they obviously -- there might be a smelt associated with various in which you walk. -- area in which you walk. we are working on this more and more. there are homeless folks who refuse to come into the shelters. i just announced a new director of housing opportunities, partnerships, and engagements. he used to be a supervisor in san francisco. he has a strong passion for helping folks get off the streets. it is not a good situation when folks are sleeping in doorways at night. they cannot clean up after themselves. they are using the streets and sidewalks as places for doing their cleaning up. therefore, we are trying to coax them and persuade them to get into our shelters.

we have this program called a homeless can act -- connect where you as a whole day and we bring everybody that wants to volunteer. they do dentistry, haircuts, get them some counseling if they have some mental issues. advice they need. all kinds of things. even helping them find a job. that project is done once every two or three months. we have been trying to get people to make better decisions. they can talk to their families and try to get help. one of these days, if the advocacy they want to connect up, i think that would be a good project. you know, being homeless is a

serious situation. i do not want you to ever gets in that situation for yourself. people find themselves doing that because of drug addiction, or because they could not figure out some things. they got into alcoholism or something they cannot get out of. they lost their apartment and they end up getting into the street life. it could happen. it could happen to anybody. if people do not plan their lives and do not set themselves up for success. i want you to at least spend some time with me to try to be in doubt the world for a moment to help understand what people go through. to try to determine for yourself how you can help change that. i think it is an eye opener. right now, you are just some folks on the street. you might have an attitude, just

like i did for many years. did your life in order, do something. it is not that way for a lot of clubs. they went through years of struggle. they could not figure out and we are trying to figure out ways to help them figure that out. hopefully, one of these days, you will join me. i think you will see the value. how we try to make them get to the right choices. this is not an answer to probe these folks into prison. -- prodi spokes into prison. we have to do other creative ways. i would invite you to work with me on that. what you see on the streets, and you'll understand what we have to do to change that situation together. what are you doing to help our

lgbt community as far as marriage goes? we are a city that understands the freedom of marriage. you ought to be able to marry anybody you want and to live your life with anyone you want. we have that kind of freedom here in san francisco. however, we have a state law that says, that was passed that is now being challenged. the state law restricts marriages as between men and women. allow gay marriages. we tried to modernize that law, and the courts determined that would not be legal, so we are challenging that, and we are awaiting a decision to help

make a final decision. while this is going, we will allow people to marry anyone they wish. california is behind. there are almost 10 states throughout the country that have legalized gay marriages, and hopefully we will do so in the near future. last question, my dad works 2 months out of 12 as an electrician. when will he find work? that is what our work on every

single day, making sure we do a good development. i am a big proponent of the electric vehicles. you have to work with all the different electrical apparatus thoses to charge these cars. the first 35 minutes is purely electric, so we will continue building projects in the city, so there is alon a lot. please have your dad check in early, because we have a lot of projects that need to be

approved. we got a lot of projects going, and we are going to have a lot more on-line soon so a electricians will get back to work. i hope i have provided a detailed answers. congratulations. [applause] >> good afternoon, and welcome. this has to be the coldest and

windiest. i want to thank san francisco for your hospitality. i often feel i have one of the best jobs. every spring we get to work with communities putting in green spaces, and this is what this is all about, helping communities benefit from green spaces in urban areas. we could not have done this without partners. gerwe have the park conservator, and we have volunteers from lows and fresh and easy today.

you really are the reason we are in the rain and cold during this great work, so we were talking about partners co., and we stard talking and realized we have added them as a partner, so i would like to introduce jocelyn to say a few words about our program. >> good afternoon. it is living up to its reputation of rain. we are thrilled with our partnership says. many are committed, and we join

with our partners for our gardens and green space program, and we are recognizing the moral leadership and the development of green spaces across the nation. we are honored to present the award for outstanding leadership in this area. >> thank you. first, i think they huge grant we are getting today is of a recognition everyone has participated in. i want to thank the neighbors and volunteers a. it has been in the works for so many years because of the love in the community, and i know that for a fact because i was here years ago, and we said to

ourselves and we need to not looking at this community in a negative way, to see what is positive, and not only is this garden appreciated by our community, but it is recognized by the u.s. conference of mayors and by scots miracle grow, because we are one of five cities being recognized with this award. is very special. they really wanted to express support for people taking seriously the movement around healthy environments. gooyou are going to find there a

little kid living the dream by helping to grow edible things, someone we are going to recognize as a special person as well, and as someone who has been in city government for 23 years but started dpw days right here aunt knew how hard it was for people to generate a positive feeling, but they did it using a garden, so people could say, what is wrong having a garden that represents us, and having the youth center establish alongside the neighborhood, so there are so many stories to tell about how

the community has come together, and now i think we are in historic times where there is a sense of community that has not been felt for many years. i knew there was fear that drove a lot of decisions, and these gardens, there is a special thing we are getting. we are using opportunities everywhere weekend. richard -- everywhere we can. you see that it is now being recognized as a national model for everyone to follow, so i

want to say thank you, community. thank you to our young people for sticking with us, for example of buying your -- for exemplifying your faith we have a community way to green ourselves into success. i get to drive. this is my first year as a member of the conference of mayors. i get to say we have not finished the first year, and we have a national award because our communities are strong. thank you so much. >> this is the kickoff year as well. i would like to introduce a gentle man who had a huge part

in putting the garden on the map. jeffrey, where are you? [applause] >> can i do this? thank you. this is quite today. this does not happen every day, and i love it. if the spirit moves, feel free to move out. did there are so many people to thank. know you would not be here if you were not part of the solution, but there is one person i would like to acknowledge, and that is annette smith, who needs no introduction. of one of the founding gardeners 10 years ago, who

started planting on the median strip and doing the outrageous thing of shaking hands and hugging people they did not know. >> hi, everybody. thank you all for coming out. it gives me great pleasure to stand before you and say welcome to our neighborhood. it has been a lot of work, but it has been a lot of fun. it has been helpful to me mobility-wirese, so the neighborhood is a much better neighborhood. people come out to talk to one another, where they did not in

the beginning, and i am not going to say anything else but thank you. >> you can see why we love her. thank you, stocks miracle gro, and who am i forgetting? franklin county, my hometown local gardens curator -- my botanical gardens. this is an amazing example of what it takes to turn a community are round. it takes leadership from the public sector. we have two community challenge grants and the department of environmental justice grant, and that has kept us afloat. we would not be here if it was not for that.

mendoza from the mayor's office is here. she would tell you she is first and foremost the mayor. she is on the school board. good we are blessed. it takes a lot of bridges with the community sector and the corporate sector to do things like this, and we feel like we have derived region we have arrived. and we are moving into the future because of you guys. thank you so much. good >> we would like to present a sharcheck.

>> it does not look like it will fit in the atm. >> no. >> thank you. >> we have john murray who is here. we also have lynn here. we also have nicole riviera from leader pelosi's office, who

is going to read a proclamation. >> are usually say the leader is in d.c. working, but she is in ireland, but she did want to send a letter. congratulations to the gardens initiative as you celebrate your wheen award. so many of you represent the health and are underserved neighborhoods. it has created a beautiful haven in neighborhoods that will only continue to flourish. they demonstrated community partnerships can create extraordinary work zeroth. all of this demonstrates the power this garden will have on

the community. this would not be possible without the volunteers who have made it a reality. congratulations and best regards, nancy pelosi. >> i feel like and billy crystal at the oscars. good eveninthe next person i woo introduce is stephen. steven is going to talk about our grow 1000 program. goo>> i get the best part of the presentation, which we will get to in a little bit, but frankly i prepared some comments.

this is our inaugural kicked off a. rather than try to explain, i thought a show of hands might be more oopprobrium. anyone living here, raise your hand. the work and you started fostering the community through gardening efforts, things you have already started, that is what it is for us, providing more support, providing more opportunities for the relationships to strengthen and continue to develop. for us the means finding more opportunities like this,

hopefully to participate in 1000 of these throughout the u.s., canada, and europe, so this is one of five major ones we have chosen this year, so thank you for the opportunity. i have not gotten to shake everybody's hand, but mary, tom, jeff, i have gotten to shake a lot of hands today, and linda has an almost 1-year-old. that has an older brother in kindergarten, but it is not only about community biaseut about hg a nice place to go and a community spirit of the third- generation davey resident, just thought a house here. that is what is about, providing opportunities for kids to grow,

so that is what it is about, and it is not about us doing the work, and we just want to provide the help to do that. thank you for the work you have already started. now for my favorite part of the presentation superior -- presentation. we are giving a give back to grow award. the students had to write an essay and tell why they like gardening, so i have the honor of introducing serenity williams. i have been told serenity has a green thumb herself. she loves to water the plants, so she is going to read a

little from her essay. strikes and my neighborhood garden, we are planting food for everybody in our community. the garden is colorful and has healthy snacks. the healthy snacks include fruits and vegetables like strawberry and squash for people who do not have much to get healthy food. goothis is shaped like a rectangle, and is outside of my home. inside our garden, there are stones to walk on and different levels. the role i play in the garden

project is planting seeds and watering everything in our garden to keep plants healthy. i spent an hour and a half an hour community garden every week. the good thing our garden has done, it has grown healthy food and we have eaten the reagan region we have eaten. environmental education is important because natural food is really good for the body instead of candy.

it helps care for the environment because people can walk through our garden instead of using gas to go to the grocery store and spend money. [applause] >> great job! one second. louie, i think we may have a future employee. when she came here, serenities said she was very nervous. she read them pretty well. they have a couple of words and gibsofts.

>> thank you for making such a great effort inspiring people around you. you will have some tools so you can get started this season, so congratulations. >> you did that so well, i need someone to do the next question answer. you want to do that for me? all right.

>> congratulations, serenity. [applause] >> i know everyone is freezing, but i would also like to say thank you to the members who have been out here weeding, carrying heavy stuff. i would also like to thank my other colleagues. i think that is the end of our program. we have a sign we would like to officially unveil.