Start with introductions. Your name. Grade rkts school. And what lead you to become into the Youth Commission . Could start with emily. So, my name is emily, she her pronouns. inaudible in San Francisco. And i joined the Youth Commission because growing up i relied on Public Transportation and a lot of Community Organizations such as inaudible and through these organizations they introduced me to a lot of Community Organizing movements happening and that is when i learned of the Youth Commission because my friend was also on it at the time and i was interested because i saw a benefited from a lot of Public Service in San Francisco and wanted to insure all youth in San Francisco could have opportunities to benefit from these services as well and these services would be available to everyone. Thats when i applied to the Youth Commission and i joined and thats where i got to learn so much about like how local Government Works and how i could contribute my voice to make better opportunities for all youth in San Francisco. Nice. How long have you been on the Youth Commission . I joined in 20 21 and this is my second term. Normally the Youth Commission, whats the age range . Youth ages 1223. Wow you can be out of high school and on the commission . Yeah. We have College Students and we used to have middle School Students on the Youth Commission too but now they are a freshman in high school. Nice. Awesome. inaudible ewen a senior at San Francisco high school. I joined the Youth Commission. I had beener interested in San Francisco politics freshman in high school and volunteered on local Political Campaign and District Attorney election and got into that process, and from there did more campaigning and got into youth advocacy and activism in the city. And from there i sort have inaudible city hall on certain issues and wanted to be on the flip side and see what i could do in city hall for young people and a voice for young people and are the Youth Commission was the perfect opportunity for that so why i decided to apply. Thankfully i was appointed. Great. How many years have you been on . Second term as well so beginning september 2021. Every turm is one year . Yeah, because people age out so quickly and people go away for college so we try to make it like a school year roughly. Okay. Nice. Thank you. Hi. Im hayden. Im a junior this year at inaudible my first term on the commission but what drew me to it is like emily i have always been super fascinated by Public Transportation. Since i was two years old i had a baby sitter and she couldnt get a driver license so would take the bus everywhere and it was fascinating to see all the people and places i could go around the city and just as i got older i would explore more and more but realized that you know, like, it is not as simple as buses driving around and i can be involved in getting more buses out there, having more places to go to and like i think especially when the pandemic happened and all government meetings moved on line it was a lot more accessible for me so i was able to pgo and make Public Comment and see had all the presentations, see all the people on commissions and stuff and also had several friends who had been on the Youth Commission in the past so i just saw it as a great opportunity for me to advocate for young people, because i feel we have a lot of needs and sometimes it isnt always represented. Thank you. Hi, im yoselin. A senior at urban school of San Francisco. This is my first term in the Youth Commission. Similar to everyone else said, i have been interested in politics and Public Policy and how legislation is made. I are worked for someone who worked with supervisor ronan, he reallyi was fascinated with what he gets to do in his job and the issues he gets to work on and people he gets to speak. This is a great opportunity to test what you are interested in and so i applied and got in and very happy. How many total in the Youth Commission . One per district . Yes, one per district and 5 from the mayor. There is 11 supervisor ones and 6 from mayor office, 5 of it which are specifically for Minority Community representation and one is appointee so 17 total. 17. Great. inaudible one of the bigger commissions in the city, but because youth is everyone at some point in life, every community has youth, it is important to have enough seats to have a voice for communities and their different needs on the Youth Commission. For sure. Lets get into the nittygritty of it. I really interested to hear some of the concerns that either the Youth Commission is talking about now or even you yourselves personally what concerns are you trying to like advocate for and stuff like that . Who would like to start . I guess i can start. Before joining the Youth Commission im involved in housing and mass incarceration crimial justice system. I knew these were topics i wanted to discuss and bring up so im also on individual committees so two main topics is youth incarceration and Substance Abuse and gun violence andyeah. Those are the main issues we are talking about. For youth incarceration, what are some of the topics . Is it more about the resources putting or not putting into it or is it yeah. One main thing now is talking about Juvenile Justice Center. Forget the street. And, i think woodside and por tolla. It was supposed to be closed last year and has not because there is a lot of uncertainty about what is supposed to happen. I recently spoke to chief miller the probation officer at the center, so discussing ways we can support them to get that closed and have more equitable resources for the youth who are currently inside still and relying on Community Members and families and friends instead of like abusive and harmful Police Officers and the justice system. Is sthr Racial Disparities in the youth incarceration . Yeah. What i heard from the meeting there is currently like 14 youth inside. They range in age but it is all like people of color and people from low income families who are usually the ones more involved in the crimial justice system. I read somewhere that like perhaps there could be more money put into the communities to help low income or kids being not targeted but dont have as much opportunities and end up in those places. Yeah. Versus putting money in i think it is better to fund organizations and programs. I think emily you mentioned you are in break through, im in the Smart Program help afford education and help get to college and teach them and offer activities so they have more resources and opportunities for their future. Just like putting more money into programs activities and things that like shift Youth Experiences to a more positive one. Any other concern . I can add on. I think you all said investing in youth early is really important rather then focus on punishment. I think that goes unsaid. Break through helped so much in the education. If not for breakthrough and Summer Program jz tutorer and mentorship they offered which my parents couldnt offer me i dont know where i would be. I think Community Organizations like break through and after School Programs funded by the city are so important supporting youth early and insure they dont go down the wrong pact. Coming from under resourced neighborhoods and first generation it was very hard to carve my own path so finding mentorship in organizations like this is important and crucial to my personal development. I say the Science Behind it too backs up the testimony. Violencei do a lot of work in gun violence prevention and programs are often more successful then police are in preventing gun violence in our city. Obviously both are a part of the equation, but i think that we have seen a lot of investment. We have seen them be quise successful and i know i am and think everyone on the commission is interested in looking how to support those programs and have them work specifically with youth as well and get young people into the Program Early before they have a opportunity to be put into these situations that cause violence to occur. Yeah. I just say also like the Education System plays a big part because it is great we have a lot of Community Organizations, but sometimes it cant always be the most accessible so one thing we are working on is expanding outreach and access so people know about these problems and also within our Education System i was looking at data in regards to suspensions and expelgz and similar to Juvenile Justice Center it is overwhelmingly student of color and lower income students effected by that as well as students who are often miss school and there is a lot of reasons for that. Some relate to transportation and such. It is just been exacerbated by have distance learning. Not everybody had the same access to technology and such to stay connected and engaged in their education during that time. Ill add on, i feel when people think about issues like youth not attending school or not doing homework or committing these petty crimes, there is often a moralization and everyone is like they are just bad people. They have the wrong intentions, they are messing up the city, but i think it is just generally very important to investigate the root causes. A lot of these kids come from under resourced naerbd s and havefor a lot of people it is means of survival so so important to look beyond the surface and no there is no need to moralize these situations. These kids dont have other solutions so it is important to look at the root cause and see how to address prevention rather then punishment and suspension and removal from school. It is funny talking about resources and schools. Im often surprised how many good Community Organizations are like i dont know how to reach young people and im like have you been going to schools, the place where young people all have to pgo during the day . I think i also feel schools dont realize that they have the opportunity to provide resources to young people. They are allowed to connect with outside resources and bring them in and use them as well. That is something im hoping to encourage on the Youth Commission as well. Right. Usually it is outside i dont want to say non profit but theschools themselves are [multiple speakers] teachers have become social workers for young people. Which is why prop g is such a great proposition. I think it is 60 million. Increases over time but 60 million goes to Public Schools for activities, classes, nurses, therapist to support students, which is great. Which is what we need. Yeah. Just add on to that or the question, because i know high schools have counselors and probably i dont know if Mental Health specialists, but do middle schools and Elementary Schools in the city have that . I think it depends on the institution. I am very fortunate to go to private middle school and high school. I did go to Public Elementary School and there is a huge gap in education and Resources Available in public and private. I cant speak to that now. It has been a huge burden. Recently both our school nurse and our School Wellness coordinator left and there was an iligez to the fact it was connected to the pay roll issues occurring with sfusd and not just that but they are already paid much less then other Public School districts private school districts, like for nurses if they were to work somewhere else so it is really hard to attract people to work in these schools and we dont budget enough positions in the first place. Now we have 7 School Counselors for like a body of 3,000 kids and you can think of the kids that have questions about college and classes to take to graduate. It is just not enough resources in the schools. I went to sfusd middle school and we had one counselor for each grade level, but it just really isnt enough and a lot of schoolsit kind ofthere is pto or lowelable to fund a second librarian or nurse the full week opposed to 2 and a half days so if you get injured monday, you got a nurse, but tuesday you are out of luck. Thats something happening in the schools and i just feel that is crazy because they dont have a affluent enough pta to fund the nurse. That should be basic. We shouldnt have to ask for donations to fund a school nurse. That ties into the Mental Health issues people are facing. Covid was detrimental to everyone but especially young people who spnt hours a day online and away from Mental Health support in a really difficult time and i think people are beginning to realize now how important those services are. I think there is work to do but advocase hads been relatively successful in San Francisco getting more support for Mental Health but there is a huge gap we are now catching up with. It was never priority before the pandemic and beginning to become one now but there are so many young people struggling and waiting for support and frankly often falling through the cracks of the system that is supposed to help them. Yeah. Speaking from an older person, no mental helt what so ever in anything growing up so to talk in the progress is like huge, but of course it isnt enough still. There is also stigma depending on your race and religion whether Mental Health is a real thing. And also what your Mental Health condition is too. Right. I think Mental Health issues always existed but the pandemic brought to light all the really bad things happening. Not exacerbated i feel no one was talking about Mental Health before the pandemic and i think often times like you said, a lot of the services are not offered in school so i think in general there is a wide disconnect from students and services, whether that is service in schools or Community Organizations. All these services exist but students dont know how to access them so there needs to be a better way to connect students to everything that can support them. Another concern possiblyyou brought up gun violence, is that another concern you all have . Just i think just yesterday the New York Times posted a story about how it is officially overtaken any other cause for deaths for young people in the United States. 19 percent. It used to be car deaths and now number one is gun violence. Gun violence. Also the Racial Disparities there are incredible too. And concerning. I do a lot of work on gun violence prevention. Of course there is need for federal action. We are not go toog solve the gun violence crisis until we see senate and house pass safety legislation that prevents gun getting in the hands of dangerous people but there are actions on the local and state level. Eve enin california even in liberal San Francisco that can help save lives, particularly around things like safe storage of guns. I wrote a resolution on the commission urging all San Francisco schools to send home safe storage information and just recently a stay law passed that require schools to send home safe storage information for firearms. Violence intervention programs are incredibly important to help end this crisis building the community relations. And also Mental Health is a big part. Access to a gun increasesi dont know what the statistic is off the top of my head, but gun inaudible in killing the person then any other form of suicide and it is so irreversible. That access to guns can exacerbate the issues too and someone who might be struggling today and tomorrow but in two years from now would be in a much better place with support and medication they need there is a irreversebal thing they can do with a gun then they can in other ways of hurting themsel