and privately to other folks and concerns about what we'll have to do in order to make sure that we get the opportunity to fund diverse. >> and through the chair, i want to say, your budget committee chair, this is the first time i'm hearing that any of my colleagues is can thinger dream keeper initiative is bloated. so i want to say that. and that i think let's have a

conversation about moving it forward. clearly the board, the supervisors will not be able to look at proposed budget until june when the mayor is ready to propose it to the board. i'm speaking for myself, i have not seen proposed cuts other than, you know, most recently, i think that i made aware of dcyf i am aware of some of the reduction but i would like to learn more from the dream keeper initiative how it's being impacted by that announcement?

i think at the budget committee we're starting to have this conversation until we learn about the cuts in june which only gives the supervisors very little time, frankly less than three weeks time to understand what the reductions and how we shift the allocations of funding and being here until 3:00 o'clock in the morning to negotiate. we're starting those conversations that if you're aware that things will be cut, let's talk about it now and let's put it out there now and be transparent about what the reduction looks like within the mayor's proposed budget instead of waiting until june where it may be too late for us to correct the course. i want to put it on the record and say, let's have the conversation if we're aware of

what is going to be cut so it's not too late to restore and we don't end up where we are put ing the communities against each other for the funds. we can talk to make sure that it works for the community especially for smaller organizations and nonprofits. thank you. ?*. thank you, supervisor chan. vice chair stefani. >> i was taking notes and i thought, this is one of the best presentations, and i want to thank you for the book too, i was looking at one of the stories. there was a lot of life and hope in the presentations and sometimes we don't see that in city hall, about the how the dollars that go out really impact. and i think the presentations show how impactful the dream

keeper initiative is. i was not the supervisor that it was me. >> nobody in this room said that. and i did text superintendent walton is the organization threatened? i want to thank you from the bottom of my heart and every one who came out for these presentations. i think one of the things that i wrote down too when you poers resources in the community it benefits all of san francisco and i'll take that away today. thank you for all your work. >> thank you vice chair stefani and yeah, i think it is i will just say there is strong support with the supervisors in this room. to be honest, i don't know that

it's terribly helpful to have an anonymous supervisor. i think it's honestly, in terms of constructive making sure a shared goal of maintaining and when possible growing this initiative, it would be helpful if whatever that rumor is, if we know who that is so either, either as chair or as the budget chair or supervisor walton leading the board's efforts can engage with that supervisor and have you engaged to try to answer any questions. but it's the first time. the only cuts that i'm aware of are the cross the board instructions from the mayor that impact some of the departments you're talking about, we'll see where that lands in terms of her proposed budget and then as our budget chair and supervisor chan

indicated, then that proposed budget comes to the board and but i have not, bft reference to anonymous supervisor or supervisors had not heard any proposals from colleagues critiques of amount of dki funding so that i understand why people would be concerned about that but i think it would be helpful who is concerned about that funding. >> and just to acknowledge that was not, it was in response to a question that was asked and i have not had a chance to speak with that supervisor. and i, you know, ynt didn't want to say the name. it's a rumor in terms of why there is anxiety. there is anxiety because somebody has taken that narrative. again i want to appreciate you all for hosting this because if

i can just be totally transparent, i think there is a lost anxiety because of the narrative of what it is to have black leader ship in charge of anything in san francisco. i often say to people, i expect everyday to be my last day at work. because some accidental something, some miss steps some misunderstanding, is going to be front page news and you're going to be left alone. and i think the fear of somebody saying something or seeing a headline, people, i will say not just people in general, i will say me, as somebody who has spent her

whole life following the rules, being afraid to jaywalk, being afraid that if i'm late with my taxes, there is a fear that you're going to do something and the media is going to say, this is why we don't give black people anything. there is a level because of the headlines because of the new rules that we put in place, all of these things so all it takes is somebody, this is what he said to me and everybody freaks out, i feel like this is probably when we talk about investments, people are calling and saying, we want to be under the radar, because we know when we're not, it becomes a lot issue. san francisco's black community has done something amazing that should be emulated and modeled

and instead everybody is talking about. forgive me and thank you for indulge but there is a lot of fear about this work that everybody else. >> thank you for additional comments. and let me just say, i think that especially in light of what you're saying, the media dynamic as well as the budget pressures of the city, i think having some level of anxiety and making sure that people rally in support of these funds is absolutely absolutely essential and it took a lot of struggle to do this in the first place and maintain it through, the additional cycles and it's going to take that level of folks speaking up. i just want to be clear, i'm not suggesting for a second that anyone take for granted and assume that without people speaking up, that those funds

will continue. given the national media tacks and local attacks, and the real challenge and the heat our city gets when we center the black community in our and in our investments and talk about reparations and we see that, i don't want to say black lash, across the country, i think it is essential to rally in support. where i was weighing is a cautious from my perspective, and i think to some extent i do feel like this is an area where the board and the mayor and the administration in the department have like you said come together to do something impactful and that's something that we should be doubling down and growing as a city.

so my push back was not on the idea of concern and anxiety around protecting the funds but hopefully we're all in that fight together as we go in budget season. supervisor walton. >> thank you, i was going to add, yes there is anxiety around the budget and budget process and of course people always get concerned when we're having cuts, cuts being proposed but i think what director davis was doing an eloquent job not trying to throw anything under the bus but people have to understand that anything in the city has been scrutinizes and ago for reports and audit. the media scrutinized in a way that we never see.

we got people sunshine of the dream keeper initiative which is their right. we don't see these things happening except when black people have this. >> i think it's your motion is to continue this to the call of the chair. thank you to all the folks who gave public comment and involved. i would like to go ahead and move to continue the item on the call of the chair. >> on the motion to continue the motion to the call of the chair, vice chair stefani. >> aye. >> member chan. >> aye. >> chair preston. >> aye. >> chair preston, aye. >> that motion passes, we have i think it was important that we dedicate this time, this

will be an unusual long hearing day, we still have couple of hearings to my apologies in the sro tenants and the other items but to further apologize, we're going to take a short recess before we gear up for those other hearings. so we will reconvene, it is now 1:10, we will reconvene >> good morning, this meeting will come to order. welcome to the april 18, 2024 regular meeting of the government audit and oversight committee of the san francisco board of supervisors.

i'm dean preston i'm joined by voice chair catherine stefani and connie chan here with us as well. for the first item supervisor walton. our clerk is monique and we would like to thank sfg tv for staffing this meeting. >> clerk: when your item comes up in public comment is called, please line up to speak on your right. please note that we have comment cards and you may submit public comment in writing in either of the following ways, email them to the email and oversight committee clerk, at sf gov.org. if you submit public comment via email submit as--and you may also send your written comment to our office in city hall, 1 dr. carleton room 244

san francisco california 94102. if you have documents that would you like to be included as part of this file. please submit them to me by the end of the meeting. to prevent any interruptions to today's proceedings. finally, they're expect today appear on the board of supervisors, unless otherwise stated. >> thank you, madam clerk, please call item 1. >> item 1 is a resource dream keeper initiative specifically on which program have been allocated on the 120 million. >> thank you, madam clerk and supervisor walton is here with us. i want to thank supervisor walton for all of your work in getting this program started in the first place. and with the on going work,

with the human rights commission and other departments to ensure that these funds are getting out the door and also that we're having transparency and oversight and you've called for a number of hearings and i think they've been very beneficial. i would say in this district 5, i especially appreciate all the work as many of our organizations in district 5 have directly benefited from the dream keeper initiative. so supervisor walton with my thanks, the floor is yours and you can give any remarks that you would like as well as introducing speakers. >> thank you very much, president. good to see a good turn out this morning. so i'll just start off with should pretty brief words, according to several sources, dreams are suppose to last about 5 to 20 minutes. but we know that some of our dreams take a lifetime like

achieving equity, righting the wrongs of the past and even treatment. as stated on the san francisco commission website, the dream keeper initiative was launched in 2021 to reinvest 60 million dollars annually into san francisco's diverse communities. the dream keeper initiative seeks to address and remedy racially policies to that the dreams of young african americans and their families are no longer differed and they have the needed resources to support and thrive in san francisco. today, we're here to learn about all the great work of the dream keeper initiative and about how every one is working together to make a difference and an impact. this extremely small yearly commitment to the black community has lead to positive outcomes, community lead

change, arts and culture, workforce, home ownership and these resources and supports are accessible to san francisco families who are most in need. when i say small investment, i mean a minimal investment compared to the entire city and budget of san francisco. con trayerly to false narratives and i gnorant makes less than 3.001 percent of the san francisco budget. and yet the outcomes of initiatives have proven fruitful for this entire city. we will continue to highlight the fact that this is a very small percentage of the budget, especially when you factor in the fact black people are over criminalized in this city, plaque people are disproportionately homeless in the city. black people have the highest infant mortality rates in the city.

black people are most likely to die by violence in the city. black people have the biggest gaps in education system in the city. black people are dis po portion ately--black people have higher unemployment rate than other races in this city. black people are dying from the fentanyl crisis at disproportionate lehigher rates in the city. you name the negative outcome, unfortunately, and the black community is over represented. so it is extremely important that we highlight the positive outcomes because of the dream keeper initiative and the policies to fight inequity in the city. we are ever more under attack as a black community and it seems at times that people would love to see the black population zeroed out in san francisco. but we are not going anywhere.

today's hearing will highlight the dream work keeper initiative and demonstrate the successes that we can achieve when we provide resources to combat inequity. i want to thank mayor brief for championing this investment and also want to thank the human rights commission executive director dr. sharyl davis and her entire team, dream keeper initiative director burch, and this morning we will hear from both of them and a couple of other presenters and then we'll go to public comment and of course colleagues if you have any comments or stauments, we would love to hear from you. so with that, would i like to call up, director dr. cheryl davis. [applause] >> good morning, i'm going to ask if the slides could be put up from the computer and while na is happening, i just want to

say, you know, a lot of people may know and some people may not, i'm a women of faith and i woke up this morning, extremely grateful for the leadership of this board but specifically supervisor walton and mayor breed for launch thising program but more than that just the ability to be a steward in this work. i'm just really grateful for the visibility of the community, right. to be part of something that was launched, this dream keeper initiative is really a blessing, so i just wanted publicly say that, because, god has been really good to me, i just felt compelled to say that this morning, sorry. so the dream keeper initiative, i'm going go through some of the why attain and we'll talk a little bit about the impact.

so promises made and i didn't put promises broken but we know that across the nation in 2020, there were commitments made for addressing what we saw with george floyd, brianna taylor and those promises that were made in san francisco in corporation sxz in other places, did not actualize and in some of the places where it did happen, we actually saw the money go out and then it was canceled out. or in many places, the money that was given was a loan.

make it happen but it's another to trust the people to move the work forward and so i want to thank you and recognize that. i want to bring up our newly c.f.o. samuel tomas who will talk about the financials about that and some of the questions that folks may have just to give a context. >> speaker: thank you, director davis and good morning, chair. i'm samuel and the cfo for the san francisco human rights commission and it's my great honor, privilege and pleasure to be with you serving this

this role. i'm going to go through some top level to inform where we are in terms of progress in using the dollars that have been allocated. and just to be dealer, the point here is not that we are spending money, we are deliberating services and impacting communities. please keep that in mind as we have, some of the important points. fiscal year 22, and our current year is fiscal year 24. so dream keeper initiative has been in action for three fiscal years, 22, 23, and 24. as director davis mentioned the allocation was 06 million per year which cumulatively to

today totals 180. of that 180 over 107 million has been spent and additional 33 million has been encumbered. so it has been expended or committed. of that 59 million has been expended on grants and another 30 million encumbered on grants. some of the points where this is going, grants is a big piece of it and these are just a few statistics regarding spending over 22 million has gone towards homeowner assistance and i think our colleagues from oawd, or excuse me ocd may have some additional updates so that may be higher. 2.3 million dollars has been disbursed through many grants

for basic needs like food and clothing, things that keep people stable so they're not falling into the river, right. i think a lot of intervention that's we need to take care in the city were pulling people out and the point is to go up stream. and we've had another 3.1 million go towards supporting entrepreneurs in starting their businesses. 7 million was earmarked for budget adjustment as part of the mid-year reductions, that the mayor's office requested. and overall, we currently have 24 million dollars that is available and we are r in discussions with the mayor's office about how to best use and allocate that, given the overall budget climate. and some of the things that the hrc is propose ising to use a portion of that for the hbcu satellite and also for

neighborhood activation. so really doing our best to align with the recovery of san francisco and building a pipeline hopefully of folks who are going to come and settle here in san francisco and who have been under represented in the past. in terms of how how we got here, right. dki has been three years in action. and i think it should be pretty obvious to every one that to stand up a set of programs that can utilize 60 million dollars per year, is herculean task. we have a process here with the city that we know is extremely difficult and takes time. and we did circulate with the community to get extensive community input to create all

of the programs. so that takes time and what that looks like is a ramp up as in fy22, we spent 15 million and fy23 the city spent 23 million and fy24 we already spent 43 million and we anticipate that 57 million close to that 60 million allocation. i'll stop there, but just in close, i want to point out that these figures that i'm talking about here, are city wide and hrc we are up here presenting as a whole, but the hrc is a department. our slice of programs is much much smaller than that 60 million per year because it's right across the department like dph and other partners. so i'll pause there and turn it over to director davis. thank you. >> so the next piece that i

wanted to say and then we'll invite dan adams is that dki has worked the investment. so what we're talking about we want to you understand that we're really trying to understand and being able to share the return on investment. because the imperative is not the motivating factor for why people do the things. sometimes they only care about the bottom line, so we're also doing our due till jens to explain how this investment benefits the city overall. i think supervisor walton mentioned from the beginning, the importance of investing in dreams, a lot of research has been done and it comes out with no surprise that black people are the most optimistic in america, that given everything that has happened they continue to believe that things can be better. and that optimism transforms communities and help to infer to actually spread hope and that is really important.

the other piece around housing, we know na it costs more money for folks to be unhoused than it is to house them and this initiative has helped to house 40 families in addition to the homeowners that director adams will talk about. the education piece has been shown to be the best investment that we can have both from early ed which is known to be the best investment but college, financial aid, and giving money to students who are in college actually benefits long term their personal growth but it also benefits their tax brackets which also improves neighborhoods and communities for folks to go to college and graduate college and come back. and overall economic justice whether we're talking about entrepreneurs or whether we're talking about meeting basic needs. this shoulds viewed as an

investment not as a hand out, not as we're giving money to black people. and you'll learn that this is not just for black people, this is an investment that the sfaoe gets to reap and benefit from and that's the message that we want to focus, it's not what you did for black folks, it's what black folks did for san francisco. [applause] i want to invite director adams to talk about the work that mocd has done lately. >> thank you so much, director davis. and so pleased to be with you this morning, the mayor's office of housing. delighted to be able to highlight some of the successes that we've seen, our role in that initiative and i want to recognize the leadership of deputy director maria and can

answer any questions that you may have. couple of notes to start, this refer to, this is not only been fantastic for black residents in san francisco, 80% of the beneficiaries have been black san franciscans but we've been able to take lessons and policies, that we've implemented through this initiative and apply them more broadly. so the program are becoming more successful through this work. and i'm going to focus on home ownership and it's been a catalyst for hope for people who have long been excluded from the opportunities of home ownership and who bear the brunt of the mortgage crisis. we're delighted at the success of the programs and excited to be able to highlight them for you today. in addition to the original $500,000 investment in program development, our department has expended over 28 million

dollars in dka funds supporting two programs. down at the same time assistance, doan program primarily. through that program, 52 market homes have been purchased from low to middle income families. 5 families were able to move back to san francisco after being priced out. you know we hear people leaving san francisco because it's too expensive, how wonderful that people are moving back thaws they have this opportunity. we have 1 more than 100 folks engaged in counseling prepared to purchase a home. and we had monthly dream circle circles where folks can drop in and learn about how to purchase homes, how to get questions answered really lowering the barrier to entry for people interested in this work.

so, those are really the highlights i want to call out today. we are working across other areas encouraging emerging developers to be more participants in our development work. and undertaking implicit bias and trainings but it's really the home ownership work that deserves to be mentioned and highlighted today. again i want to appreciate the work of dr. davis and dr. sai and i'm available to answer any questions. thank you so much. >> so this is just a little timeline, in terms of the investment, some of the things that samuel shared with you. first contract, the first contracts were not started until 2021, we didn't move through things and have funding

be annual eyes to that ramp up it took a little bit of time. and so it makes it harder for us to move things. we started an external evaluation process and then, we're really celebrating the opportunity to work from the homeowners as well as the evaluation of the program which we can send to you all and then this year, we are putting in data collection processes, we're trying to our initial goal is to try to make sure that folks who have not been engaged in programming but had great ideas had an opportunity to be part of this. so we've had some learnings, so we're going back about how we move this work forward and who is in the next round of the work. but very excite beside that. and then i will turn it over to dr. sai to talk about the accountability. >> all right, so with respect

to increase in accountability since insensing, or at least since i joined the human rights commission just two years ago, we wanted to practice accountability, for the first time in my experience you can see what ever department, ever sing the grants see what they were fund asked what they were funded to do. additionally how dki, not just what our daem black neighborhood in san francisco but in fact every one of your districts in all 11 districts of this city. we also implemented extra layers of review, such as internal audit of grantees and exit interviews with grant he's so --grantees. we're excited that dki invited new vendors so prioritizing capacity so they can go on to

get more city contracts. we do monthly meetings across department with our 13 partners, must community committee. committee some of the members who are in this room as a community feedback loop and liason so we can be responsive to that feedback report. we completed internal and external assessments of the work as a researcher scholar, data is responsive and finally, we hold town halls community update meetings on a daily basis and hours that were launched in 2023 so they can be in direct contract with those who are benefiting from the initiative. >> so i'm not going to carry on these other ones so, i started my career as a kindergarten

teacher so i'm big on visuals and simple. the unicorn resonated with me because i think sometimes, and some may find this offensive, i think sometimes smart black people are treated like unicorns. and i just want to say, there is a benefit to investings in dreams and unicorns and smart educated black people, you can call them unicorns but they are everywhere. that was something that i just wanted drive home is that, they are special, they are unique, they are unfortunately, mythical but they are real. so sin vesting in this, it's not going to look the same as everything else because we have not doing anything like this before. so going into this frontier i want us to recognize and see that there is something special.

something na is unreal and unbelievable. but i challenge you that it can be real, it can be done and then to just open your eyes and see that it's being done. so i've often shared with folks this line from maya angelou, we have to create a space that it's not so hard to dream that the world is better instead of just accepting that the world will be horrible. i hope you don't stop investing in that dream. [applause] >> and as we think about dreams, many times or this initiative has allowed the opportunity to realize those dreams so the next slides i'm going to share what the impact is and this is also available on our website a fuller report. so as i mentioned earlier, investment by neighborhood, you can see the footprint san francisco we're not just only investing in what folks would

say fillmo or hunters point but throughout the city. when if comes to economic mobility, not only are we investing in workforce development so hundreds of folks being trained and getting employment above minimum wage but also businesses launching, in fact later this afternoon, many bell is coming back to filmore, we're really excited to fulfill that investment and to contribute to thriving corridors, we're proud to get as in a reference earlier, bring back a number of homeowners to san francisco. when we think about education and enrichment it was already referenced but we have a number of students, 196 dollars who are in post secondary education and many partners who are here are continue to go support

those students not only through school in providing the financial aid and scholarship as well as book scholarships so they can thrive in their post secondary spaces as well as making additional investment in partnership with dec on the early education side. culturely--san francisco is still references as the harlem of the west with and we know that arts and culture is the heart. so we want to share those traditions with not only our own community but also visitors to san francisco so welcoming thousands of folks to the various events in partnership with the art commission as well as oewd has been a tremendous effort. and then health and wellness, not only investing in culturally relevant for folks who are speaking therapy, i think mental health has been

taboo in the black community for a long time. but when we're able to humanize mental health and have relevant practitioners many who are in the room, community healers is what i like to call them is how we like to see the people access the services and get services to food as well as housing stability. and then brighter features is our multi generational so working but also the parents and the care takers so we know that many of our households are multi generations so how are rewrapping around the entire family so they're nraour flourishing and thriving. so investing in basic needs, what is required for us to not only survive but thrive on a day-to-day over 3 million dollars allocated in that space. really finally capacity, we're

excited that grantees can learn how to navigate city bureaucracy and the grant-making system while also leaninger where our guests may have been for organizations who were new to the city system. it's not easy facilitating a grantor operating a grant with a the bureaucracy and all the paper that needs to be done. so we've taken special care to wrap around these grantee who actively seek services. wore happy that many of the grant he's that are new to the city are stabilizing at this point. so as we look forward, we will continue to prioritize and center community voice we will continue to maintain the accountability as well as enhance the accountability structure. data always a priority, i think it is no no, it shouldn't be understated, the folks the community that is in this room

are a testament to the community that we have to community voice as well as being data informed we'll continue to practice our, enhance our practices on streamlining our grants administration. the last thing that i'll say before we bring up the last couple of speakers, maya angelou may also say you may be down in history in the dirt he's lies like dust i rise, as we're met with vitera everyday to day with concerns how black folks deal with the money, we're also a very resistant and resilient people. [applause] what dream keeper has been able to do. what dream keeper has been able to do and accomplish in three years, is in my opinion, more

than what i've seen as a daughter of the city for the last 35. so i stand behind. [applause] everything that we've done. and so the next voice that you're going to see or hear from representatives from folks that represent our elder community, somebody who representative our pacific islander and young folks and early childcare folks who if not for them this work would not be possible. i'll bring up ri rishad from curry center. >> as rishad is getting ready, what i really want to hone in on and this is why i'm so grateful why you provided a space for this hearing. the narrative with what is happening with resources in the city and the caout city that is happening with nonprofits, folks are rightfully so, very

afraid. there is concern that the city loses site on the people and focuses from one mistake and demonizes every one else. there are some that are afraid that they're going to lose their job no dei and no focusing on the most in need that san francisco is going to follow suit. there are other things that are happening that have community members and city employees all afraid that being a person of color means there is a target on your back. so i just want to thank rishad and fokz --folks for being here. >> thank you. >> before you start your presentation, can i just make an announcement that room 263 is open for the folks who are standing up if you would like to be seated. room 263 is open.

>> speaker: good morning, i'm a program for curry center, they've been serving older adults and adults with disability in the tenderloin primarily low income and homeless. they've been proud to be known as an organization in the city proudly serving a commitment to serving the tenderloin communities specifically around older adults and adults with disability. integrated wellness model provides wrap around and responsive services including onsite and at home primarily care. access to technology and digital literacy, pier, and support groups as well as 7-day a week dining room and drop in center and lgbtq plus specific programs. the dream keeper would launch to remove the stigma associated with the african community.

neglecting to ask asked has robbed us from an opportunity to hear an honest perspective. these are the people that they serve and we feel along with hrc and dream keeper that it's important to let those experiences be heard directly from those people in the community. they're stories are rich with history in a world that is volatile and unredictable. it's time that we listen to the voice sxz learn from the wisdom that they have he --emasked. some of the work will be brought around in the form of a book. and i would like to play a small video for every one.

>> powerful relationship with our clients is at the top of our mission here at curry center. i look at it as a one-stop shop for older adult population. being one of the few center seniors in the tenderloin, this is like a hub for older adults to enjoy programming to get medical, see a social worker or just to see other people that are going through the same situations as them. >> my brother wanted to be a rock-n-roller. >> life changing. >> so what we did here today, we have five volunteers from my life my story come in and sit with the older adults. they had a list of questions but it was a free discussion of the client just sharing their personal and life experiences

here in the san francisco bay area. >> i had a blue grass. >> first i went to burbank, i'm one of the best athletes in the city. >> i grew up in filmore street and they were like big parades and all kinds of stuff. >> black panthers initiated in oakland and i used to sneak out of the house examine go to their meeting place like 100 years ago. >> i'm glad i--i'm a san franciscan i would not want to

be anybody else but here. this is my home. >> today for me, it made me want to call my grandma. and just hear for of her stories, i think she is hesitant but just encouraged me to talk to my elders especially the black elders in my life that are still here and not bombard them with questions but be gentle in a safe place and they can't talk about those things. just having that space of care and safety was good to wit. >> that was a small video piece that was done by a couple of grantees including citizen film and clarity media. thank you.

>> thank you. so my life my story collaboration which is the book that you have presented in front of you was collaboration between the dki and my life my story which is a nonprofit that brings volunteers to meet with participants, around the dream keeper initiative to help share their life stories in written form. so we bring in volunteers to sit with their life stories, they describe those, they get a photo of the client and we gather those and create chapters and create a book out of it. some of our demographics were through this program, that 64% of our participants were african-american, 32% women and 4 percent ser were trans african-american individuals. our expanding out reach, we recognize the communities and understanding that we have a

large homeless population, that's 60% of the participants were also homeless. participant testimony so what we like to do is give a survey prior to the experience of the dream keeper program and a survey after to gauge if the work was powerful for them. so a lot of these testimonies, you'll see but a common pattern was that our older adults really want their stories to be archived and they want them to be shared. a lot of these clients, again, being homeless felt that this was a way that if something did happen to them that they have a legacy to live on for other people to see and that it also works, it also works with sharing for youth as well as their peers as older adults. lastly, the book that you have in front of you has been a very

innovative piece that a lot of programs have been using. we have an lgbtq plus program at curry senior center who recognized the book and thought it would be a great idea to put in a request for funding through the horizon funds and were granted funding to replicate this book that dream keepers in curry center have produced. and this year, this he have a waiting list of about 17 participants that would love to go on and be a participant in the book. so they actually got a 5,000 expension to their grant to include more participants. and the biggest is that the mental health service act which funds our senior drop in center, did an audit of our program, we showed them the book that we have worked on with the dream keeper initiative and they went on to

fund a peer cantonese and mandarin speaking staff member to replicate for our mono lingual clients to expand the book to include other demo graphic who's voices also need to be shared. so with that, has not always affected and been affective for our african-american community but it has been a want and to be replicated by other no --demographics. so thank you for your time. [applause] >> of course we want to look to our generational leaders so we

have some champions that will share some of the experience as well. >> hi, first off, i want to say thank you for allowing us to have this space and share the amazing work that our people are doing. i'm alejandra i'm 21 years old i'm the supervisor for the youth leadership as well as potrero resident. i've been doing the work for 3 years and i'm a student pursuing my major in public health. >> iefm jose hernandez 20 years old, currently i'm finishing my second year in state. and i'm purchase seeing a career in social work. >> i'm anthony, okay, i'm anthony thompson, i'm 20 years old from allison griffin, and

i'm a sf champion 22 graduate also. [applause] >> hello i'm coley i'm a hope of champion and i'm from sunnyvale. >> so we are the hope sf leadership program we're an 18-month paid internship in district 10. we recruit young people from district 10 and train them in political and civic engagement. >> so now to talk about the work we're doing with the dream keeper initiative so. the dream keeper initiative start beside three years and through that hope sf have partnered and pushed this workout together. so they were pushed by civic leaders who wanted create a more inclusive community for district 10 communities. so with the hope u.s. f, we

have released a funding proposal every year since this initiative started. we have given out 150 and we have done extensive leadership with partners and nonprofits. >> okay, reiterating a little bit of what she said, in our first years of operation, we have granted about 150,000 to all four sites. furthermore, we have received about 25 youth funding proposals. of those we hope to fund three more by the end of this fiscal year. we have trained over 30 young people and civic engagement and if we put our 30 young people together for 25 youth funding proposals, the largest demographic are youth between the age of 14 to 13. let's talk about the impact as well.

so our impacts of the youth, we have served we have molded futures. our young people are the same ones distributing the taxpayer dollars into the communities that need it the most. they have done the research and lived the experiences to know what the communities need. >> on top of that, our grants have doubled from 10k to 20k within the first two years of this initiative starting as well as receiving feedback beinger the feedback was that our application was very youth friendly and negotiate for first time applicant as well as the category most chosen being health and wellness and alice griffin being our most served followed by sunniville. this is important because youth have developed the understanding of building within their communities and can now, giveaway resources that help the community and their needs. as well as youth have now moved

away from the scarcity mind set. like a lot have mentioned theretion a lot of money going out in the city and it's crazy that a lot can go to youth and development of youth as well. >> well let's talk about the ecosystem of hope sf with the larger hope sf eco sem it allows us and our program to have a more holistic approach towards community development. what does that mean? that means we're able to focus on the immediate needs while also trying to create sustainable change within our communities. >> going back to youth leadership, prior tiges the youth not only backs up everything about youth development but it also creates a sense of empowerment and belonging for our youth in many of these communities as well as just giving youth the platform and the opportunity to make their dreams a reality and really put to work what they

want to see in their communities. >> before we end off today, i want to thank, i want to thank director davis, supervisor walton and dr. safai for being able to uplift our voices today. all of these youth today started out in the projects but through the advocate, they can come and odd va indicate for why the dream keepers initiative is so important. >> and lastly, i want to mention as we talk about the dream keepers initiative this is only part of the work that hope sf champions do. as you know, the request for funding proposals was made public and our program was not, we didn't receive funding so in order to carry out this work, not only do we need the dream keepers initiative, we need to keep our program alive, we are finance only that serves youth

only. thank you guys for hearing us out. thank you. [applause] >> and finally, i want to invite. >> to the community, who would want to go behind these young people? who are just beautifully made to be the next emerging leaders of this community. but i stand before you on behalf of the, let me go back. my name is pat, my name is dr. patsey at tito i'm at the of

community leader of hill and visitation valley. i'm here to speak on behalf of the pacific islander community along with other faith base leaders. the young people of the pacific islander community as well as other leaders here to just say a little bit about how impactful the dki, the dream keepers initiative has helped our pacific island community in the last past year. when the initiative came outlast year, you know, it was in my mind finally, the city was looking specifically to the

asian pacific islander community to be able to have these different resources so that we can make an impact on the pacific islander community. a lot of things were said today and it resonated to me. because as a daughter of immigrant parents who came to america as they say where the milk and honey grow, we were given opportunities that a lot of us immigrants don't really get. and so as a native san franciscan, you know, i've always you know, loved being in the city. and then the last the last along with other organizations, i feel like we're finally being

seen, being heard, and now, all of a sudden there is all of this chaos where a lot of the resource right side going to be on or taken away. then what do we do? so the impact of this dki is last summer for the last 28 years. last summer we served over 240 young people in a school building that is almost falling apart in sunnidale, yet, we've been able to use what we have the best we can.

i'm going to speak for the psalm one community, culture is rooted in who you are. and i want to quote, dr. fanafi, her quote is there is no language there is no culture, where there is no culture there is no people and when there is no people, darken falls upon us. so when we're finally in a place where we're being seen and heard, don't just see us right now, but see us in the future. there is a lot of young people here, not only the black community but us brown people as well. all the young people that we staff grew up in our program, in our programs where we built, individuals to be part of the community so that they can

serve the community. there is a psalm 1 proverb that says, the leadership is to serve. we are servants of god but we are service, we are servants to provide and do right by our people. as i stand and use this platform for this community, i just want to say these, you know, it's it's about the relationship that we build over the years. and there is two letter word that means, that has impact that says vau, vau means space. so we as community leaders in

any ethnic group we want to nurture the spaces between the relationship we have between community and with people that have power that can make change. and so when we, when i stand before it can be daunting but i would be remiss if i'm not able to be able to be a voice. one of the many voices here for my pacific islander community. so my last thing is dr. davis stand here, is that, you know, continue to not look at the color of our skin but as people who are trying to survive in this country that just kind of pushes us away because of the color of our skin.

as you go through the day, this is what i say in my man drank, no matter the struggle, no matter the shade of the sky the sky is still blue. because we have faith, in god and you know, the all the things that we do here as we continue to serve the community. so thank you dr. davis, thank you dr. sai for this platform, i'm able to stand before you and speak. be one of the voices of my psalm 1 pacific islander community. thank you. [applause] >> i want to thank you for indulging us, i know we went over our anticipated time. and i just want to go over to trailer, and i'll relin