organizing for a safer san francisco, so in order to get there and be effective we need to work closely with our social service departments and enforcement agencies together as a solid force so for today i would like to introduce another important individual that made the resource center possible. she's the director of first five and her name is laurel. >> thanks everybody. thank you mayor lee for inviting me today and celebrate the opening of the family resource center and really the newest strategy for violence prevention in this community. before i talk about that i want to thank three people who are visionaries, city funding visionaries with me and that is maria sue. [applause] , [inaudible] in the back from human services agency, and i know helen is here somewhere

but she oversees the initiative and she is the most tireless advocate for families in san francisco so thank you helen. the family resource center initiative is grounded in the belief that families want what is best for their children. that all segments of society must support families as they raise their children to adulthood. that assuring the well being of family corner stone for all families and responsive to families needs and lynn questic and identity. that helps support parent resiliency, social connections, knowledge of parenting and child development, concrete support in times of need, and supporting their

social emotional growth of their children. we believe that violence prevention starts very early when children are born and families are young and is accomplished by having these protective factors. the family resource center is one of 25 centers located in the city supported by the human services agency and first five. each resource center provides eight essential services so workshops and classes for parents and their children, parent's support, groups, peer support groups, curriculum based parent education classes, parent leadership, and community building, promoting activities that promote school readiness so children are ready for kindergarten and school success so children are graduating from high school. we provide family

additional support in navigating the resources and coordinating support in times of need. most importantly family resource centers provide a warm, safe, fun place for families to go where they get respect. they're listened to and they are contributing members of the family resource center, so i am grateful for the opportunity to be part of this violence prevention strategy and i am thrilled that we're starting young, so thank you all, and please support us in the family resource center. thank you. [applause] >> thank you laurel and our next speaker is the executive director of apa, the actual contracted agency to deliver the services here in sunny dale. please welcome our next guest. >> hello everyone. thank you deanna and laurel and certainly mayor lee. i have a lot of people to acknowledge because it

took a lot to get here. i'm the administrative director of the family service collaborative and we're excited to open one of what we hope will be a number of locations here in visitation valley to provide convenience and access for family support services that we were chodzen to provide. let me introduce our partners. jenny from edgeward packet and family services. ms. lawn and susan murphy and operate the one-stop center. we have patty from the samoan community development center and as deanna mentioned i am executive director of apa family support services and we are the lead agency for the visitation family services collaborative. let me introduce our -- team

and wearing blue t shirts and we reflect the vibrant diversity of visitation valley and we are comp pent and bilingual and by culture. we have had a long presence in visitation valley and we join them to further enhars the efforts to support family, but i have to tell you apa and edge wood have provided services to residents but we haven't had a physical presence in visitation valley and that has meant that our families have had to travel to chinatown and other locations throughout the city to get services, but they can save that precious time to concentrate on their home, their children and to participate in school in their community. i want to thank henry alva ez and they expied our access to this

unit. we are proud to be their neighbor here. thanks to me team who got the unit up and ready and running. i want to thank our sister organizations here in sunny dale, turf, mercy housing, the bay view ymca who we have joined to provide a continuum of services: i have to acknowledge the tireless dedication of helen hale, our program office at first five -- yes absolutely. [applause] and along with eric from the department of housing have lent their vision to make sure we succeed. we join others to meet those challenges when families have healthy relationships and children meet their milestones and when families can meet their economic needs with meaningful jobs and children go on to

higher education or vocational training, when families are safe and connected to others in the community that's when we have addressed the challenges and we are committed to building the community. thank you all very much. [applause] >> thank you. so we wouldn't be real, for lack of a better word, unless we have someone in the community and living in the community and tell the story how important resources of in our community of sunny dale so i would like to introduce a proud mother, a parent, someone who has worked tirelessly for these violence prevention programs maria. >> thank you. thank you mayor lee for inviting me and thank you. as a parent who lives in sunny dale i see a lot of need in my community. we need things like better transportation,

better education, more jobs, more health services, more family support and safer streets. i want to learn ways to help my daughter succeed in school so that she can have a better life. i want to part of a community where i can get help and people will treat me well. i want to my neighborhood to be safe where we know each other and want to help each other. i believe by having the family resource center in my community this is a great start to meet the needs. i i am here as a mom and single mom trying to make it -- and i am proud of our mayor

and city. thank you. >> [applause] >> thank you maria. very touching. it brought tears to my eyes. [applause] so we would like to thank everyone that works tirelessly everyday in this community. we would like to first thank the agencies part of the apa collaborative. thank you turf, baby ymca. thank you to all of the agencies working day in, day out. the samoan community center and all the case managers meeting with the families and thank the case manager and how do we complement that work and create a change in the city and county of san francisco. we would like to thank public

housing, henry allah ez, where are you? thank you for making this space available. we would like to thank the police department and thank you for all of your work and strategy and working with us in reducing violence. we would like to thank wendy from adult probation. we would like to thank william juvenile probation chief. we really want to put a shout out to department of children youth and their families, maria, and the human services agency first five, and of course the public housing commission and everyone else who has worked tirelessly in this endeavor. to move forward formally with unveiling the family resource center we would like to have the officials that spoke to be part of the ribbon cutting outside right in front of the family resource center. it will be open for the first

time, so if you could all join me and walk with me and mayor lee down to the site and we thank you for all of your time. >> all right. >> before we get started we would like to thank supervisor cohen's office and the director of hope, bevin dufty. >> thank you bevin. >> all right. so this ain't going to cut nothing. >> it's always symbolic that we do it together. hooray for family resource center. >> hooray! [applause]

>> a lot a ton with the community and we say to ourselves, there is this one and this one. we all compartmentalize them, we have our own agenda. our agenda is to create great work. if you are interested in that, you are part of our community. >> hello and welcome to brava theater. >> we are trying to figure out a way to make a space where theater and presentation of live work is something that you think of the same way that you think of going to the movies. of course, it has been complex in terms of economics, as it is for everyone now. artistically, we have done over 35 projects in four seasons, from producing dance, theater, presenting music, having a full-

scale education program, and having more than 50,000 visitors in the building almost every year. a lot of our emerging artists to generate their first projects here, which is great. then we continue to try to support figuring out where those works can go. we have been blessed to have that work produced in new york, going on to the edinburgh festival, the warsaw theater festival. to me, those are great things when you can watch artists who think there is nowhere else that might be interested in you being a woman of color and telling your story and then getting excited about it. that is our biggest accomplishment. having artists have become better artists. what is. sheri coming back to brava, here you have this establish, amazing writer who has won a clue --

slew of awards. now she gets to director and work. even though she is this amazing, established writer, the truth is, she is being nurtured as a director and is being given some space to direct. >> the play is described as ceremony and -- where ceremony and theater me. in the indigenous tradition, when you turn 52, it is like the completion of an important era. the importance of the ceremony is to say, you are 52. whenever you have been caring for the first 52 years, it is time to let it go. really, here, they have given me carte blanche to do this. i think it is nice for me, in the sense of coming back 25 years later and seeing personally my own evolution as

an artist and thinker. the whole effort to put the chicano or indigenous woman's experience on center stage is, in itself, for euro-american theaters, a radical position. because of the state of theater, it is a hard roll to hold up in institution. it is a hard road. i am looking at where we are 25 years later in the bay area, looking at how hard it is for us to strive to keep our theater is going, etc. i like to think that i'm not struggling quite as hard, personally, but what i mean by that, the intention, the commitment. particularly, to produce works that would not be produced in other places, and also to really nurture women of color artists. i think that is something that

has not shifted for me in those 25 years, and it is good to see that brava remains committed to that kind of work. ♪ >> when people talk about the reflection of the community, we can only go from what we have on our staff. we have a south asian managing director, south african artistic director, latino community out rich person. aside from the staff, the other people, artists that we work with being a reflection of us, yes, the community is changing, but brava has always tried to be ahead of that trend. when i came in, i tried to make it about the work that shows the eclectic mission district, as well as serving the mission. those are the types of things that i feel build one brava is

>> i think it ae's public and private property. i'm against graffiti. >> who can get it out the most who can be noticed the most. >> i i've seen seniors doing graffiti. >> the city is art, other people who have their names tag -- >> [inaudible] our unit there are 2 sections we are doing one is abating and others are notice of violation to private

property. all the utility boxes in public right-of-way we abate. >> we abate calls that come within 48 hours. >> we are a small group in g f graffiti. we don't have enough help. >> i have a group in town down and china town and the north tunnel. [inaudible] the graffiti we abate everything is coming up to the areas now. >> i'm willing to take it on. i think -- >> you are telling me you are ready for this? >> i think so. >> okay. >> there you go. >> all right. >> all right. >> ready to do it. let's go. >> want to get the gray signses

this over here and the garbage can and normally we don't do private property since it's on the corridor route you can come with me we will use black. >> we had a lot of changes in the graffiti unit. we do private property if someone moved we remove it and send it to the attorney's office and they take appropriate action. >> damage their property there. it's important to write the color in case they want to say what part of our house you abated the graffiti on. >> using your safety glasses the gloves. >> you got it. >> you know some places we

gashi, people appreciate that. you know, a lot of timeses they say, thank you. >> the time where it's visible. a lot of people put it on the ground. >> i like when tourists come and say, you do this for your city and you get paid for that? >> we use the [inaudible] for the holes and the retaining walls. [inaudible]. white on the fire hydrants. fire box red for the fire boxes. our brown for the pg and e

poles. >> we are not painters we do our best. >> i'm assuming it has to do with gang activity. >> if it's territorial i mind. >> in case it's gang related and they are marking our territory i would like to paint it over. >> anything with numbers like x iv or x 13 west side mob and the bay view those are gang related. with gang related or profanity we will abait it as soon as possible. >> i consider it an art. there are circles of people that form around it whether or not

they should ruin public property. >> this is art work i'm for it. unless it's on someone's property and they don't want it there. judge kids with silver paint expressing their ego needs doesn't belong on our property. >> graffiti is when you don't have permission to write anything on their property. >> eighth street is part of your regular rout? >> yes. >> everyday. >> eighth street. divisidero street. irving street. every block they going through they paint 3 or 4 streets in the block the poles the utility boxes, mailbox. >> thank you. >> okay. >> put the drop cloth. come on around.

>> there you go. force for we have to remember we are not painters we abate graffiti. we are abaters not painters. get that out of the way and keep moving. >> how many of these do you do a day? how many poles we do a day? >> yeah. >> depends on the location. may be 20. >> do you like working with the team? >> yes because i'm a people person. i like being outside and interacting with the public and i like the response we get especially from the good job we do in the community.

>> goodbye.