>> welcome everyone. my name is david cook. i am the president of the board of the directors of the episcopal community services. is my privilege to thank you all for being here on this wet but very important day as we inaugurate the bryant street navigation center. i wanted to take a minute to give a special welcome to our distinguished roster of guest speakers will be hearing from in a few minutes. the mayor is here, filled tagging tag tony tried various, and rebecca from google. i would also like to welcome leaders and staff of the department of homelessness and supportive housing, here. i would also like to welcome all our other partners and friends and members of the press who are covering these issues so diligently. a special welcome to the board members and staff who showed up today. one of our senior staff members will be offering some interesting insight into this new facility a little bit later

on. last but not least, i want to welcome our navigation centre residents who are here in the room. the folks who are on the front lines who are experiencing or have recently experienced homelessness first-hand. as you probably know, conventional homeless shelters have been around for a long time , but navigation centers are pretty new. less than four years ago, in march of 2014, we were instrumental in opening and operating the very first navigation center in the united states over on mission street. since that time, five additional navigation centers have been opened, and today, a sixth. the navigation centers in this town have become a national model for removing barriers to housing for high need individuals who are dealing with complex issues and two as a result, have experienced homelessness. along the way, ecs has continued to operate two of the navigation centers, but has established

itself as an innovative thought leader in the field, providing expert consultation to sister agencies both in san francisco, and across the country, and early-stage planning, set up, and ongoing operations, which brings us to what we are doing here today. we are so excited to be starting and operating this brand-new 84 bed navigation center here in the south of market. as you will hear, opening a facility like this requires the hard work, dedication, and generosity of a lot of people and a lot of companies and agencies. but long-term success in addressing homelessness can never be achieved without committed leaders at the highest levels of local governments. that is what we have in mayer london breach. just this past october, a few months after she was elected, she set an ambitious goal of adding 1,000 new shelter beds in san francisco by the end of 2020 and of getting half of them online -- [cheers and applause] >> and of getting half of them

online by this coming july. eighty-four of them are right here. under her leadership, we are on the way. ladies and gentlemen, mayer london breed. [cheers and applause] >> thank you. i am excited to be here today and i'm also excited to welcome in the new incoming supervisor for district six, matt haney, who is joining us here today. [applause] >> please direct any of your complaints to him. [laughter] >> this is a great day. i am just excited about what we're doing here in san francisco and it does take a village to get to a place where we can address what we know is one of the biggest challenges we face in this city, and that is homelessness. so many incredible organizations groups that continue to build partnerships with each and every one of us, to focus on providing shelters, providing navigation

centers, providing services, one of our great partners is here today, thank you downtown streets team for being here, it all the work that you continue to do to keep our communities clean and safe, and many of you know that this is definitely a top priority for my administration, and i am committed to making sure that we add at least 1,000 shelter beds to the city and county of san francisco by 2020, and what that would do is help provide a place for so many people that we know are sleeping on the streets every single night. we need to make sure that regardless of the challenges that we face as a city, in terms of building more housing, regardless of any of the issues around support for funding, for programs, we have to have places for people to go. we have to have places for people to go where they are able to stay for 24 hours and not be told that they have to leave in the morning. that is my commitment in helping to address this issue. it is an ambitious goal because we haven't increased the number

of shelter beds by that amount since the 1989 earthquake. many of us remember that time in our city where it was a very challenging time. we know that if we are going to get to a better place, we have to also be honest, and have an honest conversation about what we know are some of the root causes of homelessness. many people that sadly are down on their luck, many people who are struggling with mental illness, and addiction, we know that we can do better by providing more permanent services to get people to a better place. i am excited because since the navigation centers have been in existence, it is really a great place to transition people into more permanent housing. we have connected people to permanent housing. we connected people to resources and we have, through our homeward bound program, we have connected people to their family

members. over 1,000 people serve through our navigation center program that have been reconnected to their families. what we are doing is not traditional in that navigation centers are 24 hours, they have a great staff and team of people who continue to greet people with a smile, and treat people with respect and the dignity that they deserve. and more importantly, they have a really strong desire to help people get off the streets and get permanently housed. ultimately that is the goal, it anything that we do. we basically, with these navigation centers, people are able to bring their partners, their pets, and in fact with this particular center with 84 beds, 20 will be dedicated specifically to women peer given women a private location where they can get the support and the services that they need as well. just a few days -- 623 people

out of our navigation centers since december have been transferred -- transitioned into permanent housing. 144 people have had temporary placement, and over 1200 have been reconnected with their families through our homeward bound program. thank you all so much for that hard work in getting people connected to. [applause] >> we know that it takes a village to get to a place where we have more opportunities for people to get into permanent housing and to get stabilized, and a lot of this work is done -- bureaucracy is involved, but also creative, hard-working leaders like our assembly member who is here with us today, who not only pass the legislation that made it possible for us to lease the land for this particular purpose, but help to provide a significant portion of funding to get these navigation

centers open, so i just want to thank phil for his leadership in sacramento, and continuing to push this conversation that has led us to this place of opening what is probably the third navigation center since the work he has been doing, in the and the second on caltrain land specifically. [applause] >> i want to thank tony taveras from caltrain, because again the people who work for these departments are the drivers of what we need to do in terms of paperwork, and issuing funds, and those kinds of things. so thank you to tony from district four who is here with us today. and also our private partner, google, rebecca is here with us today. they provided $3 million to get this place open sooner rather than later. [applause] >> jeff kaczynski and his team from the department of

homelessness, they don't just work on trying to provide these spaces, they work every single day on the front lines, the hot team, they are out there trying to get people to help, and the support that they need to, and through our coordinated entry system, they have been able to register thousands of our homeless residents in order to get them into places like the navigation centers, and it has been a fascinating system where we are able to track people, and get them to help and the support they need without duplicating services. i want to thank you mohammed nuru with the department of public works who facilitated the building of this building, and some of the other navigation centers. i want to thank the real estate division in the city, and i especially want to thank the folks with community services for continuing to be a great partner in continuing to provide the kinds of services that we get to build, we go through the process, we get the legislation, but it takes community partners, and the work they do on the

front lines in order to make that these places are working for the people that we want to take care of. it will take a consistent effort from each and every one of us if we are going to address this issue. every day i am thinking about what are some more ways in which we can get to a place where not only we are able to address some of the challenges around homelessness, but how will we build more housing, pete -- keep people housed, and make sure that when someone is homeless, we are able to get them into some permanent situations where they are able to live in dignity while we have a lot of work to do, but this is a great start and i'm i am looking forward to getting to our goal of making sure that 1,000 shelter beds exist, an additional a thousand beds in addition to the ones we have and they are open and available to anyone at any time so that no one has to sleep on our street at night in the cold. thank you all so much for being here today. [applause]

>> thank you mayor breed. as she suggested, the challenges of homelessness require the commitment of knowledgeable and dedicated legislatures. we also have this in our assembly member from the 19th district. [applause] >> thank you, david, thank you to e.c.s. for doing this amazing work, day after day. it is because of organizations like yours that you really make me so proud to be from san francisco. we have some of the best nonprofits, not just in our state, but across the country. thank you to mayor breed for your amazing leadership. it seems like a few months ago we are at division circle on caltrain land, and doing a similar celebration. i know that at times it feels so daunting. we walked the streets, would drive the streets, we see folks sleeping on sidewalks, sleeping

in the park, and i think for years, we have always grappled with, what do we do while what can we do? it feels like we put people in homes and in shelters and then there's more people in streets. at times it feels like an epic problem that really can't be solved. i think at times where i look at our city and we often times are a lightning rod for people. people are coming -- there are folks frustrated here and people are coming here from all over because san francisco is doing their part. san francisco is offering their services. that is one of the reasons why the state has decided to get involved. we realize this is no longer a city by city issue. mayor breed can't talk to other mayors, we have to figure out how to do this. everyone in the state has to do their part. one in four homeless people in our country lives in california.

one in four. 134,000 people. we have 75 -- we have 7500 people here in san francisco. los angeles has 60,000. think about it. that is not a small town. that is a medium-sized town in california. so the problem is great. it is also a stage that we know we can solve problems. we know if we can build bridges, we can build all these buildings , we can build all this amazing housing and build the economy. we have an economy here in san francisco with 2% of unemployment, we are the fifth largest economy in the entire world in california. there is nothing we feel like we can't do. if we can't find a way to put people in homes, if we can't find a way to have people, offer people a life with dignity, than i don't think anybody else can. we will not stop trying, because that is what our city stands for we know that we believe that we

are welcoming people from all around the world his, all around the country to come and live here regardless of their circumstance, regardless of their documents, regardless of why they're here, and because for the simple reason that they come here because this is a place where they can live, where they can thrive, where they can succeed. we want to continue to be the beacon of hope. that city ants that state where people want to come, where people can thrive, and where people can live out their dreams , that california dream is still alive and well. in terms of the state, we were so proud to work with the city about 20 years ago to ensure that caltrain's land, ten different parcels in the area, we want to thank tony at the team for working with us, to be able to give us land at a reduced rate. many of us probably walked by and drove by the slabs thinking okay, it is just empty land.

it is just part of an offramp. before i saw the division circle , i had no idea what could be done with the parcel of land next to a freeway on-ramp or an offramp. it is amazing. this is now an on-ramp onto a different life, right? [applause] >> not only can you go to oakland, you can go into other areas. that is what we want people to turn to. i am proud this is a team effort the city, the mohammed, our mayor, our new supervisor, state and caltrain saying, hey, i spoke to them and they spent about $60 million a year just shoeing people off their land. they said, hey, how about we helped house people? let's not waste that money and let's be part of the solution. so that is what we are saying.

let's be part of the solution. so the state was proud to give the city $10 million for navigation centers. went on division center that got put off. the state also said we will give $500 million across the entire state. $27 million to san francisco to help put up emergency shelters. why quiet we have an emergency crisis in homelessness. it is an emergency. when you have this many people living on the streets. i know that is the beginning. we need to do more and not only do we need to do more in terms of funding and taking a hard look, we need to make sure that everyone is building homeless shelters and housing for the homeless. not just us. it can't just b.s. it has to be san mateo, it has to be -- you can't just be us. it has to be all the different counties that haven't been part of that solution. we know it is part of the stuff

we need to do with the other counties who aren't as onboard. we'll be taking on those challenges just like we are taking on challenges from housing. but again, thank you so much for the huge amount of team effort, all of the city, state, amazing who are here today, and really to give 84 people this new on-ramp to a different life. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much. as the mayor pointed out, it takes a village to open a navigation center, and you can't have a village without the land its built on. this is where caltrain comes in. i would like to invite the district four director to the podium. he will describe in more detail their role in making this navigation center a reality. tony? [applause] >> good morning. thank you assembly member, mayor london breed, and thank you to all the partners who made this navigation come to fruition.

i'm so pleased and excited to be here this morning and celebrating the opening of the navigation center, and the partnership with the city of san francisco and the california department of transportation and crafting an innovative solution to the challenges of homelessness. for us at caltrain, keeping people safe is what we do. it is at the heart of what we do we come to work every day committed to ensuring the safety of those who drive on the highway system, our maintenance workers who are out diligently caring for that system, and the pedestrians and bicyclists navigate highways that are also city streets. it is incredibly important to me that everyone, whether work or traveller gets home safe at the end of each day. and because safety is so important to me, i worry when i see people trying to create a home on our toughest -- transportation infrastructure. it is not a safe option and it puts people at risk because they are living close to heavy vehicles moving at high speeds, they are living long term in the

exhaust of those vehicles, in their living without proper sanitary infrastructure and exposing them to disease. they are also living exposed and vulnerable to crime. this is not what we want for our fellow citizens, and yet more and more people feel they have no other option than to take shelter on the transportation infrastructure. this place has been in jeopardy and impacts the communities around them. is a huge and overwhelming problem, and know one nonprofit or government entity can solve it. but such big problems provide us with opportunities to innovate and develop these partnerships, and the navigation center is one of those solutions. with the creative leadership of the city of san francisco and the state legislature, we are able to lend an unexpected hand. this location is not -- is now suitable as a permanent housing site, and it will also provide

an entry point to help people on the journey out of homelessness. it will balance the urgency of the issue, the safety of the affected people, and the practical operational requirements on the highway system. i'm excited to see the impact of this center, as well as similar partnership opportunities that we are engaging in the bay area. the celebration today highlights what we can accomplish when we work worked together to find compassionate solutions. we are very proud to be part of the effort to address the crisis of homelessness, and i encourage everyone to think outside the box and discover how you too can take part. thank you very much. [applause] >> tony didn't mention what the actual rent is, i think it is one dollar a month. is that rent control? [laughter] >> good news. opening a center like this also requires the participation of committed individuals and companies in the private sector.

for that we have many people to thank, but none more so than google. i would like to introduce the chief of public affairs in california, rebecca pros and. [applause] >> good morning. google has been a proud member of san francisco for over a decade his. since we first moved to our offices along the embarcadero, we continue to aim higher to be a good corporate citizen and neighbor, build strong and valued relationships with local nonprofits like downtown streets , community groups, and policy members are doing incredibly important work in the city. we have a long history of working with these partners to identify where we can best be of service. where everyone has seen the most need to, and where we can have the most impact, is homelessness their answers provided us with a multitude of opportunities. we provided free munimobile for youth, we helped install free wi-fi and 31 parks across the city, we have loaned city google

employees for a civic leadership project to improve user experience and design of affordable housing which earned a government award last year, and we have also given $1 million to the mayor touch a fund for homelessness to unify the systems for homeless i -- facing nonprofits and service is called the one system. these projects and more have combined for a total investment of over $63 million in the san francisco community since 2014. nearly a quarter of the funding is addressing the dire need for more resources for more homelessness. it is through ongoing conversations with partners, icu jeff kaczynski, that we first learned about the mayor touch a fund for homelessness and navigation center programs. this is more than worthy of the google grants provided to offset the $4.67 million construction cost. we are so proud and thankful to be here today as the doors are finally open, and more of our neighbors are able to access the

resources and services they need we are honored to stand with mayor breed, with assembly member taking, supervisor matt haney, with episcopal community services and caltrain, and other city leaders to provide services to other individuals in need. thank you so much. [applause] >> thank you, rebecca, and thank you so much to google for what they have done. our last speaker is ccs's director of programs who will describe some of the interesting details about this navigation center. ,. [applause] >> thank you. episcopal community services focuses on ending homelessness through housing as the brilliant navigation center is an essential component of the city 's homeless response system. as we serve long-term homeless individuals, our focus is on offering rest bite from living on the streets, and giving people an opportunity to change

their lives. today, 34 people have moved into this navigation center and we continue to accept people from the department of homelessness and supportive housing, and the homeless outreach team as we fill 84 beds. the brilliant navigation center is unique in that there are 20 beds designated for homeless women who have their own separate living and sleeping area, in addition to offering on site meals and showers and property storage, our guests will receive on site medical care, harm reduction therapeutic services, and case management connecting people to income, public benefits, interim housing and assessments for placement and longer-term housing. access to e.c.s.'s workforce development and healthy aging, continual services is also available for all of our navigation center guests. finally, e.c.s. is proud to be partnering with the city as they

bring on the brilliant navigation center, and we thank you all. [applause] >> thank you. once again we would like to thank mayor breed, this family member, and google and further remarks today and for their amazing supports. we like to thank all of you, a republican private partners, staff, residence, neighbors for attending this. we are committed to continuing to provide pathways to housing with tools such as this navigation center and the programs and services it provides. you are all invited to a short tour of this new facility that will be led by, and by john, our interim director of shelters and that will conclude our presentation today. thank you. [applause]

>> usf donates 100-120 pounds of food a night. for the four semesters we have been running here, usf has donated about 18,000 pounds of food to the food recovery network. ♪ ♪ >> i'm maggie. >> i'm nick.

>> we're coe-chairs of the national led organization. what food recovery does is recover and redistribute food that would go wasted and redistributing to people in the community. >> the moment that i became really engaged in the cause of fighting food waste was when i had just taken the food from the usf cafeteria and i saw four pans full size full of food perfectly fine to be eaten and made the day before and that would have gone into the trash that night if we didn't recover it the next day. i want to fight food waste because it hurts the economy, it's one of the largest emitters

of greenhouse gases in the world. if it was a nation, it would be the third largest nation behind china and the united states. america wastes about 40% of the food we create every year, $160 billion worth and that's made up in the higher cost of food for consumers. no matter where you view the line, you should be engaged with the issue of food waste. ♪ ♪ >> access edible food that we have throughout our lunch program in our center, i go ahead and collect it and i'll cool it down and every night i prep it up and the next day i'll heat it and ready for delivery. it's really natural for me, i

love it, i'm passionate about it and it's just been great. i believe it's such a blessing to have the opportunity to actually feed people every day. no food should go wasted. there's someone who wants to eat, we have food, it's definitely hand in hand and it shouldn't be looked at as work or a task, we're feeding people and it really means so much to me. i come to work and they're like nora do you want this, do you want that? and it's so great and everyone is truly involved. every day, every night after every period of food, breakfast, lunch, dinner, i mean, people just throw it away. they don't even think twice about it and i think as a whole, as a community, as any community, if people just put a

little effort, we could really help each other out. that's how it should be. that's what food is about basically. >> an organization that meets is the san francisco knight ministry we work with tuesday and thursday's. ♪ ♪ by the power ♪ of your name >> i have faith to move mountains because i believe in jesus. >> i believe it's helpful to offer food to people because as you know, there's so much homelessness in san francisco

and california and the united states. i really believe that food is important as well as our faith. >> the san francisco knight ministry has been around for 54 years. the core of the ministry, a group of ordain ministers, we go out in the middle of the night every single night of the year, so for 54 years we have never missed a night. i know it's difficult to believe maybe in the united states but a lot of our people will say this is the first meal they've had in two days. i really believe it is a time between life or death because i mean, we could be here and have church, but, you know, i don't know how much we could feed or

how many we could feed and this way over 100 people get fed every single thursday out here. it's not solely the food, i tell you, believe me. they're extremely grateful. >> it's super awesome how welcoming they are. after one or two times they're like i recognize you. how are you doing, how is school? i have never been in the city, it's overwhelming. you get to know people and through the music and the food, you get to know people. >> we never know what impact we're going to have on folks. if you just practice love and kindness, it's a labor of love and that's what the food recovery network is and this is a huge -- i believe they

salvage our mission. >> to me the most important part is it's about food waste and feeding people. the food recovery network national slogan is finding ways to feed people. it's property to bring the scientific and human element into the situation. >> my name tom hewitt. first of all, i would like to welcome everyone to come to this fair. this safety fair, we trying to educate the public regarding how to prepare themselves during and after the earthquake and then to protect themselves for next 72

hours. >> hi. my name's ed sweeney. i'm the director of services at department of building inspection, and we put together a great fair for the city of san francisco to come down and meet all the experts. we've got engineers, architects. we have builders, we have government agencies. >> well, we have four specific workshops. we have the accessible business entrance. >> my name is leah, and i am the assistant manager with the department of small business. i am leading the new accessibility ordinance that helps existing owners better comply with existing access laws. so all buildings that have places of public accommodation

in san francisco, they must comply with this ordinance. >> the a.d.e. was setup by the board of supervisors, and the ordinance was passed about a year ago. >> one of the biggest updates that we have is that the deadlines were extended, so all of the deadlines were extended by six months. >> and it's really to help the public, the business community to be specific, to cut down on the amount of drive by lawsuits. >> so on this workshop, we're going to be covering what the compliance looks like, what business examiand property owne need to know how to comply with the ordinance. we'll also talk about the departments that are involved, including the office of small business, department of building inspection, planning department, as well as the mayor's office on disability. >> hi. i'm marselle, and i manage a

team at the building department. today, we'll cover the meaning of a.d.u.s, more commonly known as accessory dwelling units. we'll talk about the code and permitting processes, and we'll also talk about legalizing existing dwelling units that are currently unwarranted. >> this is the department of building inspection's residential remodelling workshop. my name is senior electrical inspector cheryl rose, and at this workshop, we're going to be answering questions such as do i need an electrical permit when i'm upgrading my dwelling, when do i need to have planning involved in a residential remodel, and what's involved with the coerce process? we're going to also be reviewing inspection process, and the permitting process for

residential remodel in san francisco. there's always questions that need answers. it's a mystery to the general public what goes on in construction, and the more we can clarify the process, the more involved the consumer can be and feel comfortable with the contractors they're working with and the product they're getting in the results. if you have questions that aren't addressed in this workshop, you're always welcome to come up to the third floor of 1660 mission street, and we're happy to discuss it with you and find out what you need to do. >> the program is very successful. the last piece is already 60% in compliance. >> well, we have a very important day coming up. it's sept 15. last four has to be compliance, which means that the level four people that have to register with us and give us a basic indication of how they're going

to deal with their seismic issues on their building. >> i'm francis zamora, and i'm with the san francisco department of emergency management, and today we talked about how to prepare for emergencies in san francisco. and so that's really importantiimportant. in san francisco, it's no secret. we live in earthquake country. there's a big chance we will be involved in a major earthquake in the next 30 years, but we don't have to be afraid. these are going to be your first responders outside of the police officers, paramedics, first responders, these are going to be the people that come to your aid first. by getting to know your neighbors, you're going to know who needs help and who can help in case of an emergency. one of the great ways to do that is for signing7for nert, san francisco neighborhood emergency

response team. it teaches you how to take care of yourself, your loved ones, and your neighborhood in the case of an emergency. information is just as important as water and food in an emergency. san francisco has an emergency text message alert system, called text sf. if there's some kind of an emergency happening in san francisco or your neighborhood, it could be a police action, a big fire, a tsunami or an earthquake. all you have to do is text your citizenship code to 888777, and your mobile phone is automatically registered for alert sf. >> my name is fernando juarez, and i'm a fire captain with the san francisco fire department. we have a hire extinguisher training system.

you want to pull the pin, stand at least 8 feet away, aim it at the base. if you're too close, the conical laser that comes out, it's too small, and the fire won't go out on the screen. if you step back, the conical shape on the screen is bigger, and it will take the fire go out faster. so it can tell when you're too close. >> my name is alicia wu, and i'm the director of a san francisco based nonprofit. since 2015, we go out to the public, to the community and provide training in different topics. today we're doing c.p.r., controlling external feeding and how to do perfect communications

in each topic, and also, i hope that they can bring it home and start gathering all the supplies for themselves to. >> on any given day in san francisco, we're very well resourced in terms of public safety professionals, but we all know in the event of a large scale disaster, it will be hours and days before the public safety professionals can get to you, so we encourage people to have that plan in place, be proactive. there's websites. we have a wonderful website called 72hours.org. it tells you how to prepare yourself, your family, your pets, your home, your workplace. we can't emphasize enough how important it is to be

>> the hon. london breed: hello, everyone. aren't we excited today? [applause] first of all, i want to thank all of you for being here today. this is a really special occasion to celebrate someone who has been working in education and improving the lives of so many children throughout san francisco for more than 20 years. jennie lamb is my choice for the board of education. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: and we all know that making decisions like this are very difficult, but we know that the board of education is an important institution, one that former members of the board of supervisors, like shamann walton and matt haney have served on.

i want to thank matt heaney or feedback that you provided on filling the term of your seat. i think we have someone that may not be able to fit in your h shoes but will fill your shoes. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: so i want to thank susan solomon and ken tray and others from uesf. really appreciate you all being here as well as members of the school board who i see, my deer friend, rachel norton, thank you so much. and one of the newest members of the board of educations, allison collins. i see city college member ivy lee, thank you so much for being here, as well as members

of the board of supervisors, gordon mar and ahsha safai for an individual we know is going to do a great job on the board of education, supporting or children, supporting our teachers and doing what's necessary to close the achievement gap to make sure that no student is left behind. now let's start with the most important qualifications that brings us here today. jennie lamb is a parent, and she has two children, two beautiful children, jackson and simone -- am i saying their names right? okay. i just want to make sure i have the names right, jackson and simone, who actually are in our public schools here. in fact, jackson, this is your school, roosevelt, right? are your friends jealous? a little bit. in fact, it's critical that the board of education as we know are represented by parents serving on this body.

parents are the ones who know firsthand the impacts of decisions that get made. she knows too often that parents are too busy struggling with some of the challenges that i know a lot of parents here are dealing with with trying to get their kids ready, trying to get them to listen, looking at their report cards, looking at their homework. a lot of times, we forget that just because parents are not showing up to the board of education meeting, doesn't necessarily mean they don't care. so they need someone, she need an advocate, they need a voice. i just realized, dr. vince matthews, who is the superintendent of our public schools is here today. thank you, dr. matthews, for being here today. ultimately, i want to make sure what we do here in san francisco is push for equity,

push for closing the achievement gap. as a parent, she understands firsthand, but not just as a parent. her whole life, her whole career, and what she's done as someone who has pushed to change for education. working with affirmative action, working with education super highway making sure schools have access to high speed internet services in states across this country. her work is local, her work is on a national level in trying to advocate for kids who, again, too often get left behind. so i am really excited, and i'm also really glad that our board of trusties commissioners here, ivy lee, you remember the work his lamb has done around

fighting to make sure that city college is supported, the advocacy she will continue to do as someone who will work collaboratively with her colleagues on the board of education. she will focus on making the best decisions, and they will be her decisions ultimately as it relates to anything that she chooses to do because i trust her judgment. so many of you who have worked with her over the years in the world of education, you know her, you trust her judgment, as well, and you know that our kids and our schools will be at the forefront of her thoughts in any decision that she makes moving us forward. so with that, i want to take this opportunity -- oh, and also recognize jennie's dad, mr. lamb. thank you so much for being here with us today. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: with that, i am going to swear in our new commissioner for the

san francisco school board. are we ready? all right. please raise your right hand and repeat after me with your name. i do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california against all enemies, foreign and domestic. that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california.

that i take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that i will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which i am about to enter. and during such time as i hold the office of member of the board of education for the city and county of san francisco. congratulations. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: ladies and gentlemen, your newest commissioner for the

board of education. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: it's official. [applause] >> thank you, mayor breed. i am truly humbled with this opportunity to serve on the board of education. good morning. it's wonderful to see

colleagues, community members, and dear friends. first, i want to thank and acknowledge my parents. my dad and mom emigrated to the u.s. from hong kong, settling in oakland, with little money, but with a dream, a chance to strive for a better life. they've dedicated their lives to my sister and me, taught us the important of family, hard work, strong values, and resiliency. dad, please stand and be recognized. [applause] >> my first memories of school, of formal learning, started the first day of kindergarten. i still remember that day. i didn't understand what my teacher, ms. williams was saying because i didn't speak english. my first language was cantonnese, but it didn't matter. i was in a safe place and i was

eager to learn. i am a product of public education, kindergarten through my studies at u.c. santa barbara. my professor and mentor, dr. sue chang chan, encouraged me to explore possibilities, including working for social good. san francisco has been my home for over 20 years. the city where i landed my first job out of college in chinatown, working with early care educators, education teachers and providers, and years later, started a family and committed to raising two kids in san francisco. there were long days and sleepless nights, right, keith, when we asked how are we going to handle all of this? can we make it happen? then our daughter started kindergarten which confirmed our commitment to public schools. and during this time as a new

sf unified parent, i started working at the san francisco civil rights bay organization. they have a history of fighting for the most marginalized communities. i want to send them thanks. and through my profession life from running youth and family programs in oakland public schools to managing nonprofit organizations to nurturing leadership of immigrant parents across the city. all these experiences have taught me humility and compassion. san francisco is passionate about the power of public education. i'm honored to be part of the mission to give the best public education for our students regardless of neighborhood, income, or immigration status. this moment is for