and gabby. [ applause ] >> hi my name is gabby. >> hi, my name is karlen and we're from the leadership program called young asian against violence. we dedicate -- it's a program dedicated to positive empowerment and development of api high school youth young asian women in san francisco and to strengthen resilience, pride, healing and knowledge of young asian women to advocate for the end of domestic violence in our community. we educate about violence against women through creating and for thiating workshops and education creates long-term effect rather than a band-aid solution and enable using to create a foundation of change. >> together we stand in solidarity with the 15-year-old meadows who was incarcerated for defending herself and her family from her abusivefather and today is the day of her court hearing and instead of being

given a safe space to heal she is being isolated from her community and loved one as she faced prosecution. it angers us to see one of our own peers for being punished for defending herself. >> why are systems that are supposed to protect us harming us? as youth, our experiences are often invalidated. we have few opportunities to speak up for ourselves. we are disempowered. there are limited resources and space for healing and safety. and it's really rare for us to find the resources . . it} n a society where youth hold less power than adults we need spaces to be heard and four survivors to be visible and validated and providing a space for young women to share their ideas and experiences and create and opportunity to heal and grow from trauma.

youth are capable, but we need a community willing to stand with us in times of need, rather than turning away. the end of the violence starts with us. >> we urge you to keep your ears open to the voices of youth. to keep your mind open, to learn. to keep your heart open to our experiences. we urge you to stand in solidarity to stand with survivors of violence. [ applause ] >> thank you carmen and gabby, we have a whole crew here from community youth camp center. if you want to wave, i want to invite the sheriff's department to talk about the positive reapered of sheriff hennessey, please

welcome dahlia [ applause ] . >> good afternoon everyone. again i'm davila the survivor restoration director for the san francisco sheriff's department and as i look out at all of you, i'm reminded once again how important it is for our community to come together to support survivors of domestic violence. i have had the honor in working in our sheriff's department for over 20 years, and proud to be in the position that i am as the director of our program for the survivors. i would just like to take a moment to share how the sheriff's department has supported innovative programs for domestic violence survivors over the years and continues under our new sheriff vicki hennessey to not only provide those same services, but also we have enhanced them. many of you in the audience, i know, know about our resolve to stop the violence program, our rsvp program that was started in 1997. yes, it's been 20 years. and it's still here, going

strong. but it was the first justice program that specifically worked with male offenders who have violence documented in their criminal history. particularly domestic violence and again, that program is still going strong today. in fact, with our court collaborations in 2015 rsvp participants that were in custody for domestic violence increased 93%, which was a substantial increase from 2014, which was only 20%. the sheriff's department also has our out of custody community programs utilizing the violence prevention program man alive, which is used in both our community programs and in custody programs. while we do need programs to hold offenders accountable and to give opportunities for them to change their behavior, we need to equally and more so provide services for our survivors of domestic

violence. the san francisco survivor restoration program which i have been honored to be with over 20 years, provides services for survivors through their own process of restoration, empowerment and providing opportunities for them to contribute to the development, implementation, and evaluation of all the key components of the program. as we know, as we all know the importance of having survivor voices at all of our takes. tables and we offer with our sister community agencies many of whom are here today direct crisis services through the response program along with our empowerment groups which is under our survivor empowerment program and i would like to give special acknowledgment to my staff here and my team, that together with their fierce advocacy in 2015 as we supported 65 survivors who obtained their visas and

six granted political asylum and permanent residency and db survivors graduating from our empowerment program. our newest program in the sheriff's department is our survivor in custody program. a reentry program that we make contact with incarcerated survivors of domestic violence, and provide resources which are trauma-informed and culturally-responsive to the many challenges that they face. these services are also provided for our incarcerated db transwomen, stalk and trafficking victims. i will just end with this quote, one of my favorites from helen keller, that i love and it's just simple as to say," alone we can do so little, but together we can do so much." and when i look around with all of the agencies here, and the hard work in changing our systems

together we can definitely make a change. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you so much, dahlia. i just want to acknowledge a couple of staff people who are here, alden from assembly member ting's office and i want to acknowledge the family violence counsel chair katy albright who here as well. next up is the community education at las casa delas madras that opened as the first domestic violence shelter in the state of california and only the second in the nation. please welcome cara. [ applause ] >> i'm going to put this down, but i was holding the door to shelter. good evening, it's wonderful to be here with all of you standing in support of domestic violence survivors.

over 40 years ago we began as a small shelter for battered women in san francisco and today la casa is still providing emergency services to women and children in need through confidential shelter and 24-hour crisis line. we also provide counseling, case management, support groups, a teen program and legal services at our jobs center on mission street four of our advocates work as the only two women-specific supportive housing sites in san francisco, providing emotional and practical support to over 150 female residents. this partnership is entering its 18th year. la casa also had the opportunity to extend our support services in san francisco by providing targeted programming to specific populations alongside amazing community partners. i would like to highlight four of these programs today: first we're pard to be

pard of zuckerberg san francisco gener hospital and la casa advocate is on-site to meet with patients that dispose instances of intimate partnership violence to their physician and providing danger and risk assessment, safety planning, grief counseling and resources and referrals. this individual will also provide training on intimate partner violence to health care professionals. second, funded by the department on the status of women, co-located at san francisco housing authority. as many of us know survivor safety challenge is navigating the public housing system in san francisco. we work to ensure they have safe places to life and raise their families. our advocates at the housing authority also educate property management and support staff at housing sites across the bay area and to incidents of domestic

violence on-site. third, there is say la casa advocate at 850 bryant street and follows up on police reports of domestic violence to provide the survivor with resources, referrals and support. and finally, as mentioned earlier, in partnership with the department, glide, will have a advocate responding to all domestic violence situations. these four programs allow our staff co-located at the hospital, sros, the housing authority, hall of justice and bayview to provide advocacy, support, resources and referrals to survivors. survivors that are navigating complex processes made even more challenging by experiences of trauma. we're proud at la casa to be part of the first line of response to survivors of domestic violence and proud to serve as a continued

support system to survivors on their path to healing. and of course, we're proud to be part of a community of organizations, many of whom are here today, working tirelessly to end domestic violence in san francisco. thank you. [ applause ] >> thanks so much, cara. i want to acknowledge the executive director of la casa, kathy black is in the audience and we have another co-chair of the council is here and our last speaker is commissioner on the status of women, olgareyerson, our newest commissioner who joined us after retiring after a o-year career much of working as mayor lee's invaluable aassistant and please women the commissioner on the status of women, olgareyerson. >> thank you [ applause ] . >> good evening everyone. thank you so much for coming to this important event.

we gather annually in october to recognize domestic violence awareness month, to celebrate how far we have come and to renew our efforts on what we still need to do to end intimate partner velocity. violence in 2015 the department of emergency management received 18917 calls related to domestic violence. one in 13 violent crimes calls are family violence related and in 2015 domestic violence was the second most violent crime to which the police department responds. during that same time our community partners received over 21,000 calls to their domestic violence hotline, nearly three times as many as 911. this shows the importance of having multi-faceted response to domestic violence. many survivors may not want to involve the criminal justice system and so we

must ensure that we open many doors to safety so that different systems can assist survivors of domestic violence to be safe. today we have heard from our health care system, and the wonderful work at the department of public health and san francisco general hospital and we heard from our community-based service providers who provide counseling, shelter, legal services and advocacy and we heard from our peer educators who provide intervention services by working with youth to help teach healthy relationship skills and heard from our colleagues at the sheriff's department, who do not just house domestic violence offenders, but provide programs to victims and perpetrators of abuse in our jails and of course we heard from our city leaders who help ensure that we fund our public agencies and the commission on the status of women is celebrating its

40th anniversary this year from our earliest years we have focused on responding to domestic violence. the first program we funded was la casa delas mad res. as you heard earlier it was the first domestic violence shelter in california and the second in the united states. how amazing is it that we have gone from one $75,000 grant for one program to our now over $6 million in funds to 27 different agencies? but our work is going on. in the past two years there are been four domestic violence-related homicides each year, two out of those four domestic violence homicides in 2015 involved guns. we cannot stop our work until no one is killed by an intimate partner. thank you for joining us. together we will one day end domestic violence. [ applause ] >> thank you so much olga.

i want to acknowledge jeff the head of the department of homelessness and supportive housing, who has joined us. to close our event today, i want to introduce the ensemable that will sing a piece that fits to music a text by the famous african-american poet audrey. please give up for the ana cruces travel ensemble. [ applause ]

[ music ]

[ applause ] >> i want to bring up deputy chief of staff for public safety paul hendrickson for a very special unanticipated special announcement. paul. >> thank you, emily. how is everybody doing this evening? great [ applause ] i'm a little disappointed i wasn't asked to sing -- [laughter ] but i think there

is a reason for it. that is okay. i just wanted to thank you guys, all for coming out here tonight. it's really important to do the work that we all do, and there are so many different agencies and individuals out here, representing the work that we do with family violence from the police department to the district attorney's office to the mayor's office, to the non-profit agencies, and really it all begins and it ends with community and the fact that you are all here tonight is a big deal. you all saw earlier when the mayor was out here and he was presented with the big letter signed from all of the agencies that are funded through the city services. and whether when we went back into the building he wanted to make sure that i presented to you and you know that letter will be on the display in the mayor's office in room 200 for the next few weeks and this is something that i haven't seen done in past, but he was really

touched by the fact that so many of the agencies came together to thank him and thank the city for its collaborative work to end domestic violence. so people that will be coming into this beautiful building and into room 200 for the next few weeks will see that letter, that many of you that are here tonight signed. and it will be on display inside the mayor's office. so thank you all so much for coming and being here. i would encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity that you are here tonight to make sure that you make a record for yourselves. this would be a great thing if you stick around in about oh, i would say about an hour or so, you'll see the building lit up in purple to take a picture of that, to take a picture of some of the other speakers and your friends that you saw here tonight with your message and put it on out on your social media messages and facebook and twitter and linkedin accounts to know it's end

domestic violence awareness month. thank you all for being here tonight. i look forward to working with you through the year with the mayor's office. [phra*-ufrplts/]. [ applause ] . >> i want to thank paul and the mayor's office and thank the domestic violence consortium and my amazing staff, policy director candell who came up with the idea of lighting city hall purple, let's acknowledge her. [ applause ] and i want to thank our policy members for putting together all of these signs. and i want to thank everyone for coming out tonight. see you same time next year. thank you very much. [ applause ]

>> >> my name is sofy constantineo and a documentary film maker and cinema togfer, producer and director. it is inevable you want your movie to get out and realize yoi need to be a commune tee organizer to get people together to see the story you

will tell [inaudible] pretty rich and interesting. in what we do as film makers is try to tell the best story possible so i think that is where i [inaudible] learn everything. lighting and cinematography. i got jobs of stage manger at some place and projectionist. i kind of mixed and matched as i went and kept refining i feel like it isn't just about making things that are beautiful and appealing and rich and [inaudible] the way that the films [inaudible] it has to tell a story. >> my name is sumell [inaudible] free lance multimedia produce. my project is [inaudible] mostly oof street photographry with a few portraits. i'm going arounds san francisco and capturing the [inaudible] as we

started to do this project i was reading about the decline of african american population in san francisco and i wondered where the remaining population was and what they were doing and how life was for them. >> i wasn't very inspired by school, i wasn't very inspired by continuing to read and write and go to class. i watched a lot of movies and saw a lot of [inaudible] i said that is what i want to do. i had this very feminist [inaudible] and i felt like there was not enough of a womans vision on the stuff that we see, the movies that we make and the beginning of the [inaudible] the way we look at women and the roles women take in the stories

being tolds. they felt [inaudible] they did want feel complex. i was like, i have a different frame i like to see the world shaped by. >> my grandsmother was a teacher and taught special education for 40 years in los angeles and when i was growing up she inspired me to record everything. we recorded our conversations, we recorded the [inaudible] we recorded everything to cassette players. learning multimedia skills, from the other crossover employment opportunities for young people. someone who grew up in la rks san francisco feels like a small town. i lived in western addition and i was looking for someone to cut my hair, i found [inaudible] he seemed like a very interesting guy and grew up in the neighborhood and had a lot to

say about something that was foreign to me. that local perspective and so important to me because i think as someone who isn't from here, knowing that history allows me to be more engaging in the community i live in and want the same for others. i want people to move into a new neighborhood to know who was there before and businesses and what cultural and [inaudible] shape what we see today. >> my guiding principles have been, if you stick to something long enough and know what it is and go for it you will get there. [inaudible] where i want to go, what i want to do and it is totally possible so, the impossible is you know, is not something to listen to. nk we're

going to get started the regular meeting of did of the board of education for san francisco unified school district for tuesday, september 27, 2016, is now called to order. >> >> ms. fewer after the meeting or call the board office tomorrow dr. murase ms. norton mr. walton ms. wynns mr. haney and miss i know and . >> please join me in the pledge of