part of this conversation and i'm delighted to represent a board of supervisors that has stood repeatedly for the idea that regardless of your citizenship you deserve a spot in san francisco. i serve on a board where over half of us are the sons and daughters, the grand sons and granddaughters of immigrants. we have immigrants on our board of supervisors and the last thing i'll just mention is regardless of how long your family has been here, at some point in your lineage, you came to this country, you came to this state, you came to san francisco, and part of what we're seeing today is we all deserve to be here. we deserve to make san francisco and america great. thank you very much. (applause) >> thank you, supervisor. many of you may not know that over 35% of san francisco small businesses are owned by and operated by immigrants today. our next speaker is a real role model for many of us, a ceo of the san francisco foundation,

dr. sandra hernandez is an advocate, a physician of philanthropic leader, a role model and definitely a ground breaker ~. she's the former director of san francisco department of public health and nationally renowned expert on health care and nonprofit sustainability. dr. hernandez. (applause) >> well, good morning, everybody. thank you, adrian. i want to appreciate you, mayor lee, supervisor chiu, and really all of our philanthropic partners that are launching this extraordinary pathway to citizenship in san francisco. the san francisco foundation for over 60 years has held very central to its core mission the notion that we need to engage every citizen, every resident in order to make our democracy better. and all of the philanthropic organizations that are part of this pathway initiative likewise believe that our democracy is better when

everybody is included in it. the san francisco foundation is proud to be a leader and investor in this necessary work, bringing together the deep commitment of all of our immigrant communities, their partners, to assure economic mobility, education, health care access, and, of course, that they are civickly engaged. as the mayor and supervisor chiu said, we are a nation ~ and a city of immigrants. we are a testament to america's spirit of risk and its spirit of innovation. and the heart of every immigrant is a risk taker, a bold and courageous person who has risked everything to make a better life for themselves, but also to make a better life for all of their neighbors and communities in which they live ~. like mayor lee and the supervisor, i'm a proud daughter of american immigrants. they came to this country with odds stacked against them to build a better future for my

siblings and my cousins. my father served in the army, but more important to him was that he served at every polling station in every election from the time he was legally able to do so. and at breakfast before every election was a very, very, very engaged, vivid, enlightened conversation about how my mother should vote, even though she didn't always agree with him, and that really it was our responsibility to comment on the things that mayor lee referenced. what kind of health care should we have? what should be the caliber of our schools? what kind of open space should we have? how should we use land? these are all very critical parts of our democracy and our voice, and i'm very, very proud on behalf of the san francisco foundation to partner with the city, adrian and her staff, our philanthropic partners, but most of all to partner with the nonprofit organizations who on the ground will be working to

find ways to reach the hundred thousand folks living in this city today who have not yet found their pathway to citizenship. we believe t a fundamental part of our city life to do so and the san francisco foundationextrely proud topartnered with this group, to bring it together. we look forward to three years of learning and to reaching as many of these folks as we can, to have them become citizens, and to come to health commission meetings and tell the director of health and all of our other commissioners what it is they would like to see their city be. thank you very much on behalf of the san francisco foundation. (applause) >> thank you, dr. hernandez. a final aspect of the san francisco pathway to citizenship initiative is civic engagement. this component is not just another hurdle potential citizens must pass to complete naturalization exam, but an opportunity to instill lifelong

active engagement among our new naturalized citizens and to encourage meaningful participation, to contribute to san francisco's overall success and prosperity. seven local community-based organizations with decades of expertise were selected for the pilot year of this initiative. but the outreach will extend to the many diverse immigrant communities that makeup the san francisco population and family. together these partners will inform, educate, provide language services, counseling, legal assistance, and many other services to residents who may be eligible for citizenship. our next speaker is a very special person. it's rare to find a leader as universally beloved and valued as annie chung, president and ceo of self-help for the elderly. self-help is the lead agency for the citizenship initiative. annie is a model of compassion

and highly effective leadership, efforts for the under served combined with savvy connections and her ability to bridge differences and create models of mutual respect are phenomenal. many of us are fortunate to call her our sister, our friend, and our inspiration. annie chung. (applause) >> good morning, everyone. i'm annie chung. the san francisco pathway to citizenship initiative is a dream becoming a reality for many of us in the community who have been working closely with both the city through adrian and the office of civic engagement and immigrant affairs, the five foundations and gsa. they are providing the much needed funding for this initiative. there is a national effort called the new americans campaign which is working on

naturalization in multiple cities in the country and the seven cbos who makeup the san francisco collaborative are truly grateful. now that san francisco is part of this americans campaign. melissa rogers from the immigrant illegal resource center who heads up that campaign is here today. i want to quickly introduce. and irlc is providing [speaker not understood] to our collaborative. besides self-help for the elderly, there are six other community based organizations and their representatives whom i'd like to introduce to you now. if i call your name, would you step up and stand beside me? because we're not doing this alone, we're doing everything together. so, from the advancing justice asian caucus executive director hen june ro. from the asian pacific islander legal outreach, executive

director dean ito taylor. program director from the catholic charities cyo christopher martinez. amy wang [speaker not understood]. cheryl madrid, jewish services. and [speaker not understood], executive director from la rasa community resource center. together all the partners have invited over 30 of our clients to join us to celebrate today and they're standing in the mayor's office right now, so happy that they're part of this celebration. i think together we represent the diversity of san francisco and many of the ethnic communities that so desperately need naturalization services, from legal consultation to completion of the 10-page n. 400 forms, to the fee waiver forms to help them get a waiver

for the 680 dollars application fee to become citizen. together our collaborative covers all of the major languages spoken by our clients, chinese, spanish, vietnamese, russian, other eastern european languages, burmese, tagalog and others. we urge you to attend upcoming naturalization workshop on august 10, 2013, to take advantage of the naturalization services which will be offered that day at number 1 south van ness. no appointments needed and free of charge. on behalf of all of our collaborative partners and our clientsv i want to thank mayor lee, president chiu, dr. hernandez, and all of our philanthropic funders. thank you so much for your generous support and your continued support through the

san francisco pathway to citizenship will be a great success. we will give you our 200% effort. thank you very much. (applause) >> there is nothing more exciting and challenging as going through the process of naturalization in the united states. we're now going to hear from three individuals who are sharing their first person stories and have been very courageous and open about sharing these stories with us. first we will hear from claudia rodriguez and then mrs. su fong gau and then mr. gregory takakun. please come up, ms. rodriguez. >> good morning, everybody. i'm gloria rodriguez. [speaker not understood] catholic charities cyo and i am

happy to say that now i -- my voice now counts. i can vote. now i can have my rights that were taken away. [speaker not understood]. i just want to thank public charities to help people like me to make it for the people [speaker not understood] for the community. so, thank you very much. (applause) [speaking in native language] >> good morning, supervisors. hi, my name is su fong and i am 96 years old. i have been studying for citizenship more than two years.

and because of the elderly and other agency provided legal service that i can start citizenship. i had attended june 29th workshop and they provide the free service for me and filled out the application form. now i feel [speaker not understood] to apply for citizenship family. [speaker not understood] and can benefit our community. thank you. (applause)

[speaking in native language] >> good afternoon, everyone. my name is gregory taku. i am 78 years old. i came from armenia. i became a citizen in april of this year. i am very proud of this. (applause) >> to prepare for citizenship takes, of course, a lot of work. you really need to relax through that process because it

is, of course, very stressful. and i'll say who helped me most through this process was jewish family and children services. for a few months before my citizenship interview, i took classes with jewish family and children services through the instructor, which is me. [laughter] >> i'm very grateful. thank you, everybody. (applause)

>> i'm very proud to be here and i'm happy to have left armenia so that i can take advantage of being an american citizen. (applause) >> something magical happens here in san francisco under mayor lee's leadership. before he begins the question and answer session, we have a few thank yous that we would like to make to our community and philanthropic partners for helping to make this initiative and this lunch possible. we'd also like to recognize tessa rivero callejo. (applause) >> [speaker not understood] who is a wizard with the pen with the san francisco foundation. richard whipple, the office of immigration and civic engagement affairs.

(applause) >> [speaker not understood] rodriguez sack burn of grant makers concerned with immigrants and refugees. (applause) >> and as always, the excellent team from sfgovtv and mayor lee's communications team. thank you very much. the mayor will now take a few questions. (applause) >> i don't have violet's energy. [laughter] >> >> any questions about our initiative here? >> [speaker not understood] about what this means to you? >> well, in many ways, certainly for my life, having been the son of immigrant parents, i knew that they were very focused on being citizens because they wanted to get fear out of the way when they were adjusting. to me, i think that's been the story of so many of my clients when i was an attorney at the

asian law caucus for a number of years that, as i serviced seniors and people living in low-income housing, oftentimes they wouldn't even want to use the legal process because of their fears. they didn't know what would be behind each door. and even speaking to an attorney sometimes was difficult for them, especially when i was trying to educate residents at [speaker not understood] about what is the warranty of habitability. something that we'll become more and more familiar with. but i think that's why i think going through a citizenship process, gaining the confidence that the individuals who have just spoken and feeling that you're as an american as anybody else offers you the ability to say, hey, i've got an opinion, too. i want wetter schools. i want to do all these other things. i want to be a part of that decision making, not be a

recipient or victim of someone else's decision. and that's the key, i think, to this initiative. we always felt that we didn't do enough just by doing the census count. and in this city, i think we want that full participation. we want it so badly that even david chiu and all of us are saying, let's give people a vote who are not necessarily citizens to the education system because we need that -- we need that input. we don't want parents disengaged in what's going on with their kids. education is so important to everybody and so much a part of the future, but there are a lot of things we want to do, but i think the path to citizenship and what we have outlined here particularly with the funding agencies have so much experience in dealing with refugee and immigrant families, to have the nonprofits on the ground to do this work with us in collaboration i think is going to be -- you'll see in a very short time period, you're going to see a lot more levels of competence happen. and i suggest to you, it isn't

just the individuals that will improve their confidence. when they live in their communities, they get to be part of their neighborhood associations. they get to be part of more nert. they get to be part of resident improvement associations. they get to tell us where our planning grants get to go to. what kind of flowers they want planted. they want a tree in front of their house? okay, put it on the side. and then all of this comes with, i think, full participation and get the fear out of the way, get full engagement in. that's what -- and that's why we created the office of civic engagement, to give everybody the power of being in the city that we welcome them in to participate. >> we don't have immigration reform. >> well, we don't have it today. that's not stopping us. that's why we went ahead and made this announcement because we want to give people across the country, and hopefully some congressional representatives that are not maybe in the state

of california, but other states, a vision for what people really want. they want to be participants. they don't want to live in the shadows. and there's many parts of the immigration reform that we have to pay attention to. i happen to believe very strongly, and i think everybody in this room does, we can't lose family unification as part of it. we have to have a path for people who have been here, maybe on paper not legally, but they're americans like everybody else. it's just on paper they weren't. we've got to get them fully participating, not subject to some immigration judge's decision that because their paperwork of their parents weren't right that they have to be ousted from this country. i think there are so many parts of immigration that must be had and that's why we're advocating. and i am together with literally every elected leader in this city that san francisco is special. we know we're not the only voice in the country. so, we have to talk to other

mayors in iowa, in indiana, in alabama and in florida, saying that there's a lot for immigrants to contribute to this country. we also have to have the talent come here as well. a lot of technology companies are reaching out to talent across the world and they need that talent to stay here to build the companies so that more jobs can get created. that's part of the immigration bill along with family, along with pathways to citizenship for those that are technically not legally here. how do you spend the $1.2 million on this program? >> thank you. that's over a three-year period and half of that money is coming from the foundations that are participating. that's why we wanted to officially thank them. the other half will come from the city general fund through the office of civic engagement and immigrant affairs that adrian has. and she will be working with all the nonprofits to fund them

appropriately for the activities that will get people the training, the orientation, the classes, but also the outreach, building their confidence that they should go through the citizenship process. thank you. thank you, everybody. (applause) ... >> hi today we have a special edition of building san francisco, stay safe, what we are going to be talking about san francisco's earth quakes, what you can do before an earthquake in your home, to be ready and after an earthquake to make sure that you are comfortable staying at home, while the city recovers. ♪

>> the next episode of stay safe, we have alicia johnson from san francisco's department of emergency management. hi, alicia thanks to coming >> it is a pleasure to be here with you. >> i wonder if you could tell us what you think people can do to get ready for what we know is a coming earthquake in san francisco. >> well, one of the most things that people can do is to make sure that you have a plan to communicate with people who live both in and out of state. having an out of state contact, to call, text or post on your social network is really important and being able know how you are going to communicate with your friends, and family who live near you, where you might meet them if your home is uninhab hitable. >> how long do you think that it will be before things are restored to normal in san

francisco. >> it depends on the severity of the earthquake, we say to provide for 72 hours tha, is three days, and it helps to know that you might be without services for up to a week or more, depending on how heavy the shaking is and how many after shocks we have. >> what kind of neighborhood and community involvement might you want to have before an earthquake to make sure that you are going to able to have the support that you need. >> it is important to have a good relationship with your neighbors and your community. go to those community events, shop at local businesses, have a reciprocal relationship with them so that you know how to take care of yourself and who you can rely on and who can take care of you. it is important to have a battery-operated radio in your home so that you can keep track of what is happening in the community around and how you can communicate with other people. >> one of the things that seems important is to have access to your important documents. >> yes, it is important to have copies of those and also stored

them remotely. so a title to a home, a passport, a driver's license, any type of medical records that you need need, back those up or put them on a remote drive or store them on the cloud, the same is true with any vital information on your computer. back that up and have that on a cloud in case your hard drive does not work any more. >> in your home you should be prepared as well. >> absolutely. >> let's take a look at the kinds of things that you might want to have in your home. >> we have no water, what are we going to do about water? >> it is important for have extra water in your house, you want to have bottled water or a five gallon container of water able to use on a regular basis, both for bathing and cooking as well as for drinking. >> we have this big container and also in people's homes they have a hot water heater. >> absolutely, if you clean your hot water heater out

regularly you can use that for showering, drinking and bathing as well >> what other things do people need to have aren't their home. >> it is important to have extra every day items buy a couple extra cans of can food that you can eat without any preparation. >> here is a giant can of green giant canned corn. and this, a manual can opener, your electric can opener will not be working not only to have one but to know where to find it in your kitchen. >> yes. >> so in addition to canned goods, we are going to have fresh food and you have to preserve that and i know that we have an ice chest. >> having an ice chest on hand is really important because your refrigerator will not be working right away. it is important to have somebody else that can store cold foods so something that you might be able to take with you if you have to leave your home. >> and here, this is my very own personal emergency supply box for my house. >> i hope that you have an

alternative one at home. >> oh, i forgot. >> and in this is really important, you should have flashlights that have batteries, fresh batteries or hand crank flashlight. >> i have them right here. >> good. excellent. that is great. additionally, you are going to want to have candles a whistle, possibly a compass as well. markers if you want to label things if you need to, to people that you are safe in your home or that you have left your home. >> i am okay and i will meet you at... >> exactly. exactly. water proof matches are a great thing to have as well. >> we have matches here. and my spare glasses. >> and your spare glasses. >> if you have medication, you should keep it with you or have access to it. if it needs to be refrigerated make sure that it is in your ice box. >> inside, just to point out for you, we have spare batteries. >> very important. >> we have a little first aid

kit. >> and lots of different kinds of batteries. and another spare flashlight. >> so, alicia what else can we do to prepare our homes for an earthquake so we don't have damage? >> one of the most important things that you can do is to secure your valuable and breakable items. make sure that your tv is strapped down to your entertainment cabinet or wall so it does not move. also important is to make sure that your book case is secure to the wall so that it does not fall over and your valuable and breakables do not break on the ground. becoming prepared is not that difficult. taking care of your home, making sure that you have a few extra every-day items on hand helps to make the difference. >> that contributes dramatically to the way that the city as a whole can recover. >> absolutely. >> if you are able to control your own environment and house and recovery and your neighbors are doing the same the city as a whole will be a more resilient city. >> we are all proud of living in san francisco and being

prepared helps us stay here. >> so, thank you so much for joining us today, alicia, i appreciate it. >> absolutely, it is my pleasure. >> and thank you for joining us on another edition of building ♪ >> thank you for coming to the talent dance performance and talent show. [ applause ] >> today's performance and talent show. ♪

>> public recreation has every bit of the talent and every bit of the heart and soul of anything that any families are paying ten times for. >> you were awesome. test, test, test, test, test, test, test, test >> good morning, everyone the meeting