all all the way down to aquatic park, and we'd walk down to the library, to the kids' center. in those days, the city was safe and nobody worried about us running around. i went to high school in spring valley. it was over the hill from chinatown. it was kind of fun to experience being in a minority, which most white people don't get to experience that often. everything was just really within walking distance, so it make it really fun. when i was a teenager, we didn't have a lot of money. we could go to sam wong's and get super -- soup for $1. my parents came here and were drawn to the beatnik culture. they wanted to meet all of the writers who were so famous at

the time, but my mother had some serious mental illness issues, and i don't think my father were really aware of that, and those didn't really become evident until i was about five, i guess, and my marriage blew up, and my mother took me all over the world. most of those ad ventures ended up bad because they would end up hospitalized. when i was about six i guess, my mother took me to japan, and that was a very interesting trip where we went over with a boyfriend of hers, and he was working there. i remember the open sewers and gigantic frogs that lived in the sewers and things like that. mostly i remember the smells very intensely, but i loved japan. it was wonderful. toward the end. my mother had a breakdown, and that was the cycle. we would go somewhere, stay for a certain amount of months, a year, period of time, and she would inevitably have a

breakdown. we always came back to san francisco which i guess came me some sense of continuity and that was what kept me sort of stable. my mother hated to fly, so she would always make us take ships places, so on this particular occasion when i was, i think, 12, we were on this ship getting ready to go through the panama canal, and she had a breakdown on the ship. so she was put in the brig, and i was left to wander the ship until we got to fluorfluora few days later, where we had a distant -- florida a few days later, where we had a distant cousin who came and got us. i think i always knew i was a writer on some level, but i kind of stopped when i became a cop. i used to write short stories, and i thought someday i'm going to write a book about all these

ad ventures that my mother took me on. when i became a cop, i found i turned off parts of my brain. i found i had to learn to conform, which was not anything i'd really been taught but felt very safe to me. i think i was drawn to police work because after coming from such chaos, it seemed like a very organized, but stable environment. and even though things happening, it felt like putting order on chaos and that felt very safe to me. my girlfriend and i were sitting in ve 150d uvio's bar, and i looked out the window and i saw a police car, and there was a woman who looked like me driving the car. for a moment, i thought i was me. and i turned to my friend and i said, i think i'm supposed to do this. i saw myself driving in this car. as a child, we never thought of police work as a possibility for women because there weren't

any until the mid70's, so i had only even begun to notice there were women doing this job. when i saw here, it seemed like this is what i was meant to do. one of my bosses as ben johnson's had been a cop, and he -- i said, i have this weird idea that i should do this. he said, i think you'd be good. the department was forced to hire us, and because of all of the posters, and the big recruitment drive, we were under the impression that they were glad to have us, but in reality, most of the men did not want the women there. so the big challenge was constantly feeling like you had to prove yourself and feeling like if you did not do a good job, you were letting down your entire gender. finally took an inspector's test and passed that and then

went down to the hall of justice and worked different investigations for the rest of my career, which was fun. i just felt sort of buried alive in all of these cases, these unsolved mysteries that there were just so many of them, and some of them, i didn't know if we'd ever be able to solve, so my boss was able to get me out of the unit. he transferred me out, and a couple of weeks later, i found out i had breast cancer. my intuition that the job was killing me. i ended up leaving, and by then, i had 28 years or the years in, i think. the writing thing really became intense when i was going through treatment for cancer because i felt like there were so many parts that my kids didn't know. they didn't know my story, they didn't know why i had a relationship with my mother, why we had no family to speak of. it just poured out of me. i gave it to a friend who is an editor, and she said i think this would be publishable and i think people would be interested in this.

i am so lucky to live here. i am so grateful to my parents who decided to move to the city. i am so grateful they did. that it never

>> providing excellent customer service to each other so that we can succeed together. because we're a small division out here, and we're separated from the rest of the p.u.c., a lot of people wear a lot of different hats. everyone is really adept not just at their own job assigned to them, but really understanding how their job relates to the other functions, and then, how they can work together with other functions in the organization to solve those problems and meet our core mission. >> we procure, track, and store materials and supplies for the project here. our real goal is to provide the best materials, services and supplies to the 250 people that work here at hetch hetchy, and turn, that supports everyone here in the city. i have a very small, but very

efficient and effective team. we really focus hard on doing things right, and then focus on doing the right thing, that benefits everyone. >> the accounting team has several different functions. what happens is because we're so remote out here, we have small groups of people that have to do what the equivalent are of many people in the city. out here, our accounting team handles everything. they love it, they know it inside out, they cherish it, they do their best to make the system work at its most efficient. they work for ways to improve it all the time, and that's really an amazing thing. this is really unique because it's everybody across the board. they're invested it, and they do their best for it. >> they're a pretty dynamic team, actually. the warehouse team guys, and the gals over in accounting work very well together.

i'm typically in engineering, so i don't work with them all day on an every day basis. so when i do, they've included me in their team and treated me as part of the family. it's pretty amazing. >> this team really understanding the mission of the organization and our responsibilities to deliver water and power, and the team also understands that in order to do that, we have a commitment to each other, so we're all committed to the success of the organization, and that means providing excellent customer service to each other so that we can succeedtoday.

>> (clapping.) >> i've been working in restaurants forever as a blood alcohol small business you have a lot of requests for donations if someone calls you and say we want to documents for our school or nonprofit i've been in a position with my previous employment i had to say no all the time. >> my name is art the owner and chief at straw combinations of street food and

festival food and carnival food i realize that people try to find this you don't want to wait 365 day if you make that brick-and-mortar it is really about making you feel special and feel like a kid again everything we've done to celebrate that. >> so nonprofit monday is a program that straw runs to make sure that no matter is going on with our business giving back is treated just the is that you as paying any other bill in addition to the money we impose their cause to the greater

bayview it is a great way for straw to sort of build communicated and to introduce people who might not normally get to be exposed to one nonprofit or another and i know that they do a different nonprofit every most of the year. >> people are mroent surprised the restaurant it giving back i see some people from the nonprofit why been part of nonprofit monday sort of give back to the program as well answer. >> inform people that be regular aprons at straw they get imposed to 10 or 12 nonprofits. >> i love nonprofits great for a local restaurant to give back to community that's so wonderful i wish more restrictive places did that that is really cool.

>> it is a 6 of nonprofit that is supporting adults with autism and down syndrome we i do not involved one the wonderful members reached out to straw and saw a headline about, about their nonprofit mondays and she applied for a grant back in january of 2016 and we were notified late in the spring we would be the recipient of straw if you have any questions, we'll be happy to answer thems in the month of genuine we were able to organize with straw for the monday and at the end of the month we were the recipient of 10 percent of precedes on mondays the contribution from nonprofit monday from stray went into our post group if you have any questions, we'll be happy to answer theming fund with our arts coaching for chinese and classes and we have a really

great vibrate arts program. >> we we say thank you to the customers like always but say 0 one more thing just so you know you've made a donation to x nonprofit which does why i think that is a very special thing. >> it is good to know the owner takes responsibility to know your money is going to good cause also. >> it is really nice to have a restaurant that is very community focused they do it all month long for nonprofits not just one day all four mondays. >> we have a wall of thank you letters in the office it seems like you know we were able to

gas up the 10 passenger minivan we were innovate expected to do. >> when those people working at the nonprofits their predictive and thank what straw is giving that in and of itself it making an impact with the nonprofit through the consumers that are coming here is just as important it is important for the grill cheese kitchen the more restrictive i learn about what is going on in the community more restrictive people are doing this stuff with 4 thousand restaurant in san francisco we're doing an average of $6,000 a year in donations and multiply that by one thousand that's a lot to >> all right. good evening, everyone.

first of all, good evening, everyone. welcome to compass family services. [applause] >> my name is chris wagner, and i'm the board chair of compass family services, and i promised myself i wouldn't get choked up, but today, by far, is the proudest moment of my volunteer career. i'd like to acknowledge our distinguished guests, mayor london breed, supervisor jane kim, who i think is my supervisor. [applause] >> rafael mandelman, assembly member david chiu, and representatives for senator's feinstein and kamala harris, abigail and june harris.

thank you so much. so today, we celebrate the official opening of our new service hub for homeless families and families at risk of becoming homeless in san francisco. [applause] >> we are really thankful for so many of you who have been here with us every step of the way and to create what we see here before us. this facility represents our commitment to san francisco's homeless and vulnerable families, telling them we see you, we are committed to serving you in san francisco, and we are investing in your future. securing a permanent home for compass is a perfect example of private public partnerships and how they can benefit our community. one partner has been the city

of san francisco. the city itself was one of the first to recognize the importance and significance of this project with a lead grant of $1 million. [applause] >> i'd like to thank and express our deepest thanks to joaquin torres for the office of workforce development for not only their strong support, but for their lead support in this project. [applause] >> we gratefully acknowledge the let's make it happen spirit of our partners and the compass board for getting this project off the ground. our next very important step -- you knew this was coming -- is to raise the funds we need to pay for this project. we will be out in the community, you can rest assured, shortly with a major

campaign to seek the help of the philanthropic community and all to assure our service hub is here to stay. he can assured we are part of the solution -- you can be assured we are part of the solution. it's my extreme pleasure to introduce and welcome our city's honorable mayor london breed and invite her to say a few words. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: i have got to say i am truly honored and excited to be here today. what an amazing, beautiful facility, a welcoming environment for so many families that we all know struggle with homelessness, and that should not be the case. a kid should not have to do their homework in situations that sometimes are not the

best. when i first became a member of the board of supervisors and visited our family shelter in our district, i was really heart broken at some of the scenes that i saw and some of the frustration that i had for many of those kids that they were in, many of those kids attend schools right here in san francisco. and one of the things that i'm most proud of is working with our late mayor ed lee is to give $2 million to the housing authority to remodel 179 unit to place 179 formerly homeless families in units to call home. but we didn't do it alone. we did it with organizations like compass point because it takes a partnership in order to

help our homeless families who live on our streets in san francisco. as mayor, addressing this challenge is really important to me, finding solutions, finding partners, trying to figure out the best ways possible. when we developed our coordinated entry system, compass point has been there for us, helping to lead the way so that we can produce the types of services that we truly need to make a difference. so i want to thank each and every once of you for being here today to support this great new step. a $1 million grant from the city, and i, of course, deserve $1 million more for the work that you continue to do. thank you all so much for being here today, and i'm looking forward to opening this building so that we can get started on this very important work because we have people who need homes. thank you all so much.

[applause] >> thank you, mayor breed. oh . so last fall, erica and i had the pleasure of meeting with supervisor jane kim, and we presented our plan and our vision. i'm delighted to welcome back her -- or welcome here to see firsthand what we've done, and we'd love to hear your thoughts. [applause] >> supervisor kim: actually, you are welcoming me back for the space because for those of you that don't know, i spent six months here in this space back in 2016, and so i'm very familiar with this site. and so i was truly delighted when you both came to my office to say that there might be an opportunity to turn this vacant retail site into a hub for so

many of our families and those that are needing services here in the city and county of san francisco. mayor breed talked so much about the importance of this work and also the initiative that mayor ed lee had begun during his time as mayor, which is for san francisco to end homelessness in san francisco in the next five years. and we talk so much about homelessness as being an issue of single adults but for those of you that are in the field, you know that families are often the fastest growing demographic in homeless counts in cities throughout the country, whether it is san francisco, new york, and l.a. it is the silent demographic that we don't get e-mails from our constituents about, asking us to solve that is often one of the most critical in the issues that we must address here. we know that children who are homeless are more likely --

five times to be more likely to be homeless as adults. we've seen what it means for children to be able to complete their homework, having a place to call home, calling in sick regularly, having a place to shower. i have to tell you one of the most heartbreaking stories that i heard from some of our young mothers is actually having to bathe their children in a sink at their local church because they have nowhere else to take their children before they get ready for school. and compass family services has been at the forefront of ensuring that we are providing these critical services to families to so many of our clients that need it the most. in order to provide those services, it's critical to have

a home and a space to walk into. so i'm so excited that compass family services will be opening here in this district, and i really want to recognize the leadership of the board chair, chris wagner, and of course to our wonderful executive director, erica kisch, who's been running this century old organization so critically in san francisco. we are making a dent, we are finally reducing the immense wait list that we are reading about in 2015 for families that are sleeping in shelters, sleeping on the streets, sleeping in our cars and making sure that we are addressing this issue. when the l.a. times said that the new face of homelessness is single mothers and children, we heeded to that call. we need to get women and children off the streets, and i am just so proud to be a strong partner along with mayor breed

and assembly member david chiu. this is an issue that we all care deeply about. we can end homelessness, and i'm so glad that compass is going to have a seat in the middle of our city that they can provide the services. i just want to take a moment to thank the staff at compass family services. this work is so difficult to do. [applause] >> supervisor kim: and you are at the front lines of doing this work, and it's always amazing to ask staff members how long they've been at this organization. and i think it's pretty astounding, the tenacity, and the faith of the workers in the field. i was pretty touched when one of our compatriots used to serve, when the chronicle asked him if it was incredibly depressing to work in the field of homelessness over 40 years

because it doesn't get better, and he said i don't view hi work as ending homelessness, i view my work as ending homelessness in the lives of people. for those of you that have viewed the moment, i've been lucky to watch an individual walk into their permanent home for the first time or a family to walk into their permanent home for the first time, we are ending homelessness in their lives, so thank you for all doing this incredible work, and congratulations. [applause] >> thank you, supervisor kim. as you know compass works with the city as a partner in our comprehensive continuum in care of homelessness or to help end family homelessness. for families that are already homelessness, and now i'd like

to welcome jeff kosinski, the director of family homelessness to say a few words. jeff? >> thank you so much for being here today. you know, just a few years ago, one in every 20 students in the san francisco unified school district was experiencing homelessness. it's one in every 20. every single school in the school district had at least one homeless family. some schools had over 10% of the families in that school were experiencing homelessness. but thanks to the hard work of many people including compass, we've reduced family homelessness by 15%. by the end of this year, our goal is to have no unsheltered families at all, and we're very close to achieving that goal, and by the end of 2022, our goal is to have no family

experiencing homelessness in the city and county of san francisco. [applause] >> thank you. we're not going to do that without organizations like compass. compass is one of the anchor institutio institutions in our homelessness response system, and this facility is just absolutely amazing, and what's really -- i came by to visit a few weeks ago right when it first opened up, and the physical structure is really amazing, but what's really just so heart warming is to see all of the families here and all of the staff here using the space. it's just such a beautiful facility, it uplifts people's spirits when they're here, and the energy was just really phenomenal. we had families in here facing a crisis, i can't even imagine as a father or as a parent not having a place for my children to go that evening, but just the vibe here, and the way staff were treating people, and just the attention to detail is really extraordinary and very

fitting for an organization as spectacular and committed to doing this work as compass. i've worked as a nonprofit executive director for many years, and i know that it's often challenging as an e.d. or even as a board member to come up and ask people to support your organization. no matter how much you're commit today it, it's a scary thing, but since i'm not a executive director anymore, maybe it's easier for me to encourage you to please support compass, please support their capital campaign. this is really important work they're doing, it's really life changing work that they're doing, and we're so appreciative to everybody at compass and to all of you as well for being here today. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much, jeff. it's now my pleasure to introduce, without a doubt, one of the most amazing and dedicated individuals i've had the pleasure to work with, the

executive director of compass family services for the past 24 years, erica kisch. [applause] >> good evening, everyone. thanks. this is such a great turnout, it feels very great to be celebrating with you all here tonight. about 400 days ago, i toured this building. it was kind of a shell, and a former gym, and i imagined it as being the new permanent home for compass family services, a service hub for san francisco families facing homelessness. it was centrally located, easily accessible, just a block from city hall and very closely located to other locations in the city for other families facing homelessness. little did i know that 37 grove

would turn out to be so much more. it's a safe and welcoming and healing environment where families experiencing the trauma of homelessness can access a myriad of interrelated and complementary services that address housing, support, stability, jobs, child care, legal, and i could go on and on and on, all under one roof, and all with the ultimate goal of helping families to achieve economic stability, self-sufficiency and economic well-being. so we stand here tonight not in front of but beside so many of our friends, our partners, our colleagues, our supporters, who join together to help make this project come to life and who have been committed to this every den and committed to this effort to end family homelessness in san francisco.

first and foremost, i want to thank nafir and namidi. they're somewhere way in the back. [applause] >> so they and the sun hill corporation, they had an amazing vision, amazing generosity, amazing vision, and without them, we would not have this project, we would not be able to get it off the ground, and hopefully they'll make the way up to the front for the ribbon cutting. i'd also like to thank compass's board of directors who had the vision to address our real estate need head on in their 2015 to 2018 strategic plan. every one of them has been supportive in this project and has supported it financially as well. and on our board, i especially need to call out brian

mcenerny, who's also way at the back. brian really spear headed and guided this project. he was here night after night for months, and without him, we would not be here today. i also want to thank especially our board chair chris wagner and our board vice chair allison engel. [applause] >> both of them put in many, many hours over the past year, and i joked to chris over the last year that he was going to lose his day job because he was always at compass. i also want to mention equity community builders, opportunity fund, chase, and the low-income investment fund and our quality

board. i want to thank -- [applause] >> -- first republic bank, the northern california community loan fund, the world's greatest real estate broker, paul pechani. [applause] >> our brilliant architects at t.e.f. design who turned this building -- as wonderful as it is, it's a strangely shaped building. they turn it had into something really amazing. ken white of glazer wild, who always has our back, and our fun dl fun-tastic staff. we just heard tonight that j .

jpmorgan chase has awarded us a grant of $25,000. most recently, chase provided the equity investment through our new markets tax credits deal for the building. thank you, j.p. morgan chase and mike kimball, who i think is here with us tonight. [applause] >> so next on our agenda, we're going to cut this ribbon, and after that, we invite you to explore the building. you can go back that way, you can go down, you can go up, and we'll have staff that are wearing compass name tags that are scattered throughout the building who can give you more information throughout the programs and the services we offer here and answer any questions, and then we've got refreshments on the second floor in the conference room. so thank you again for celebrating this and it's time to end family homelessness in san francisco. thank you. [appla

happy new year, everybody. i love the fact that we are doing a tournament here at the center. when i was in eighth grade i played on a basketball teechl. team. i have to admit i wasn't very good at it. i always aspired to be an nba player. regardless of playing in college or nba, i expect many of you have be leading us because of the leadership skills you are learning on

>> president brandon: meeting called to order. [roll call] >> president brandon: item 2, approval of minutes, september 11, 2018. >> so moved. >> second. >> president brandon: any public comment on the minutes? seeing none? in favor? minutes approved. >> clerk: public comment on executive session. >> president brandon: any public comment on executive session? seeing none -- >> no public. >> president brandon: all in favor. >> motion to go to