so, she's really thankful the city was able to provide her case management services such as myself. i was able to help her with applying for other benefits that she qualified for such as food stamps and paratransit which is able to get her to her adult based center. so, even though her income is lacking and she doesn't have really enough to really live by, but she is just happy just to, you know, maintain -- able to be maintained to stay at her home. so, thank you. and, so, i'm going to speak, breakaway. i'm the case manager for [speaker not understood] department of adult and aging services. unfortunately, a lot of times

[speaker not understood] could not be here. they are very far, living at home by themselves, and i'm the person who really go and, you know, be with them and sit next to their bedside, listen to their stories and try to help them the best i can. however, you know, due to the current funding, that's impossible for me to really kind of step up the services i want to do because it's just not possible. i'm like one person. i'm the only person in the program, so, we try to request for additional $500,000 to the department of adult aging services so that we can perhaps hire and we're able to provide more services to these adults. [speaker not understood].

she said [speaker not understood] the case manager, it's going to be really helpful to the seniors. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. good morning, and thank you for this opportunity to address you. my name is jeff jones. i'm the development director of career cultural center. and i'm not here like everyone else to urge that there be more money poured into various programs. instead, i'm really here to urge you to consider how you invest the money you're spending. the demographic changes sweeping the bay area will continue. the census bureau now pre-difficultthtion ~ predicts in the bay area 20 50, 20% of the region's residents will be white, and 72 of the residents

will be people of color. ~ 72% and what we see in your investments in the arts is that you're still investing in audiences that have the demographics of the 1950s when 83% of the city was white. and i think that is like problematic. you're pouring a lot of money into something that doesn't look sustainable to me. just in the last year we've seen the san diego -- yeah, the san diego opera and [speaker not understood] merge with mozart, close down. the sacramento [speaker not understood] symphony had to reorganize in chapter 11 if i'm not mistaken. and we're watching this kind of elected officials need to be seeing that what's happening there is that demographic change impacts the arts. this month, we have been treated here in san francisco to a -- to a manner in which

the lobbyists for the opera, the symphony, and the ballet have claimed that the board of supervisors was cutting arts funding. all of us know that's not what's happening here, and yet all of these people that you're hearing testify begging you not to call for cuts in the arts, they've been here because they got this mailer [inaudible]. >> thank you. next speaker, please. good morning, supervisors. my name is andrew wood, san francisco international arts festival, and i want to talk to you today about a report that was put out by the city budget analyst. it was on grants for the arts. and the report found something that we in the arts community had been quite aware of for a long time in that the grants for the arts is funding

organizations that serve what were the dominant community or the white community to the tune of 78%, even though they only comprise 43% of the population. and the funding to the organizations that serve people of color are only 24%, 23%, even though they are 58% of the population. in the report, the [speaker not understood] grants for the arts said that's fine with her and they have no plans to change. i think that this is a culturally inequitable situation and that the supervisors have the duty to try and intervene here. now, the grants for the arts is a department of the mayor's office so you can't dictate their policy. but at budget time, you can influence how they operate. if you give more money to grants for the arts, they will continue to spend it in the same way that they have always spent it, the director has said so. she's on the record as saying

so in the report that was given to you. what we are suggesting is instead you take any new money that goes to grants for the arts and give it to the arts equity program. the director of equity is on record [speaker not understood] cultural equity is not just a program, it's a policy. we need to have a policy of cultural equity in the arts. no other sector in the city would tolerate anything like that except in the arts community. we need to change it and we need to change it now. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker, please. good morning, yeah, it's still morning. my name is francis wong, and i'm a saxophonist and composer. born in san francisco in 1957, today there are more chinese americans in the san francisco bay area than in the whole country in 1957.

this change in demographics under lines the need for visionary change in the city of san francisco in its art funding policies. i've been active in the community here, chinatown, japantown, city-wide to be part of movements for change, for social justice. and in the city of san francisco, we have the opportunity to be better. we have to be better. and we must root out all elements of complacency. race matters today. and in particular, its was very apparent in the whole issue of donald sterling and the los angeles clippers and we must take action to clear our plate of continued inequity in the arts funding in this city. thank you very much. (applause)

good morning, supervisors. my name is john jang. since 1988 i have lived in san francisco as a composer, performer, and artistic director of music ensembles. when the sacramento fill harmonic orchestra and the oakland east bay symphony performed my work, the chinese american symphony, i became the first american-born chinese composer to compose a shim phone i can work that pays tribute to the chinese immigrant worker that built the first transcontinental railroad in the united states. during the past ~ 25 years in the san francisco bay area, i have performed and had my works commissioned by the major arts presenters and music ensembles such as cal performances, san francisco performances, s.f. jazz, [speaker not understood], and [speaker not understood]. during the past year in washington, d.c. i performed at the white house forum on asian

pacific american heritage sponsored by the department of interior as well an ebit horning the chinese railroad worker by the department of labor with the secretary sally jewel [speaker not understood] gave keynote presentations. my organization, however, john jang performances, used to be on the grants for the arts roster of arts organizations. after a few years of being on the grants for the arts roster, my organization was forced out under a dubious and arbitrary standard that was not even written in the grants for the arts [speaker not understood]. when my organization was on the roster, we usually received funding support of $5,000. a one-year grant of $5,000 from grants for the arts is well below the minimum funding level to sustain an organization. grants for the arts has created an arts apartheid system that needs to be dismantled and replaced by the vision of cultural equity policy and

practice of the san francisco arts commission. thank you very much. (applause) hi, my name is [speaker not understood]. impart of the -- i represent the young artists here in san francisco. i run a dance company. the artists that work for me and that i employ, we work in the bayview hunters point, we work in the western addition, and we work with youth to teach them about healthy life-styles and building their self-esteem and their confidence in the area. that's what our work does, but the funding, you know, it doesn't really live up to what we're trying to do here in the community and we really need your support to really look at the budget this year and take some action. we're asking for action. and what we're asking for is that, you know, right now with the current stipulation that organization need to make a certain amount in order to get

funded is really affecting the artists that are coming up here in the city. so, i'm just going to, you know, lay it out there and let you know that we're working here. we're part of this economy. [speaker not understood] for us to live here and to work. and i would just like to appeal to you in that way. thank you. hello there, good morning. my name is [speaker not understood] and i'm a dancer, choreographer [speaker not understood]. i was a resident artist at the museum last year and i have created works in the last 6, 7 years in the san francisco bay area and i applied multiple times for a grants to the arts funding and rejected multiple times as well.

i am asking for a change in the grants for the arts allocation as san francisco now has 57% residents and population of color. by 20 50 the bay area's 10 million residents will be 72% persons of color. grants for the arts have not changed their funding for folks of color in over 25 years. how can this be? how can this be when we're trending towards an incredibly diverse population, yet the funding for the artists, mainly of small and midsize organizations, run by people of color have not -- it's just kind of unbelievable [speaker not understood]. so, i'm asking that there be

more accountability to grants for the arts, that they be requested to follow the trend -- follow the shift in demographics and represent artists, more artists of color. thank you. hi, my name is jenny lim and i'm a san francisco poet, native, and former arts commissioner under two administrations art agnes and [speaker not understood] jordan. one of the things that i was most proud about in my tenure as a san francisco art commissioner was the establishment of the cultural equity arts program under the aegis of the san francisco arts commission. the purpose of that program was to address the inequity in the representation and funding of the city arts. you've heard my colleagues talk

about the population being 57% people of color. well, the funding has traditionally always awarded grants to the mainstream traditional arts organizations. now, i am a long-time supporter of the san francisco ballet, the opera and the symphony. however, to continue this gross inequity is just a disservice to the unrepresented communities of colors and the great social injustice for all san franciscans. so, i request that you increase the funding at least by 10% of what's already been allocated to these under served communities. you can look at the demographics and you can look at the funding as it is being disproportionately awarded, a lion's share going to the

traditional organizations that always receive the funding. so, you've heard the artists. and i was born here in 1946 and i really request that we have some parity and equity now. thank you very much. (applause) hello, my name is samantha leo and i work for the san francisco museum of modern art. good morning, andrea morgan from s.f. noma. >> we're here today to ask you to increase the fund for the arts and [speaker not understood] arts commission. artists and arts and cultural organizations, we're all struggling to keep up with the cost of living in the city ~ and we're losing what makes san francisco the vibrant cultural community that it is. s.f. noma is providing more than 1500 jobs in the bay area. when it opens in 2016, the museum will go to support 1200

jobs annually, 350 more than [speaker not understood]. in the meantime, s.f. noma is collaborating to reach hundreds of thousands of people. we're funding museums well beyond the building and collaborating with the contemporary jewish museum, the fine arts museum, the asian arts museum, yerba buena center for the arts, and museum of african diaspora and college for the arts. [speaker not understood] arts education to school children that reach every public school in the city. at s.f. noma we have a partnership with the high schools to build [speaker not understood] across curricula. this is being piloted at balboa high school where more than 300 students participated in a sear i of activities deemed artists [speaker not understood] the city.

art express, s.f. noma arts program k through 8 have doubled in size and impact [speaker not understood] this year. our organizations have had to cope with significant funding challenges during tough years and we are grateful that you have been steadily increasing funds over the past two years, but we are still behind levels from 10 years ago. grants for the arts is down 22% since 2004. increased funding will enable the arts community to continue its significant support for public education in san francisco. thank you for your consideration of increased support for grants for the arts and for the arts commission. thank you. good morning. my name is laura [speaker not understood] i'm a resident of san francisco and full-time staff member at new conservatory theater center which i'm proud to represent and advocate on behalf of today. our signature youth aware program which uses theater to address critical health and

wellness issues among young people such as bullying, hiv/aids awareness and prevention, homophobia, discrimination [speaker not understood] is in jeopardy. we need you, the san francisco board of supervisors, to support continued funding for youth aware through the add-back process. for 20 plus years we've been able to provide our high demand youth aware performances to thousands of s.f.usd students free of charge. yet with state and federal budget cuts our ability to offer youth aware no cost to students or their schools is now threatened. san francisco youth need access to the vital health and wellness education that we provide, showing these sentiments are hundreds of unified educators and administrators who have experienced our work. [speaker not understood], peabody elementary writes, i have taken my students to see [speaker not understood] antibullying and hiv/aids awareness plays. i find these plays in a post discussion [speaker not understood] to be an integral

and valuable portion of myv health and education curriculum. likewise mary from ida b. wells continue, [speaker not understood]. many are disengaged and withdrawn. every time you perform at our schools the students are mesmerized by the performers. we rely on you to address critical [speaker not understood] to our students. i hope you will consider the enduring impact youth aware has on so many young people in san francisco and the it hold for their teachers as well. by supporting youth aware's continued funding you will strengthen the next generation of san franciscans, equipping them with the tools and knowledge to create communities