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] they should be more money placed into education because the youth are the future and what not. [inaudible] >> carter ortiz is crucial. >> [inaudible]

supporting non-profit organizations and looking into them and trying to support them financially and beat and arrested and held out with that. i know there are a lot of organizations in san francisco, but that is the problem sometimes. [inaudible] it is those who are offering funding really looking into the organizations and asking what we're doing. come to organizations. see what we are about. >> i think use in the workforce needs to be tacked on because -- youth in the work force needs to be tacked on because they have seen their parents get laid off and has seen the effects of not having financial stability. now they are taking the burden upon themselves to wanting a job and wanting to step out into work themselves, so if they had

more solid job training and actual jobs that could stick with them throughout their high- school educated career, i think it would be better for them as a person because they could take that forward, the education in their life, because if you work somewhere for just six months and are out of a job, that is not really helping you gain valuable skills as opposed to if you live somewhere for two years, you get the chance to grow and expand and seek other opportunities within the organization as opposed to be in one small part, and then you get the boot because there is no more funding for you to actually have a job. if there was more emphasis on work development and training and keeping youth in the work force, that would be good for them in their lives and what they want to get into when they go to college and taking care of themselves and their families. >> [inaudible] constant budget cuts happening in our education system. i can see that the class sizes

are getting bigger and bigger, so pick teachers' pay less attention to individual students. i hope that we can have more funding for education. also, i hope that education can be configured for more student release. some students need to focus on studying, and some other students need more advanced placement classes, i hope that educated students can meet the specific needs of educated students. >> i think the barrier that refers to youth is the environment you live in, the community you grow up in, and the lack of support from, i would say, a leader figure. talking about a teacher, mother, big brother, friend, someone you can look up to. lack of support from them, just the environment you grow up in.

a lot of environments that youth are growing up in now are not what it should be. >> i would say huge barrier would be gender orientation discrimination. there should be more culturally competent training for youth service providers. anyone who works with youth should be adequately trained in order for there to be a better overall community. >> i would say adequate schooling in the juvenile justice system. with teachers also being culturally competent and aware of what students are going through. you have their undivided attention. i know behavior might play a difference, but if they are incarcerated, there are not a lot of parenting programs. those things are taken a way at

a time in their life when all they have to do is think, so i think it would be a good idea to have those. >> adding on to that, the juvenile justice system, i think there should be more of a focus on restorative justice. so you give kids an alternative route and a second chance instead of locking them out or expelling them or suspending them. >> [inaudible] looking at the way the system is structured right now. [inaudible] maybe the way the system is in place right now. ok, any others? >> [inaudible] sometimes we get knowledge from

different people, but it cannot be correct, and we try to get resources from someone, and it is wrong. or we end up playing phone tag with someone. i guess making resources more accessible to us for giving us the type of knowledge we need. >> [inaudible] immigrant students, students who are not from america and what to come out here and be educated and do more with their life. they have so many barriers trying to get a job or trying to come to school in peace without somebody finding out knocking on their door, and it is not a safe environment for them to flourish in, especially if they want to come to school and get an education. they need to be more resources and opportunities catered to the diverse community of people so they can feel like they are part of a community, not an alien. they can know that they can go to school comfortably and believe that our. have a different language

barrier from other people and feel ok about it and not get questions about it. i think they should have more resources catered towards making sure that they are built strong, so as they get older and get into being in the community more, they feel comfortable, feel happy, feel supported, and they do not feel pushed away. net are a certain community of people as opposed to being introduced to everybody in the community. i think that is something that should be addressed. >> [inaudible]

so i hope there are more resources for them. >> it could be resources and information provided to their housing. [inaudible] they could all go somewhere where they all feel comfortable and all get the same resources and knowledge as opposed to having to chronologists and different time eras and where it came from so they can all be on the same page to make it work for us as a whole, not only one person who can go to school. i think that will be a nice way for them to open up as a family, develop a community for where

they live and combat a lot of issues that they have come coming out here and living in america, living in the community. >> another barrier is all the buses, muni. a lot of people might not feel safe. a lot of times -- especially going to the back, a lot of people get intimidated by others. i feel like if there were safer muni rights, people would catch the bus and reach out to other places and go other places. not everybody has a car. not everybody can get a license. >> [inaudible] i know a lot of youth that is young.

not 16 and 24, but well, 13, 14. then, and of those in giving us a lot of trouble, and i think that we should, like, try to educate the youth that is young girl like some type of program that lets them know how important education is. when i got older, i've thought about -- i started knowing how important my education was when i got to high school, and that is too late for some people. we get to the younger, they will not be out there trying to start things and creating drama. they will be trying to do something more positive, like pro-anything that has to do with youth. get them involved at a younger age like 13, 14, 15, like nine, 10, 11, indicating that there so they can work hard year high school, once you pass that, is going to take you somewhere. most that i know -- me personally, i did not really learn until i got to hustle. most