anjalie. we're going to rock s.f. pride and make sure we are there, so everybody, thank you so much. [applause] >> so before we continue, i would love to just take a moment of silence and really honor all those folks that nicky mentioned that we've lost this year. now, i'd like to thank tom horn for helping us make this event happen. it would not happen without his leadership and support. standup, tom. okay. [applause] >> he doesn't like the attention. and charlotte, too.

thank you so much for your ongoing support and work. these events are done with love, and it takes resources to make them happen, so thank you so much. so speaking of resources, we have a huge champion for our community and our lgbt community. our district 8 supervisor, and the only out lgbt member on the board. please welcome supervisor raphael mandelman. [applause] >> supervisor mandelman: thank you claire. and as others have said, thank you so much for the extraordinary work that you and your office do. and thank you, tom horn. the mayor was whispering to me before we started that tom horn always comes through. thank you. [applause] >> supervisor mandelman: i guess i'll begin where senator wiener finished, in that harvey milk knew how important queer representation is, how important it was for people to

come out, and for people to be elected and serve. i think i had said at other events i look forward to the day when i am speaking after a trans elected supervisor. we need to do that, and it will happen soon. we have other queer people who are serving on school boards and other places, tom temprano and mark sanchez. since we're quoting great elected american officials from decades ago, i often think about hubert humphreys quote, about the three groups of

american citizens. in san francisco our actually in the united states in 2019, i think the moral test of our queer community and certainly here in san francisco, the moral test of our community is how we treat our trans community. and until recently, i think we all know -- and continuing to this day, by that measure, we are failing, and we have failed. but i do want to thank this mayor, london breed, for the focus she has brought to the trans community and the unprecedented achievements she has made, but we need to do more. these shelters particularly around homeless and the workforce events we are doing is so important to this community. but we need to do these things not because the trans community is in need but because the trans community is our

strength. certainly as queer people, we know our movement began with trans folks. the reason that donald trump finds repeated reasons to attack the trans community is because the trans community is everything that donald trump is not. and ultimately, donald trump will lose, but every single trans person in this country presents a fundamental threat to what donald trump is all about. so the future is trans if we're lucky and if we work for it, which i know we're going to do. have a fantastic month, everybody. [applause] >> wow. the future is trans, and for now, we'll start with a month, but -- so i also wanted -- we have one more speaker, but i want to recognize our lgbt commissioners, and our

department heads. if folks could wave. i see you back there, naya, being all shy. [applause] when we talk about pathways to leadership, the supervisor spoke, they're a great way to be on one. so come talk to me. it's my pleasure to introduce two people that have been doing incredible work in the arts, shawnna veraga and shawn dorsey have been leading the way for the trans festival and the fresh meat festival every year. and last week, shawn, who's on our trans committee, met with the mayor about the need to preserve trans art in our city. we come to san francisco with the hope to be able to share that with the rest of the city.

and with so many of us displaced, it's really important that we invest in art so that we not only remember our history but that we preserve the stories and art that make our community so important. so with that, please welcome shawnna veraga and shawn dorsey. [applause] >> excuse me. i -- i can't right now. speaking to the mayor. okay. bye-bye. hi, everybody. my name is shawnna verago. i'm the artistic director of the san francisco transgender film festival, and i'm so honored to be here today. i'm so grateful to be here today. i came out in the 1980's, and

so when i go to trans events, whether it's the san francisco transgender film festival or fresh meat or anywhere else where a lot of trans people gather, i'm usually the only person from my generation of friends that's still alive because of suicide, hiv/aids, poverty, murder. and so i feel very driven to continue our battles and our -- and our fight against our avowed enemy. you know, it's interesting because i'm primarily an artist, and i'm been thrust into being an activist. and i've heard so much inspirational wisdom here today, and i would like to thank -- i have a long list of gratitudes, but i do want to thank senator scott wiener,

supervisor mandelman, everyone at the office of transgender initiatives, and especially the mayor's office and mayor breed for helping us continue to thrive, to increase our budget. we -- when we started, we -- one of the codirectors had a credit card, and that's how we were able to rent the theater. we applied for years to get grants. we couldn't get a grant to save our lives. and so through grit, through punk rock toughness, really, we managed to survive since 1997. and we're the longest running transgender film festival in the world. and we started here. we started in the mission district. we've screened over 300 films since that time, and i do think, as we know, our communities are under attack,

but that the san francisco transgender film festival, i think we kind of all have to know what our expertise and our lane is. and i think there's these political geniuses behind me. but we need to change the narrative of how we're viewed in our culture. and i think we've proven since we have been here since 1997 that trans people won't be silenced, we won't be erased, and we're going to continue the fight through the arts, so thank you very much. [applause] >> hello, everyone. i just want to add -- i don't know if you shared that the trans film festival was founded at the world's first trans film festival, so i feel like we

should give ourselves a round of applause. hello. i'm shawn dorsey, and i'm the director and founder of the fresh meat festival. we're all about investing in the creative expression and cultur cultural community in the trans community. right now, i want to invite all of us to take part in a creative expression exercise. so i want everyone to please repeat after me. i love trans people. [repeating] >> except say it like you're not so sad about. i love trans people!

i love gender nonconforming people! and as we talk about the continued genocide and murder of black trans women, that's an equation. so the other side of that equation is please repeat after me. i will invest in the well-being and leadership of black trans women. i love trans people! [cheers and applause] >> thank you all so much. please -- yes, check out our work and please come to the san francisco transgender film festival next week. it's thursday through sunday. sftfs.org. two programs are closed

captioned and a.s.l. interpreted. no one turned away for lack of funds, so please join us. thank you so much. [applause] >> so it's almost that time for drinks and food. i'm sure you're all ready for it. it's friday, but i also want to recognize honey mahogany from the dccc and supervisor haney's office and ana deyano and her team. [applause] >> so as we move forward, as i mentioned, we need to continue to prioritize communities that are impacted in our city and beyond. and the mayor has taken leadership and really supported mental health and housing four -- for people in our city, and that includes the trans

community. and over the last year, we've lost so many to suicide. so it's really important we reach out for help, we see each other in our community because you are loved, as shawn said. we want to continue to be a part of a community that continues to grow. and as i said, have a great trans month of awareness. yes, drinks. let's get drinks. bayview. >> a lot discussion how residents in san francisco are

displaced how businesses are displaced and there's not as much discussion how many nonprofits are displaced i think a general concern in the arts community is the testimony loss of performance spaces and venues no renderings for establishes when our lease is up you have to deal with what the market bears in terms of of rent. >> nonprofits can't afford to operate here. >> my name is bill henry the executive director of aids passage l lp provides services for people with hispanics and aids and 9 advertising that fight for the clients in housing insurance and migration in the last two years we negotiated a lease that saw 0 rent more than doubled. >> my name is ross the

executive directors of current pulls for the last 10 years at 9 and mission we were known for the projection of sfwrath with taking art and moving both a experiment art our lease expired our rent went from 5 thousand dollars to $10,000 a most. >> and chad of the arts project pursue. >> the evolution of the orientation the focus on art education between children and patrol officer artist we offer a full range of rhythms and dance and theatre music theatre about in the last few years it is more and more difficult to find space for the program that we run. >> i'm the nonprofit manager for the mayor's office of economic workforce development one of the reasons why the mayor has invested in nonprofit

displacement is because of the challenge and because nonprofits often commute technical assistance to understand the negotiate for a commercial lease. >> snooechlz is rob the executive director and co-founder of at the crossroads we want to reach the disconnected young people not streets of san francisco for young adults are kicked out of the services our building was sold no 2015 they let us know they'll not renew our lease the last year's the city with the nonprofit displacement litigation program held over 75 nonprofits financial sanction and technical assistance. >> fortunate the city hesitate set aside funds for businesses

facing increased rent we believable to get some relief in the form of a grant that helped us to cover the increase in rent our rent had been around $40,000 a year now $87,000 taylor's dollars a year we got a grant that covered 22 thousands of that but and came to the minnesota street project in two people that development in the better streets plan project they saved us space for a nonprofit organization national anthem and turned out the northern california fund they accepted us into the real estate program to see if we could withstand the stress and after the program was in full swinging skinning they brought up the litigation fund and the grants were made we applied for that we received a

one thousand dollars granted and that grant allowed us to move in to the space to finish the space as we needed it to furniture is for classes the building opened on schedule on march 18, 2016 and by july we were teaching classed here. >> which we found out we were going to have to leave it was overwhelm didn't know anything about commercial real estate we suggested to a bunch of people to look at the nonprofits displacement mitigation program you have access to commercial real estate either city owned or city leased and a city lease space become available there is a $946,000 grant that is provided through the mayor's office of economic workforce development and that's going to go towards boulder the space

covers a little bit less than half the cost it is critical. >> the purpose of the organization trust to stabilize the arts in san francisco working with local agency i go like the northern california platoon fund that helped to establish documents of our long track record of stvent and working to find the right partner with the organization of our size and budget the opportunity with the purchase of property we're sitting in the former disposal house theatre that expired 5 to 10 years ago we get to operate under the old lease and not receive a rent increase for the next 5 to 7 years we'll renting $10,000 square feet for the next 5 to seven years we pay off the balance of the purpose of this and the cost of the renovation. >> the loophole will that is

unfortunate fortunate we have buy out a reserve our organization not reduce the services found a way to send some of the reserves to be able to continue the serves we know our clients need them we were able to get relief when was needed the most as we were fortunate to arrive that he location at the time, we did in that regard the city has been - we've had tremendous support from the mayor's office of economic workforce development and apg and helped to roommate the facade of the building and complete the renovation inside of the building without the sport support. >> our lease is for 5 years with a 5 year onyx by the city has an 86 year lease that made

that clear as long as we're doing the work we've been we should be able to stay there for decades and decades. >> the single most important thing we know that is that meaningful. >> it has been here 5 months and even better than that we could image. >> with the economic development have announced an initiative if ours is a nonprofit or know of a nonprofit looking for more resources they can go to the office of economic workforce development oewd.com slashing nonprofit and found out about the mayors nonprofit mitigation program and the sustainability initiative and find their information through technical assistance as much as how to get started with more fundraising or the real estate

assistance and they can find my contact and reach out to me through the circles of the city through the >> hi everybody, we down here at the /ep is a center which is our pop up space down here in san francisco where we operate a store front to

educate the policy from the home owner who has center which is our pop up space down here in san francisco where we operate a store front to educate the policy from the home owner who has never done anything in the house to the most advanced structure engineers we have working around here. we we're going to here from kelly to talk a little bit about san francisco. how are you doing kelly? >> very well, thank you for having us here. >> in front of us, we have a typical soft story building. when i see this, i think this is some of the most beautiful architecture our city has. a lot of people don't know these are problematic buildings. why don't you tell us about some of the risks he we have in these buildings? >> soft stories are vulnerable in past earthquakes and the northridge earthquake to this type of building and character of building. when we talk about the soft story, what we're talking about is generally a ground story that has less wall or other /pwraeugs to resist the lateral

forces that might be imposed by the earthquake. so we're looking for something that is particularly weak or soft in this ground story. now, this is a wonderful example of what some of the residential buildings that are soft stories in san francisco look like. and the 1 thing that i would point out here is that the upper force of this building have residential units. they have not only a fair amount of wall around the exterior of the building but they also have very extensive walls in the interior and bathrooms and bedrooms and corridors and everything that has a certificate amount of brazing yea it's significantly less country /srabl in those stories. now very often, we get even a garage or storage or sometimes commercial occupancy in this ground story. that very often not only has a whole lot less perimeter wall

but it often has little or no wall on the interior. that wall is the earthquake bracing and so he see very significant bracing in the top floor and very little on the bottom. when the earthquake comes and hits, it tries to push that ground floor over and there's very little that keeps it from moving and degrading and eventually /paoerblly keeping it from a collapse occurring. so we know they're vulnerable because of this ground story collapsing >> is this only a problem we see in sentence france? san francisco? >> no, this is certainly a national problem. more acute in western but more up to california, washington, moving out into other states. this kind of building exist and this kind of building is vulnerable. >> when you're involved with

the community safety, this is a different way of thinking about these types of things. we had a community group of over 100 people involved and upper 1 of them. tell us about * how that conversation went. why did we decide as a city or a community to start fixing these types of buildings? >> there were a lot of aspects that were considered well beyond just the engineering answer that these are vulnerable. and that effort brought in a lot of people from different aspects of the community that looked at the importance of these buildings to the housing stock and the possible ramifications of losing this /houbgs in the case of an earthquake. the financial implications, the historic preserve vacation s implication as you mentioned, these are very handsome looking buildings that are importance to the tourist city ask which make san francisco something that people are interested from outside in

coming and visiting. >> it's such animation story when you think about the 10 years that the community spent talking about this /seurb but we actually did something about it. now we have an order unanimouses put in place to protect 100,000 residents in san francisco and retrospective in 2020. so on behalf of residents and employees in san francisco, we want to say thank you for the work you've done in pushing this forward and making people more aware of these issues. >> and it was a fantastic community effort. >> so in an earth quake, what happens in these kinds of buildings? >> what happens when an earthquake comes along is it moves the ground both horizontally and vertically. it's mostly the horizontal that we're worried about. it starts moving the building back and forth and pushing on it. when you see i'm pushing on it, the upper stiff of the wall

stay straight up but the lower floors, they actually collapse just like i did there. >> luckily, we can put this building right back up where it came from so it's a lot easier. now kelly, obviously these aren't real frame walls here but when you talk about buildings, what makes the property for stiff? >> the easiest and most cost-effective type of bracing you can put in is either put in a brand new wall or to potentially go in and strengthen a wall that's already there where you don't need to have an opening is where you maybe have a garage door or access to commercial space, you might go to a steel frame or other types of bracing systems that provides the strength and stiff if necessary but at the same time, allows continued use of that area. but some combination of walls or frames or other tools that are in the tool kit that can bring

the building up to the strength that's required in order to remove the vulnerability from the building so that when ground shaking comes, it in fact is a whole lot more resistant and less vulnerable. ideally, this story down here would be made as strong and stiff as the floors above. >> if i'm a property owner, what is the first thing i should do? >> the first thing you should do is find professional that can come in and help you evaluate your building in order to, 1, figure out that indeed it does need to be retro fitted and 2, give you some idea of what that retro fit might look like. and third, evaluation and design to help you determine the retro fit requirement. >> well kelly, i can't thank you enough for being here today. thank you so much for your wealth of information on how we can take care of our

soft story problem in san francisco. and you the viewer, if you have any questions, please feel free to visit our website 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.

>> good morning, everyone. i am william rogers, i am the president and c.e.o. of goodwill san francisco san mateo. [cheers and applause] [laughter] i want to welcome all of you, our friends, our supporters, our partners. we are here today to celebrate together the grand opening of goodwill's state-of-the-art training and career center. [cheers and applause] i wanted to take a moment to do a couple of things. let's show a little bit of love to the retail team. [cheers and applause] this store is opening tomorrow and it is going to be beautiful. they did a great job. i want to give special thanks to the honorable mayor breed.

thank you so much for being here [cheers and applause] to the honorable willie brown. [cheers and applause] supervisor peskin, we moved from your district to your district. [laughter] i want to thank the p.u.c., because without the p.u.c., we would never have gotten into the building on time. thank you to the p.u.c. [applause] i also want to thank, i will call her shelley b.b. who is the former president of the planning commission, and aaron peskin introduced me to her and she came up to me and she said, mr. rogers, so nice to meet you. i am 100% against your project but i have a open mind. [laughter] i said all right. and we spent three hours together. after that three hour period, she looked at me she says, i hate you and i said wise that?

and she said because i am 100% for your project. [applause] i also want to thank tidewater who is here. they actually manage this project. thank you so much. are mw architects, and then some of our partners. the sitting county of san francisco has been amazing. mayor breed, your staff has been amazing. i also want to thank some of our funders who are here. microsoft, google, wells fargo salesforce, and linkedin. thank you all for being here today. [applause] the building we are standing here with right now was built in 1914. it has been in san francisco for as long as san francisco goodwill has been in san francisco. who knew that, right? we have both been here for over 100 years.

this building has been a parking garage, it has been an art gallery, and now it is home to a training and community center for this community to participate, share, and learn. i want to take a quick moment to introduce our board chair. he served on the board for almost three years. he has been an influential entrepreneur. he is a philanthropist, a volunteer, and a compassionate human being. i just want to introduce eric. [applause] >> i usually don't get such nice introductions. thank you. we are proud to be moving here to the tenderloin. it is really, really exciting to be in this space. they're going to be some any great opportunities for us to part with great organizations here and i can't tell you how proud we are to be here. as an investor, i look for misunderstood