>> growing up in san francisco has been way safer than growing up other places we we have that bubble, and it's still that bubble that it's okay to be whatever you want to. you can let your free flag fry he -- fly here. as an adult with autism, i'm here to challenge people's idea of what autism is. my journey is not everyone's journey because every autistic child is different, but there's hope. my background has heavy roots in the bay area. i was born in san diego and adopted out to san francisco when i was about 17 years old.

i bounced around a little bit here in high school, but i've always been here in the bay. we are an inclusive preschool, which means that we cater to emp. we don't turn anyone away. we take every child regardless of race, creed, religious or ability. the most common thing i hear in my adult life is oh, you don't seem like you have autism. you seem so normal. yeah. that's 26 years of really, really, really hard work and i think thises that i still do. i was one of the first open adoptions for an lgbt couple. they split up when i was about four. one of them is partnered, and one of them is not, and then my biological mother, who is also a lesbian. very queer family. growing up in the 90's with a queer family was odd, i had the

bubble to protect me, and here, i felt safe. i was bullied relatively infrequently. but i never really felt isolated or alone. i have known for virtually my entire life i was not suspended, but kindly asked to not ever bring it up again in first grade, my desire to have a sex change. the school that i went to really had no idea how to handle one. one of my parents is a little bit gender nonconforming, so they know what it's about, but my parents wanted my life to be safe. when i have all the neurological issues to manage, that was just one more to add to it. i was a weird kid. i had my core group of, like, very tight, like, three friends. when we look at autism, we characterize it by, like, lack

of eye contact, what i do now is when i'm looking away from the camera, it's for my own comfort. faces are confusing. it's a lack of mirror neurons in your brain working properly to allow you to experience empathy, to realize where somebody is coming from, or to realize that body language means that. at its core, autism is a social disorder, it's a neurological disorder that people are born with, and it's a big, big spectrum. it wasn't until i was a teenager that i heard autism in relation to myself, and i rejected it. i was very loud, i took up a lot of space, and it was because mostly taking up space let everybody else know where i existed in the world. i didn't like to talk to people really, and then, when i did, i overshared. i was very difficult to be around.

but the friends that i have are very close. i click with our atypical kiddos than other people do. in experience, i remember when i was five years old and not wanting people to touch me because it hurt. i remember throwing chairs because i could not regulate my own emotions, and it did not mean that i was a bad kid, it meant that i couldn't cope. i grew up in a family of behavioral psychologists, and i got development cal -- developmental psychology from all sides. i recognize that my experience is just a very small picture of that, and not everybody's in a position to have a family that's as supportive, but there's also a community that's incredible helpful and wonderful and open and there for you in your moments of need. it was like two or three years of conversations before i was

like you know what? i'm just going to do this, and i went out and got my prescription for hormones and started transitioning medically, even though i had already been living as a male. i have a two-year-old. the person who i'm now married to is my husband for about two years, and then started gaining weight and wasn't sure, so i we went and talked with the doctor at my clinic, and he said well, testosterone is basically birth control, so there's no way you can be pregnant. i found out i was pregnant at 6.5 months. my whole mission is to kind of normalize adults like me. i think i've finally found my calling in early intervention, which is here, kind of what we do. i think the access to irrelevant care for parents is intentionally confusing. when i did the procespective

search for autism for my own child, it was confusing. we have a place where children can be children, but it's very confusing. i always out myself as an adult with autism. i think it's helpful when you know where can your child go. how i'm choosing to help is to give children that would normally not be allowed to have children in the same respect, kids that have three times as much work to do as their peers or kids who do odd things, like, beach therapy. how do -- speech therapy. how do you explain that to the rest of their class? i want that to be a normal experience. i was working on a certificate and kind of getting think early childhood credits brefore i started working here, and we

did a section on transgender inclusion, inclusion, which is a big issue here in san francisco because we attract lots of queer families, and the teacher approached me and said i don't really feel comfortable or qualified to talk about this from, like, a cisgendered straight person's perspective, would you mind talking a little bit with your own experience, and i'm like absolutely. so i'm now one of the guest speakers in that particular class at city college. i love growing up here. i love what san francisco represents. the idea of leaving has never occurred to me. but it's a place that i need to fight for to bring it back to what it used to be, to allow all of those little kids that come from really unsafe environments to move somewhere safe. what i've done with my life is work to make all of those situations better, to bring a little bit of light to all those kind of issues that we're still having, hoping to expand into a little bit more of a resource center, and this

resource center would be more those new parents who have gotten that diagnosis, and we want to be this one centralized place that allows parents to breathe for a second. i would love to empower from the bottom up, from the kid level, and from the top down, from the teacher level. so many things that i would love to do that are all about changing people's minds about certain chunts, like the transgender community or the autistic community. i would like my daughter to know there's no wrong way to go through life. everybody experiences pain and grief and sadness, and that all of those things are temporary. i want to thank all of our partners here today, city around county, mayor's office, all candidates, thank you for being here. i want to turn it over to my

associate and friend, ms. joyce. >> is it afternoon now? >> good morning, everyone. welcome to visitation valley. we want to thank you all for coming out this morning. we are so excited and so happy. these job fairs keep getting better and better, and i especially want to thank joshua, the mayor's office. a wonderful wrong man working to make sure we all have opportunities. >> we have a special guest in the house. i want everyone to help me recognize and our own district 10 supervisor walton. [applause.] >> good afternoon. this is what a hiring fair is supposed to look like.

sunnydale is on fire. i want more energy and excitement from this room. good afternoon. there we go. you know, we do hire fairs all the time throughout the year in various communities, and one of the things that i always used to stress when i used to work for community developers was i don't want to just have a job stair -- job fair to check boxes to say we had a bunch of people show up and nobody has a job. having focus hiring fairs with employers engaged with community having conversations and people walk away with jobs, interviews, something tangible to continue to be excited, continue to work hard to get connected to jobs is important. i want to say this is what a hiring fair is supposed to look like.

[applause.] we have several employers, several community-based organizations in attendance. we have folks working hard in the community. oewd, airport is here. police department is here, we have -- thank you so much for hosting, city build out on the ground every day. i saw judy here and a lot of community partners, but one of the things i love is when our resident leaders come out and participate and actually set an example for the community. i want to thank our resident leaders here from our public housing communities. these are the folks that advocate on behalf of the community and 99-point% of the time they are doing it because they care about community from their heart. it is not like they are making

money doing this work. i want to thank everybody. i want to thank all of you for coming out. we are going to continue to work hard to address the issues of unemployment across the city, and even though we have a very low unemployment rate in san francisco. we know in isolated counties in the southeast sector unemployment rate is much higher for people of color, people with disabilities, people in the lbgt community and low income community and folks having a hard time getting jobs. we want to change that. it is good to see when city departments come together, when communities come together, but most importantly, when folks from the community come to focus on engaging in working with opportunities that are available. we are going to continue to do more of these across the district, across the city. i am excited to see sunny dale fired up and to see the room

packed. we have people ready to go to work. welcome to g10, welcome to sunnydale. let's get folks connected to jobs. thank you so much. >> thank you supervisor. i was so excited, i didn't introduce myself. i am joyce armstrong proud president of phta. i want to give a shout out to the sunnydale residents. we worked hard to make sure we sat rated that development. they are going through transition of a new community built for them, and we want to make sure we support them as much as we can. i also have my fellow board members here. the treasurer and monaco, the vice president. we have our esteemed commissioner ms. mary ann pikes.

she is a resident of sunnydal sy sunnydale. we had the leadership here but they had meetings. this is when they do community meetings. we just want to thank you for all coming out. we want to thank the san francisco public housing, our director is here somewhere, tanya is the in executive director of the san francisco housing authority. we are under transition. we have our president of the -- where is the president of the commission as well as josh's boss? porsche is going from community to community, connected with us and some of the other residents

that are here. i am so happy this keeps getting better and better. i thought josh was going to have a heart attack. he goes 110% about any project the that he is working on. we want to thank him again. once again. we are phea at 1815 egbert street to keep low income housing. affordable is good, but we need 30% of income housing. i do want to add that they were appointed to the shipyard by may or ed lee. we are working hard. it represents all of district 10, not just bayview. when they do candlestick point there will be jobs, opportunities, a movie theater,

a hotel. we wish they would build a casino. we haven't heard about that. that would bring revenue. i know i would. i would like to have a casino here. momy goodness. hope sf. is there anybody else i should acknowledge? don't give me a microphone, i will go on and on. once again, we want to thank you. [applause.] >> i need a shout out to my c.e.o. faces sf and all of the others here are partners as well. we have mission hiring hall, s.f.m.t.a., project level, in

the house, yes. lake view in the house. goodwill in the house. we have our access points in the house. we also have commissioners throughout from various commissions as well as board of directors. thank you for supporting us. i need for you candidates to make sure you connect with the employers. amazon needs 100,000 people in the next 12 months. i think danada60 people. fed-ex how many? 30. they want 30. belton institute in the house. they have quite a few people, too. they need 15 people. the jobs are here.

go and get your interview card and interview. there are jobs available. i need you to get those jobs. we have more guests coming. we will let you know when we are ready to have them up. thank you all. [applause.] >> listen, for the best part of the day except for this event, i would like to tell you that this woman fights for us. she gets jobs for us. she is one of us. it is my delight to bring on the honorable mayor london breed. [applause.] >> mayor breed: i am so excited to be here. let me just say that we know here in san francisco we are lucky, right?

we have a 1.8% unemployment rate, but, sadly, we have so many people who can't get access to so many opportunities in san francisco. i have made it my mission to make sure that we are bringing the opportunities that exist to the city to the communities that traditionally don't get access to these opportunities. the thing is we know what the numbers have said for decades in terms of this particular community having some of the highest unemployment rates in our city, and more specifically, the african-american community having some of the highest unemployment rates in san francisco. we know what the data has always said. now we have to do something different to change that. we have to meet people where they are. we have to go into the

communities and bring the opportunities to the people who need them in these communities. that is why we are here today. we just opened a job center in omi exce area. go see ms. brown in that area. this is one of the first times we have done something like this here. this cannot be the last. it is important to be consistent. the woman in the back who is going to do training opportunities and helping people with city employment opportunities, she is going to come here every other month. every other month to make sure that if someone is looking for a city job which provides good healthcare and benefits for retirement, let's make sure you have someone to work with you to

help you understand the complicated city process to get one of those jobs. i have started opportunities for all, a program to provide paid internships for all high school students in san francisco because i wanted to make sure that our kids growing up in communities all over san francisco don't fall through the cracks. that is an amazing program which is really done a tremendous thing in opening up doors all over san francisco for so many city departments and also the private sector. we have to take it a step further for people who are adults now who are looking for opportunities. there are so many jobs in san francisco and the bay area. this is an opportunity to connect people who may decide they want to do something different in life. people may be retired but want to generate extra income.

people who want kids to move out so they want them to get their jobs to pay their own rent. that means that we have to continue to invest in these communities. we have to get out thereinto the community, and i have to tell you i am overwhelmed buyer the number of people here and so appreciative of the different city departments and agencies and the public sector folks. i just talked to a gentleman who got hired on the spot. that makes me feel real good. [applause.] >> when we talk about income and equality, when we talk about the achievement gap in the public schools, when we talk about all these things, this is just one small way to do something about it. today we are changing o how we o business in san francisco.

we are changing how we do business in san francisco. i want to just leave you with one last thing. when the door is open for you, don't shut it behind you. open the door for the next person. when you are in those job opportunities and you hear about something and no someone looking, then make sure you reach back and help someone who is looking for an opportunity, too. make sure that when you are working in these various industries you put your all into your work, that you do a good job and make your family and community proud. if you want be to start your own business or anything else that you put your all into it. i want to change the future of san francisco, and changing the future of san francisco starts today. it starts with making sure that anyone in this room who came for a second chance or an opportunity or a career change or anything else for that nature

that you have an opportunity walking out this door to do whatever it is you want to do. that is what today is about. i want to thank the public defender's office for being here as well. they are here to talk to anyone who, for example, may have challenges with their past and need some assistance inning what to do. they are here to work with you on record expunging and whatever you need. we have done a lot of things in the city. let me break it down so you can understand some of the laws that, basically, that we got rid of to make it easier to get rid of barriers to employment. when you say you don't have a driver's license or you have something on your record or owe some money. in san francisco we have given everyone a clean slate so you can get your license without paying excessive fees.

go and check that. i am really proud we have been able to do that. also, we don't discriminate when it comes to employment. if it is working for the city or any other company that does accident in san francisco against people who may have done something in their past that is following them and preventing them from seeking out opportunities. we have gotten rid of a lot of those things that get in the way of a job. don't just walk away or give up. make sure you ask someone. there are so many people who want you to succeed. we want everyone here to talk to whoever they feel they want to talk to, ask the questions they want to ask so you can get the results to change your life. thank you all so much for being here. thank you to our work force director, josh, just in case you

don't find something here that works for you, call josh directly. he will pick you up, take you shopping to get you an outfit to do interviews. i want to also thank joyce armstrong and the pca. joyce is a leader for all of our developments around san francisco. she has been incredible to make sure resources are delivered to residents of public housing throughout san francisco. thank you marlene tran forgetting the word out as well. thank you, drew, i hope you brought your kids to get them employed as well. i want be to touch on something else. i know this is a job fair. i want to introduce you to james caldwell who is working in the

mayor's office now. some of you already know him, but part of what he is going to focus on is dealing with the challenges around violence in our communities. whether it is any of the shootings that occur, some of the issues around the senior community who have been attacked or what have you, we have got to change what happens in the community. it starts with us holding our families and kids accountable to keep each other safe. we have to look out for someone another. anyone wants grandma to walk down the street without worries. we have to start working on the community. james is an important part. he used to work with sdip. he will work with this community. not only do we want you to thrive in the work force, we want you to thrive in life and feel safe in your community. thank you, james for being here.

thank you big rich and daniel forgetting the word out to the community. we will do these job fairs in all sorts of neighborhoods that have never had these before. we will not do them just once. we will come back time and time again. if there is anything you need when we are not here, again, joyce has the phone number, drew has the phone number. folks around here can call anytime. it is really time to change the future of san francisco and make sure that no one is left behind, and i need this community to do your part in working with us to make sure that we are investing in the things that you care about the most and this community needs the most, especially as we do rebuilding of sunnydale, make the changes we need. we want this community intact and that is what i am committed

to doing. have fun today, get a job, help somebody get a job and thank you all so much for turning out for us today. >> mayor breed, before you leave i have a special guest. because of the mayor's vision, what came to fruition was the city drive program. 300 were laid off. mayor breed's vision and they went to s.f.m.t.a. i have a city drive candidate to speak on behalf of city drive. >> it is an honor. i am emotionally devastated.

my husband and i both lost our jobs. then the mayor came and spoke to us, and she put in some help for us. we received help from owd, faces sf to apply to muni. we were taught classes for license. ithey drove us at 5:00 in the morning for the test. i felt the support from the mayor. she took the time and effort to help us in time of need.

as a result, currently i drive a trolley coach in san francisco and i am loving it. (applause). >> from one loving family to another, thank you very much. [applause.] >> muni is hiring still so good job, good benefits, good retirement and part of what we will do is help support you throughout the city drive academy, right? we also know that sometimes the challenge with people going through these programs is they can't afford to participate in the program. that is something that we are trying to change so that money is never a barrier to an opportunity that can help change your life.

as someone who basically came from a community. as you know you grew up in fillmore, and the challenges there in the public housing i live in, it was really hard to see so many friends and family end up going down the wrong path because of lack of opportunity. that was so important to me. when we have an opportunity to change someone's life, we have to put fort the resources they need to succeed. not just put them in the program, pay them in the programming, make sure they have money for transportation so they don't leave the program. we have to change how we support people if we want them to succeed that is the goal today. i am excited to see one of my dreams come alive in serving

this incredible community. again, get a job and take care of mommy and daddy and have fun today. thank you so much. [applause.] >> thank you so much, mayor. now, i need everybody to get a job. we have employers here. we are interviewing. get the interview card and go to the second floor and get interviewed. the jobs are here. thank you everyone.