>> are you ever heard of the leads program. >> yes. >> are you part of the leads program? do you have a case worker? >> yes, i have a case manager. >> when they have a contact with a possible lead referral, they give us a call. ideally we can meet them at the scene where the ticket is being issued. >> primarily what you are talking to are people under the influence of drugs but they will all be nonviolent. if they were violent they wouldn't qualify for lead. >> you think i am going to get arrested or maybe i will go to jail for something i just did because of the substance abuse issues i am dealing with. >> they would contact with the outreach worker. >> then glide shows up, you are not going to jail. we can take you. let's meet you where you are without telling you exactly what

that is going to look like, let us help you and help you help yourself. >> bring them to the community assessment and services center run by adult probation to have assessment with the department of public health staff to assess the treatment needs. it provides meals, groups, there are things happening that make it an open space they can access. they go through detailed assessment about their needs and how we can meet those needs. >> someone who would have entered the jail system or would have been arrested and book order the charge is diverted to social services. then from there instead of them going through that system, which hasn't shown itself to be an effective way to deal with people suffering from suable stance abuse issues they can be

connected with case management. they can offer services based on their needs as individuals. >> one of the key things is our approach is client centered. hall reduction is based around helping the client and meeting them where they are at in terms of what steps are you ready to take? >> we are not asking individuals to do anything specific at any point in time. it is a program based on whatever it takes and wherever it takes. we are going to them and working with them where they feel most comfortable in the community. >> it opens doors and they get access they wouldn't have had otherwise. >> supports them on their goals. we are not assigning goals working to come up with a plan what success looks like to them. >> because i have been in the field a lot i can offer different choices and let them decide which one they want to go down and help them on that path.

>> it is all on you. we are here to guide you. we are not trying to force you to do what you want to do or change your mind. it is you telling us how you want us to help you. >> it means a lot to the clients to know there is someone creative in the way we can assist them. >> they pick up the phone. it was a blessing to have them when i was on the streets. no matter what situation, what pay phone, cell phone, somebody else's phone by calling them they always answered. >> in office-based setting somebody at the reception desk and the clinician will not work for this population of drug users on the street. this has been helpful to see the outcome. >> we will pick you up, take you to the appointment, get you food on the way and make sure your

needs are taken care of so you are not out in the cold. >> first to push me so i will not be afraid to ask for help with the lead team. >> can we get you to use less and less so you can function and have a normal life, job, place to stay, be a functioning part of the community. it is all part of the home reduction model. you are using less and you are allowed to be a viable member of the society. this is an important question where lead will go from here. looking at the data so far and seeing the successes and we can build on that and as the department based on that where the investments need to go. >> if it is for five months. >> hopefully as final we will come up with a model that may help with all of the communities

in the california. >> i want to go back to school to start my ged and go to community clean. >> it can be somebody scaled out. that is the hope anyway. >> is a huge need in the city. depending on the need and the data we are getting we can definitely see an expansion. >> we all hope, obviously, the program is successful and we can implement it city wide. i think it will save the county millions of dollars in emergency services, police services, prosecuting services. more importantly, it will save lives.

>> we're here today because the let's play s.f. initiative is committed to building new opportunities for childhood creativity and play. let's play s.f. is a public-private partnership between recreation and park and the san francisco parks alliance give them a big round of applause. [applause]. >> which led to a citizen task force that unanimously recommended 13 playgrounds to be renovated all across the city as the first step in inspiring community creativity and wellness for 20,000 children. we are breaking ground today on not one, not two, not three, but five playgrounds. i skipped number 4, but 5 playgrounds. [applause]. >> we are breaking ground right

here at panhandle, we are breaking ground at alice chalmers, at mclaren, in merced heights and in sergeant mccauley in the tenderloin. we are here today in the panhandle because these types of partnerships, in this kind of investment in parks takes leadership. we are joined today by not one, but two elected officials from this community, from this neighborhood. both of whom have served on the board of supervisors. one of whom has graduated to a different office. so it is my incredible pleasure to introduce our mayor, london breed, and we want to thank her for keeping equity. [cheers and applause]. >> we want to really thank her for keeping equity at the center of what we do here in parks, and what we do in our city. from playgrounds, to access to more open space, these are all incredibly vital to the health

and welfare of all san franciscans, and we are so grateful for mayor breed charge at leadership. it is your turn at the microphone. >> thank you. thank you. welcome to the panhandle. you know, i am so excited to be here because this project specifically, and in this particular playgrounds right behind me, it has been a long time coming. this community has fought to really improve playgrounds throughout this district, and we are doing it one playground at a time. i grew up not too far from here in the western edition. i spent my whole childhood at margaret hayward playground, and i'm so excited because we just broke ground a few months ago, and that place is going to be transformed to something that's absolutely unbelievable, and will serve young people for generations to come.

the work that recreation and parks department continues to do to invest in our recreational assets all over san francisco is critical to ensure that we have a healthy san francisco so that our kids grow up and stay have the opportunities to enjoy themselves in these incredible play structures. now we've spent a lot of time playing, but we also spent a lot of time messing around in the parks. you know what i mean, hanging out, talking, swimming on the swings, when the swing would break, we would figure out creative ways to put the swing back together again. we were resilient in our parks back then and we will continue to be resilient in our parks now this is an incredible opportunity made possible not just by the support of the parks department, but because the voters, time and time again, continue to support initiatives that allow for us to invest in these parks and playgrounds is

why we are able to really transform parks all over san francisco in such an amazing way we do it also because of our private partners, and we are so grateful that the parks alliance and the work that they continue to do to fund raise more parks in san francisco is critical to our ability to do projects like this. i know that the family foundation is here today. thank you so much for your investment and so many incredible opportunities, as well as jeff here from the foundation who continues to really make these incredible investments. it means a lot, it is so great to have an incredible leader and phil ginsberg and the members of the commission who time and time again bridge those gaps with those partnerships, so that we can do everything we can in this city to make sure our recreation

and parks space, our facilities, are the best anywhere, because we love our parks, whether it is running through them, whether it is playing basketball at them, whether it is swinging in the swing set, whether it is playing checkers like i used to do, i don't know if anyone still plays checkers, but i played checkers and chess in the recreation centers and monopoly. whatever it is, to ensure that these safe, great spaces are available to young people is so critical, and that is why san francisco is such an amazing place, and i am just so happy to be here. it is a long time coming." congratulations on this part here in the panhandle, and so many other recreational spaces that we know are going to be transformed so that these young folks can visit parks all over san francisco and have an amazing time. thank you all so much for being here. [cheers and applause].

>> our other district five champion has been an advocate and commute -- and community member in this neighborhood for 25 years. she is the heartbeat of district five and is continuously fighting for what's best for residents, families, and children. supervisor brown has worked hard to ensure that playground play is accessible for all ages and abilities. she has become one heck of a park champion. it is my privilege to introduce supervisor vallie brown. [cheers and applause]. >> thank you, thank you everyone for being here today. thank you to the donors, all the children that are here, because this is going to be -- you will be here in the next couple of years having a good time, but i also want to thank the neighborhood groups because i remember, as a legislative age going out and starting to talk to the neighbors about doing this. i remember some neighbors said you are going to take away our park? our playground?

this is -- we use this all the time, but what was really amazing is how the haight-ashbury community, north of the panhandle community, we have lilo gail and charles here from north of the panhandle community, and others who said yes, let's do this. how can we help? and that is how we create these amazing parks. i've been around a long time. i've been a legislative aide and it has been so much fun to watch these different parks and recreation centers open up, like hamilton. hayes valley playgrounds. now the panhandle park. we are actually standing in one of the oldest parks in the city. this area of the park is 100 years old. isn't that amazing? and to think that it is beautiful, when i ride my bike through here on my way to work back and forth, i love seeing this park active. i love hearing the kids yell and

scream and laugh. it actually brings me up, especially when i've had a hard day, and to have this park, into have the kind of playground that we will have is so amazing, and to be able to have kids get out, and we all know that when kids go out and they play, they are actually, they are smarter. they actually solve problems easier, they get their vitamin d , all the great things that you need to become an amazing adult, and we are going to see that from these kids who come and play. i want to thank everyone for coming today. it is atypical haight-ashbury day. we all have our jackets on, and thank you, and let's play. [cheers and applause]. >> the let's play initiative would not be possible without the incredible partnership with the san francisco parks alliance they help provide opportunities

for all children to have safe, imaginative, welcoming places to play. through our partnership, and through their work, generous donors have contributed nearly $10 million towards our collective 14.5 million-dollar philanthropic goal. the recreation and park department simply could not have a better partner than all of the hard-working staff and board members in the san francisco parks alliance speaking on behalf of the san francisco parks alliance today is the chair of the board of directors, liz farrell. [applause]. >> thank you all for being here. on behalf of the parks alliance, i would like to thank me or breed for your support, and for being such a champion of parks and public spaces, and for continuing to make that a priority. thank you. thank you to our supervisors for

your support, intercourse thank you to recreation and park, you without your partnership, let's play s.f. would not be possible. playgrounds are one of the most equitable things we have in our city. these playgrounds will help transform the lives of over 20,000 kids, and some of our most high need neighborhoods. playgrounds are a wonderful place for kids to create, play, and explorer, and as a mom of three kids myself, i know how important playgrounds are for both physical and mental health. i look forward to these playgrounds and all playgrounds in our city being a wonderful place for people of all ages and backgrounds to connect and celebrate what truly makes our city so great together. thank you. [applause]. >> all right, now you get the pleasure of hearing from two

neighbors and community members. they are involved in organizations whose kids use this space every day. first up, i want to welcome rodney chin to the microphone. rodney has been a key panhandle community leader. he is involved in the ymca afterschool program at new elementary schools and the ymca has been a great partner in our system. together we worked to work to make sure our kids have healthy and safe places to play. rodney? [cheers and applause]. >> thank you. >> thank you, everybody. it is a great honor to be here today as a resident of the ymca, we let you know that we do run two afterschool programs in the panhandle area. new tradition school has over 200 kids in that school, and also the chinese immersion school which is here. so this panhandle playground falls right in the middle of both sections that we operate

our programs in. it is so important for our kids and their families to have a place to come together and recreate together. growing up in san francisco, as a native san franciscan, and no current resident in d5, there are not very many places where kids can just come on their own and play it like i used to be able to do growing up. so this is a great place to bring family together, families feel safe, and just part of the community. we are so thankful that the parks alliance and the park and recreation departments have come up with this great plan for the panhandle. thank you very much. [applause]. >> and now you get to hear from a long time panhandle resident, father of new traditions and an elementary school student, and in his spare time, not only is either involved in the san francisco parks alliance, but he was actively involved in the community process to redesign this playground. welcome tim sieber.

[cheers and applause]. >> longtime residents. i'm starting to feel like an o.g. here in the panhandle, i guess. it is really great to have all of you here today surrounded by friends and community members and folks i know from school and longtime neighbors. we have lilo gail and london breed and vallie brown, this is exciting. i'm really happy to see it, and drinking is incredible. if you haven't seen the plans, you really have to take a look at this, but it is already starting to come into shape here i have no doubts that the next generation is going to enjoy this park is not as we have. we have had events from pacific primary preschool going back a few years to new traditions, as was mentioned, to all kinds of gatherings of friends and students and what have you. i'm very excited to see this here, and very excited to have you all here today.

[applause]. >> thank you, tim. before we get to the business at hand, we don't do this alone, there are a number of acknowledgements we want to make i want to start by thanking some of our additional elected leadership you're here today because of their incredible support, supervisor safai from district 11 is here, you might notice that he is one heck of a park advocates. you might notice two of the five are in his district. thank you for all of your work. i also want to acknowledge the vice president of the recreation and parks commission who has helped guide the entire let's play process, and has made sure that our funding is in place, and that the process has been transparent. it has had a significant amount of community input. thank you commissioner alan lowe [applause]. >> the mayor acknowledged a few special people who are here, but we could not have done this without our incredible,

passionate donors who really care about kids and parks. so let me also acknowledge jeff farber, the chief executive director of the foundation. thank you, jeff. [applause]. >> jody pritzker. [applause] which one are we from? they have been incredibly generous neighbors and involved in not just this project, but also the tennis center project in golden gate park. thank you for all of your interest in parks. amy rubino, the director of the foundation family fund, thank you to amy. staff from san francisco for sports and recreation. thank you for your entire grapefruit stepping up here. anna, you have been amazing, i also want to acknowledge a captain from park station. [applause]

i want to acknowledge jim elling from kaiser, they have been an incredible partner with us and supporting the playground, also present today our energy and robert from the parks and recreation open space advisory committee, thank you to prozac for all of your support and involvement. we have our construction and design team here. i want to thank contracting and rha landscape architecture. thank you for this. i also want to thank the city staff that's been involved in the design process. i saw albert from public works here. thank you for your incredible partnership. to my own team, to caribou prior to is not only involved in the panhandle project but hoping to drive the entire let's play initiative and our general of the let's play initiative who keeps his -- this whole thing

moving, our director partnership , lisa branson. [applause] , and lastly, we have community representatives from all five of the sites here today, so again, let me run through and acknowledge the sights. thank you to steppingstones preschool and all of the kids for being here today. [cheers and applause] thank you, guys. here to break ground at merced heights, and i think we get to do a couple times, but edna james. one of the city charge of most enduring park advocates. aerial, the sports director of jamestown community center who will help me break ground and supervisor safai at allis chalmers right now. we have representatives from north the panhandle neighborhood association in addition to tim, and rodney. we have charles and lilo. thank you for being here.

north of panhandle neighborhood. and then i always referenced anna who is also here representing the central city s.r.o. collaborative and sergeant john mcauley, thank you to all of you for being here and caring about kids and our playgrounds and our parks. let's break down -- ground and get these construction projects started, so the mayor will lead us in a countdown and what i would love is for aerial to join me in front of allis chalmers and supervisor safai, you get to hit both spots, liz farrell and the kids from steppingstones and captain bailey in front of the mclaren playground, edna and supervisor safai at merced heights, and then mayor breed, supervisor brown, kids from steppingstones, charles, tim, lilo here at panhandle, and

commissioner lowe and anna g. at sergeant mcauley. >> everybody ready? let me just make sure. are you already? five, four, three, two, one. [cheers and applause] i'm nicole and lindsey, i like the fresh air. when we sign up, it's always so

gratifying. we want to be here. so i'm very excite ied to be here today. >> your volunteerism is appreciated most definitely. >> last year we were able to do 6,000 hours volunteering. without that we can't survive. volunteering is really important because we can't do this. it's important to understand and a concept of learning how to take care of this park. we have almost a 160

acres in the district 10 area. >> it's fun to come out here. >> we have a park. it's better to take some of the stuff off the fences so people can look at the park. >> the street, every time, our friends. >> i think everybody should give back. we are very fortunate. we are successful with the company and it's time to give back. it's a great place for us. the weather is nice. no rain. beautiful san francisco. >> it's a great way to be able to have fun and give back and

walk away with a great feeling. for more opportunities we have volunteering every single day of the week. get in touch with the parks and recreation center >> shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their business in the 49 square files

of san francisco. we help san francisco remain unique, successful and right vi. so where will you shop and dine in the 49? >> i'm one of three owners here in san francisco and we provide mostly live music entertainment and we have food, the type of food that we have a mexican food and it's not a big menu, but we did it with love. like ribeye tacos and quesadillas and fries. for latinos, it brings families together and if we can bring that family to your business, you're gold. tonight we have russelling for e community. >> we have a ten-person limb elimination match. we have a full-size ring with

barside food and drink. we ended up getting wrestling here with puoillo del mar. we're hope og get families to join us. we've done a drag queen bingo and we're trying to be a diverse kind of club, trying different things. this is a great part of town and there's a bunch of shops, a variety of stores and ethnic restaurants. there's a popular little shop that all of the kids like to hanhang out at. we have a great breakfast spot call brick fast at tiffanies. some of the older businesses are refurbished and newer businesses are coming in and it's exciting. >> we even have our own brewery for fdr, ferment, drink repeat. it's in the san francisco garden

district and four beautiful muellermixer ura alsomurals. >> it's important to shop local because it's kind of like a circle of life, if you will. we hire local people. local people spend their money at our businesses and those local mean that wor people willr money as well. i hope people shop locally. [ ♪ ]

>> i went through a lot of struggles in my life, and i am blessed to be part of this. i am familiar with what people are going through to relate and empathy and compassion to their struggle so they can see i came

out of the struggle, it gives them hope to come up and do something positive. ♪ ♪ i am a community ambassador. we work a lot with homeless, visitors, a lot of people in the

area. >> what i like doing is posting up at hotspots to let people see visibility. they ask you questions, ask you directions, they might have a question about what services are available. checking in, you guys. >> wellness check. we walk by to see any individual, you know may be sitting on the sidewalk, we make sure they are okay, alive. you never know. somebody might walk by and they are laying there for hours. you never know if they are alive. we let them know we are in the area and we are here to promote safety, and if they have somebody that is, you know, hanging around that they don't want to call the police on, they don't have to call the police. they can call us. we can direct them to the services they might need.

>> we do the three one one to keep the city neighborhoods clean. there are people dumping, waste on the ground and needles on the ground. it is unsafe for children and adults to commute through the streets. when we see them we take a picture dispatch to 311. they give us a tracking number and they come later on to pick it up. we take pride. when we come back later in the day and we see the loose trash or debris is picked up it makes you feel good about what you are doing. >> it makes you feel did about escorting kids and having them feel safe walking to the play area and back. the stuff we do as ambassadors makes us feel proud to help keep the city clean, helping the residents. >> you can see the community

ambassadors. i used to be on the streets. i didn't think i could become a community ambassador. it was too far out there for me to grab, you know. doing this job makes me feel good. because i came from where a lot of them are, homeless and on the street, i feel like i can give them hope because i was once there. i am not afraid to tell them i used to be here. i used to be like this, you know. i have compassion for people that are on the streets like the homeless and people that are caught up with their addiction because now, i feel like i can give them hope. it reminds you every day of where i used to be and where i am at now.

. >> goorn