it was then our city administrator now mayor ed lee, adrian and folks behind us who made sure we were counting everyone who was a resident regardless of their citizenship. today we're talking about taking that next step. it's such a wonderful moment to be part of i think the celebration of who we are as a city, to be able to say now that we have gotten everyone here, we need to make sure that we get everyone through the immigration process so that they don't have to ever fear that they are not part of our body fabric, our city fabric, who we are as americans. and, so, i'm delighted to be 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 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 it's a fundamental part of our city life to do so and the san francisco foundation is extremely proud to have partnered 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 t 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) (applause) ...

(applause) ... aah! i'm a lion! yes, you are. come here. let's see how this looks. hey, how's my little horse? she's a lion. yes, she is. grrr! ha ha! announcer: you don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent. when you adopt a child from foster care, just being there makes all the difference. >> feel like it really is a community. they are not the same thing, but it really does feel like there's that kind of a five. everybody is there to enjoy a literary reading. >> the best lit in san francisco. friendly, free, and you might

get fed. ♪ [applause] >> this san francisco ryther created the radar reading series in 2003. she was inspired when she first moved to this city in the early 1990's and discover the wild west atmosphere of open mi it's ic in the mission. >> although there were these open mics every night of the week, they were super macho. people writing poems about being jerks. beatty their chest onstage. >> she was energized by the scene and proved up with other girls who wanted their voices to be heard. touring the country and sharing

gen-x 7 as a. her mainstream reputation grew with her novel. theses san francisco public library took notice and asked her if she would begin carrying a monthly reading series based on her community. >> a lot of the raiders that i work with our like underground writers. they're just coming at publishing and at being a writer from this underground way. coming in to the library is awesome. very good for the library to show this writing community that they are welcome. at first, people were like, you want me to read at the library, really? things like that. >> as a documentary, there are interviews -- [inaudible]

>> radar readings are focused on clear culture. strayed all others might write about gay authors. gay authors might write about universal experiences. the host creates a welcoming environment for everybody. there is no cultural barrier to entry. >> the demographic of people who come will match the demographic of the reader. it is very simple. if we want more people of color, you book more people of color. you want more women, your book more women. kind of like that. it gets mixed up a little bit. in general, we kind of have a core group of people who come every month. their ages and very. we definitely have some folks who are straight. >> the loyal audience has

allowed michelle to take more chances with the monthly lineup. established authors bring in an older audience. younker authors bring in their friends from the community who might be bringing in an older author. >> raider has provided a stage for more than 400 writers. it ranges from fiction to academics stories to academic stories this service the underground of queer fell, history, or culture. >> and there are so many different literary circles in san francisco. i have been programming this reading series for nine years. and i still have a huge list on my computer of people i need to carry into this. >> the supportive audience has allowed michele to try new experiment this year, the radar book club.

a deep explorationer of a single work. after the talk, she bounces on stage to jump-start the q&a. less charlie rose and more carson daly. >> san francisco is consistently ranked as one of the most literate cities in the united states. multiple reading events are happening every night of the year, competing against a big names like city arts and lectures. radar was voted the winner of these san francisco contest. after two decades of working for free, michelle is able to make radar her full-time job. >> i am a right to myself, but i feel like my work in this world is eagerly to bring writers together and to produce literary

events. if i was only doing my own work, i would not be happy. it is, like throwing a party or a dinner party. i can match that person with that person. it is really fun for me. it is nerve wracking during the actual readings. i hope everyone is good. i hope the audience likes them. i hope everybody shows up. but everything works out. at the end of the reading, everyone is happy. ♪

>> say the pledge of allegia e allegiance. of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. mr. vice president i'd like to call roll please. (calling names) and also, we have a quorum and a also the chief of police gregory p, si