>> a good morning. the san francisco california. this is going to appear and broadcast throughout the country. so we're very excited today to post the white house used the round table, and we're honored to be here with the staff -- and

before i go into any of this, i just want to mention the all the guests were residents of san francisco. and we are so happy they came back to san francisco. in a separate from the department of children, youth, and their families. i am joined by mayor lee with the housing and equal opportunity of washington d.c.. and this is from the san francisco office. we're going to hand this over to merely. i am so sorry. the supervisor for the bayview district, and of course,

president of the san francisco board of education -- thank you for joining us. >> we have a lot of work to do it in the community. this is one of my favorite places, to be here. we have the director of children, youth, and family. as important as we are here, we have a direct connection to president obama today. this is the assistant to the deputy for housing and urban development, and we have a long history with the city.

we're making certain that the round table in your opinion will be heard directly in the white house. the president has not only been leading the country in many other things, but one of the top priorities has been to make certain that the youth and the future is engaged with both local government as well as understanding what is happening on the national stage. i cannot possibly run the city without strong opinions, and an understanding this country and moving all of these things together and all of the agendas together. this is important so that we know what your ideas are, and how you think. this city in this country can work better with your ideas. and so i think this is a wonderful opportunity, to

express your opinions about what is happening in your lives, what kind of city, what kind of community that you want have happened, the things that you think are important, so that people who work in government can make certain that we pay attention to that. i am very happy to be here today. we're here to listen, and we are here to also ask questions and challenge to to give us the appropriate answers so that we can use those answers and make some choices for ourselves. we have to to pay attention to make you feel that this is a safer community for you. do you feel that there are opportunities out there that you think are important? how do we open these opportunities and how we make certain that we are listening better.

all these different viewpoints about the culture of the city are important to us as well. i hope i am making the right decision. but the best way to do this is to make certain everyone is talking. all of you are connected in some way. i appreciate your engagement, to help us answer the tough questions about how we will move forward with everyone in the city. thank you very much. what's good morning. i just wanted to offer a welcome, and i wanted to encourage you -- i was active in the youth activities at the time of the presidency for the of commission. sometimes a lot of these meetings -- there may be a

little part of the that actually wonders if your voice in your opinion matter. i want you to know that people do listen, and this is as much of a benefit for you as it is for us, and it is important for us to get your feedback about how you would like the direction of the city to be going, and this a chance to show your leadership skills, for those people making decisions that will hopefully inspire you to continue through your life and your professional career in a leadership position. honoring your commitment to bring about change. today's session is about winning the future. it is very inappropriate we are here in the southeast part of the city. this is right here in our neighborhood.

i will encourage you to be thoughtful, excited, and share your vision, and i want to encourage you to be candid about your conversations. like you, we are from san francisco and we care about the city, and we want the city to thrive and be robust, and welcoming for all people. thank you for being here, i am happy to be here. and with that, let's get started. >> thank you very much. when we started this discussion about 10 days ago, we picked up on this right away. this time of year, you are looking at final exams. this has been issued for about

three months. i see him on saturday, and they have been exploiting the budget and all of this in the district. i appreciate the work of your staff, and even though we have the title, the important people across the room -- the president and the congress, they are writing all the policies. but unless they are grounded in reality, the reality of what you face on a daily basis, this is not going to work. and that is why the white house staff is holding about 100 sessions across the nation. this is time to make sure that young people, between 18 years

old and 24 years old, that we hear from you, we hear about the realities in your community. housing is an important platform. this is where you live and where you go to school, the opportunities that you have if there is a grocery store in your neighborhood. this is for you and your family. the work that we do is sending money down to the communities. but this is also about having participation so the decisions that are made are made with a reflection on what the needs are. and over the years, it looks much like it does today. most of you were not born when this center was first thought up. prior to this there was a neighborhood with a lot of elderly filipino people along

mission street. decisions were made by the city, and is transformed the community. it did not look like it looked when -- 20 or 30 years ago. the decisions that were made today, this will affect you in your 20s and 30s. you have to be part of this discussion. we will lay out the framework for today, hearing from you about the vision of what your city should look like, where these services may come short, with housing and education, and this is the middle school out here. this was a big deal when the middle schools opened up.

at a very local level -- this has a direct impact for your age, and in between. the things that you educate us on today, they'll be debated with a different priority but we will take this back to washington. that will be part of the discussion with the other 99, and the different communities across the country. there are others who are not, and some of the work that is being done today, this is very important for the people in alabama. people facing the tornadoes and flooding. the only way that we can be ready in an emergency is to do our homework and listen to you and your counterparts across the country. i already have these discussions with others, and i

wanted here with all of the it -- hear from all of you today. >> before we go with this activity, i would love for you to go round the room and say your name and age, and what agency you represent. >> i am 20 years old, [unintelligible] >> i am andrew, 18. >> my name is nathan, 19 years old, president of club -- >> i work for the transitional issues initiative. >> i am rochelle, 17, -- >> i am part of the youth

environment advisory board. >> i am lia, chair of the youth commission. >> i am 18 and work with cafe. >> i am 17, and i work with the fund advisory board. >> i am 18, 20, sorry. i am with old school cafe. >> i am 18, part of youth empowerment advisory board. >> i am marisol, the youth commissioner. >> i am robin 18 year old, and part of warriors youth works. >> i am angel, and i work for the juvenile advisory council. >> i am joseph, 17.

>> i am darren, 19, and i work with old school cafe. >> i work with the san francisco youth commision. >> i am brian, 17, working for the youth advisory council. >> she will talk about the ideal if activity. >> i work with the department of children, youth, and their families, and so, what we would like to do is present to you the ideal community, and this will be led by the wonderful you facilitators. we have vanessa, and marisol. if you can present your ideal community?

>> we do couple of things. we have the drawing in the exercise, and we took some notes that describes everything that you see here, which is hard to take in. we'll start with everything i am naming off here. this is all three services and what have you. we start off with education and post-secondary education. we have housing programs, youth centers and transition planning, cultural competency training for the educators, and the service providers. on and on with the city departments. we have transportation marriage rights for everyone, with the community -- the transitional

housing recreation centers, food for all, ethnic studies, starting in middle school, access to resources, and this is a lot of what we're mentioning here. free -- >> this is multiple? >> free multiple services. we would benefit from the different services, so we don't have to run around in the city. internships for the youth, those things were young person can learn about something by doing this, like the downtown high school, we learn math by building a boat that will actually sale.

this is a way to learn traditional subjects. free child care for everyone, hospitals and health care for everyone, youth center training, to receive the different types of training, restored of justice and not just sending to you to jail, where they come out worse than they come in. and also, organic food and access to food, clean energy sources, with more trees and more nature, with the department of recreation. we are talking about health inspectors and making certain -- people were talking about health the paint and building

materials, to make certain everything is taken care of, and also, preparations for the americans and african-americans and other people who have been harmed. and there is the ideal community. >> the ideal community -- we want education, we also have youth programs at your school, so we can learn at school, with the activist groups, mr. also be transportation. we cannot support our own selves

financially, so we hope that we have business partners to learn something, and we want fair housing, because in this area a lot of poor people are getting kicked out, and we also want -- community gardening, so that people can look into plant food and vegetables, and this will make the community more beautiful. and also, parks so that we can have recreation. and also, we want libraries because this is a lot of resources, the library is very helpful. and then we can have good,

physical and mental health. last but not least, we want to bring up unity in the community, which will work well with the other age groups. one thing i just came up with is i hope -- this issue will have more about what you think about the of commission. -- a youth commission. >> hello, everyone. hopefully, i will speak well for the group. we did the california out line, and we have a general theme of intervention and prevention, and

family support -- the needs to be more services for families as a unit, and not everyone thinking, my family does not understand what i am going through. also, a lot of people believe that since you are you, you not know what is happening in the world. we thought this needed to be addressed. there was also helped the school food, and if you come to school every day, we should have a meal that looks appetizing. also, no more cuts to education, and there should be more money taken from the budget that goes back to education. we what reliable law enforcement, so the law

officers understand that they're part of the community and not a separate entity. we thought about the voting age -- that this should be 15 years old and not 18 years old. we should be able to vote, because we do listen and see what is going on. we do not encourage smoking near school campuses, because this is bad for your health. we also did not want any pollution. we have to see what we can do to make this go away, or at least get taken care of. we want to talk about the youth development organizations, and this is not just something the

youth does for six months to one year. this may give them more building blocks to do well. some people want to go a different route and they should be given that chance. we talked about the voice of the youth in the community and the government. decision makers make decisions that highly affect us, and we need to know about it. we need to be able to speak for ourselves, too, because this is 2011, and things are not as traditional as they used to be, and they need to be a change in how we can go forward and not backward because we want to go forward. i think i touched on pinnacle points. last but not least -- i touched on wellness? our wellness initiatives. students need to go somewhere where they can talk to somebody

and get some counseling as opposed to being told, "since you are acting up today, you are going to go to the police station and get picked up." they should be able to go somewhere safe. that is our hope and opportunity and what we would like to see. thank you. [applause] >> i know mayor lee needs to go to another event, but i want to say thank you so much for being here. mayor lee: very informative, so please keep having that voice because i will listen, and i will act on it. thank you very much. [applause] >> hand it over to jose ruiz to lead the next discussion. >> [inaudible]

to be honest and speak in real terms, we know this is an ideal community, and unfortunately, with all the cuts we are experiencing in the country and the state, we have found a lot of these things are not [inaudible] we're going to have a discussion about the challenges and barriers to making some of these things happen. for those over here who want to just go around, remember this is [inaudible] >> yes, he wants to take it with him. >> [inaudible]

ok, step up step down is pretty much giving other folks around you a chance to speak, and if you are not speaking up too much, then we challenge you to step up and have your voice heard. all right? so what is one challenge that somebody write off the bat knows is making some of these things difficult? your age? yes, it can be a challenge for a barrier because if you are not of age, you are not able to vote, so you do not all the time have a voice in what goes on in your community. >> how about -- something related to what you're saying is folks do not consider -- because of your age do not want to hear

that voice, and maybe the challenge is also folks do not want to hear a young person, right? how about changing the decision making process, would you say? that is one of the challenges, the way decisions are made. >> we do not have that actual power sometimes. >> definitely. that is a great one. any others? yes? >> [inaudible] people being resistant to change in the neighborhoods or society in general. and also [inaudible] >> [inaudible] living situation. for example, if there is homeless youth, that is a big challenge for some in the community. >> [inaudible]