>> all right. good morning, everybody. welcome. i see we've got some niners fans in the house. i am michael lambert. i'm your city librarian -- oh, you can't hear me? how's that? i'm michael lambert. i'm your city librarian, and from the bottom of my heart, it just fills my heart with joy to see all of you beautiful people in this auditorium today. this is the first event we've had in the main library for 17 months, so yeah. thank you so much for being

here. i want to thank president walton, president of the san francisco board of supervisors for honoring us with his presence today and for all his leadership and support this past year. we appreciate you, president walton. all right want to thank thank -- all right. want to thank director davis and her amazing leadership. director davis, thank you so much. we appreciate your partnership. again, it feels so good to use this space after 17 long months, and as your host, i do have a little bit of housekeeping for you. the public rest rooms are located just outside the back door. if you follow the curved wall to the right. we have faucet water just across from the latino room where you're going to do some workshops later, and we also have two exit doors behind you

that staff can lead you out to the street level. with that, please relax, make yourself comfortable and enjoy your morning. for all the folks tuning in from home, i'd like to invite you all to visit your neighborhood libraries again. as of this week, all of our san francisco public libraries are open for in-person services again. and now, it's my pleasure to welcome dr. sheryl davis up to the stage. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. i know it's monday, beginning of the week. i think we can do a little bit more, little more survivors energy. good morning, everyone. yes. thank you so much, everyone, for being here. just really want to acknowledge

mayor breed and president walton, thinking about how we come back together, how we center the advances of community and come back to work. reverend fong has been doing this for a long time, who graced us with his present, and building up his community work and taking us up to the next generation, also thinking about brother damian, and we want to thank you for beginning this conversation with us, and i want to thank commissioner clapton for her work at the human rights commission. [applause] >> thank you so much, dr. davis. we are here because we live in a nation that was founded on violence, and one day, this day

will not end this legacy. but every day that we work towards changing this legacy is a day closer to peace and justice. when the human rights commission recon conveniented -- reconvened for the first time on facebook live, we actually became more accessible to the public. one of the first acts was for me to move the resolution that antiblack racism is a public health and human rights crisis

here in san francisco. and what do we mean by antiblack racism? when we talk about that, many of us, because we have been miseducated, and we have colonized minds, think that we're talking only about black people or people from the african diaspora. we are talking about white supremacy and the whole made up construct of race, and antiblack racism is the reason we have antiasian hatred, antitrans hatred. it is the reason why we have

misogynistic discrimination of women and people of color. the reason i talk about this in the history of our nation, which is based on stolen land and the forced labor of african people is because we are often, as in every day, all day long, inundated with the opposite information. we think that we are exceptional if we excel. we think that we are stereotypes when we fail. we think it's our own

individual problem when we don't succeed. together in the knowledge that we can make a difference together, that is the way forward. the other way forward, as alice walker said, to acknowledge our ancestors means that we are aware that we did not make ourselves; that the line stretches all the way walk, perhaps to got or to gods. we remember them because it is an easy think to forget; that we are not the first to suffer,

rebel, fight, love, and die. the grace with which we approach life despite the pain, the fear, the sorrow, is always a measure of what has gone before. we have young people speaking today and talking about their ideas to move forward. we have the elders speaking today to talk about what has gone before. we have to be together. we have to stand together. we have to invest together with each other.

the other initiative we finally took in 2020 was to reach a land acknowledgement for all of our meetings, and we hope for the board of supervisors and all city functions. to read the land acknowledgement that we were able to achieve under tribal leaders is [inaudible] and she is also on the american indian education parent advisory committee. we welcome our sister, mary

travis allen. [applause] >> good morning. so nice to see people instead of on zoom, where you have to mute and unmute. my name is mary travis allen. i was born and raised here in san francisco. lived in the tenderloin, fillmore, lakeview, mission district, so here's my roots. i'm honored to be here, to present this land acknowledgement on behalf of the original people, the ramaytush ohlone people. before this place was named san francisco, it was called

yelloto. most people speak of the original people of this land in the past tense as if we're no longer here. today, the remaining descendants of the ohlone people in addition to the other intertribal american indian people from many tribes continue to live in this city and the bay area. in this city, we have

established, with the help of the human rights commission and the board of supervisors, the american indian cultural district, which is one of two american indian cultural districts in the united states. [applause] >> thank you. we have received funding to help the housing, education, and medical needs of our community. we are now being recognized and uplifted and engaged in the decisions that affect our people. greg castro, who was the principal cultural consultant for the ramaytush ohlone worked with the human rights commission to develop the land acknowledgement statement. this is now read at the beginning of the meetings of the human rights commission,

board of supervisors, and has been presented to the san francisco unified school district commission meetings. this is the land acknowledgement. we, who are gathered here at this violence prevention summit, acknowledge that we are on unceded ancestral homeland of the ramaytush ohlone, who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as the original stewards of this land and in accordance with their traditions, the ramaytush ohlone have never ceded, lost, nor given up their responsibilities as the care takers of this place. as guests, we recognize that we

benefit from living and working on their tradition homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders, and relative of the ramaytush community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first people. to end violence, you must admit and acknowledge all oppressive action that have been imposed to cause people to feel desperate and homeless. elevate the people, hear their concerns, and help them to help valued and supported. thank you. [applause] . >> president walton: good morning, everybody. happy monday, and happy first

day of school. it is so great to see everyone here today in person. i know it's been a while, and this pandemic, particularly with the new delta variant, has done everything it can to keep us from being together again, but it is wonderful to see all of you. over these past 17 months, we've seen increases in violence and shootings, particularly compared to the last couple of years where violence had gone down, and we had seen decreases for a while, and we've lost too many people to violence, particularly gun violence. so before we begin today's session, i want to take a moment of silence for all people we've lost over the last couple of years to gun violence and murder. last week, we lost a 16-year-old, last week, -- last

year, we lost a six-year-old, so let's take a moment to remember all of those we have lost to gun violence. thank you. i do also want to just take the time to say i know we are tired of marching in the street, tired of having summits, tired of having conversations about what we need to do to stop violence in our community, tired of talking to mothers who have lost young ones and grandparents and family members who have lost loved ones, or just talking to family members who are survivors. i know as we do everything it takes to decrease violence, we still have to do it. we still have to continue to come together, we still have to come together to work on strategies to address the

violence that is in our community, and so we we will continue to do so. in my district, we lost two people in the last two days to gun violence, and this has to stop, and the only way it will stop is if we come together and continue to do the work. [applause] >> president walton: and our office has continued to work to address violence through a comprehensive safety plan, which also includes convenings like this, a violence prevention coordinator, increased resources from the city to address violence, best practices convenings, coordination with the h.r.c. and other city departments, street violence intervention and prevention team, s.f. safe, sfpd. of course, the mayor's office

with job provision and all ideas community has presented, and of course, all of our community based organizations and leaders on the frontline. despite our dedication and commit, we have seen too many increases in violence, particularly the last couple of years. we are nowhere near where we were in the early 2000s, but all violence is too much, and we take this seriously. in the last 1.5 years, we have had more shootings and deaths to gun violence than we can remember. more violence against communities of color, and we are all working together to stop all violence.

our summit today will attempt to bring us all together in the name of ending all violence. together with the mayor's office, the human rights commission, and i want to thank director davis and her entire team for putting this together, of course, the office dream team and all the work that they do, and the people on the frontline -- c.y.c., it's good to see you all here.

i know we have some members of united playas here, but i want everyone to know we appreciate your commitment and your dedication to stopping violence because that work that we do together is vitally important, even in the midst of continued violence. we see you, and we will make sure that we continue to support you. with that said, i do have the privilege of introducing our keynote for this morning's session. mr. david mohamed is not only the director of the institute for criminal justice reform, but he's an expert in working on practices that decrease violence and alternatives for incarceration. we're lucky to have some

mohamed in the bay area as we get to reach out to him for his expertise and input in this work that is important and necessary. i want to personally say welcome to mr. mohamed, let you know we appreciate your work. everyone this morning, mr. david mohamed. [applause] >> good morning. director davis, president walton, thank you all. i want to thank president walton for the introduction, but more importantly, for the extraordinary work that he and his team do every day to make san francisco a better place,

to make the bay area a safer place. i am honored to be before you for an opportunity that is going to be less a keynote address than preventing information. for me, it is awesome because this is where i've began my career in criminal justice. i'm a little old, so 1997, i

began going into y.g.c., juvenile hall. it was this specifically, teaching workshops, and continue to teach them in san francisco for years, and different than expanded in the bay area and throughout the state and indeed throughout the country. i want to say, i want to thank the commissioner for reminding us and reminding me -- i used to emphasize this point -- sometimes, i get so far in the weeds that you forget that this nation was built and founded on violence. and we can blame ourselves and our own community, and while

we've got work to do, we need to remember how we got here, and this is a nation developed and created on the notion of violence. it is not surprising given our founding, given the images that we have this country in our neighborhoods. so i want to thank the extraordinary leadership of president walton, of director davis, of mayor breed. san francisco is fortunate to have these extraordinary leaders in our midst, so thank you, thank you, thank you. [applause] >> and in addition, as president walton said here, the community leaders who do the work, day in and day out, night

in and night out, who was helping out with the work. the city and county of san francisco applied for a grant called calvip, the california violence intervention program. the state awarded that to san francisco. $1.5 million, $500,000 a year for three years. when a government receives that state grant, according to state regulations, you must give half of it to a local nonprofit

organization. the city selected svip to receive half of that award. also in that application were two technical assistance providers, the california partnership for safe abilities and the institution for justice reform. the part of the work which was even beyond the calvip grant was to evaluate gun violence in the city and county of san francisco. now many of us feel like they know of what our opinion of gun violence is, and we may be right, but we don't have an

entire picture of gun violence is in the city and county of san francisco. i'm going to go through this in a lot less time than i thought i had. they showed me a card, and i'll have to go a lot quicker. every individual homicide was investigated between january 2019 and june 2020, to try to get a sense of was something different going on during covid? the 162 homicides involve 329

unique individuals as victims or suspects, and the 82 shootings involved 86 individuals, so again, a detailed analysis of shootings and homicides. this just gives you, i think, as president walton said, we are concerned, certainly, about the level of increase in violence. we are nowhere near what it was in the early 2000s, and something happened with this huge drop that occurred in san francisco, which everybody in this room should be proud of, and a part of this initiative that i'm mentioning is an evaluation to try to determine, can we look back and see, how did we go from 98 to 45 homicides in one year -- i think it's 2008, 2007, and how can we replicate some of that

great work, even though we maintained that in san francisco, and we're seeing a spike now, which is clearly related to the covid pandemic. the full presentation is about 100 slides, and you're going to get about five of them. so a few headlines, surprising, i think, the average age of victims of homicide in san francisco are 37. some people, they are not surprised, but if you ask the average citizen of san francisco about homicides, they're teenagers, and it's related to drug. now we have some problem teenagers, and we've got some

with drug problems, but that's not the answer. now the average age of arrest for victim and suspect is 15, so very well known to the criminal justice system. one, this tells us that we can do better when folks come into the system in rerouting them and supporting them and not just filing them into the criminal justice system. and people involved have some very specific risk factors. i think what some folks in the city think is that everybody in the bayview is violent. they are a very small group

with very specific risk factors. we know them, we can identify the violence, and therefore we can prevent the violence. this is an overgeneralization, but when you take out the stabbings and beatings of the tenderloin, you get a slightly more focused picture of gun violence. there, the average age is 28. 67% of homicide victims and suspects and 85% of shooting suspects and victims are latino and black men while they kpriez less than 10% of the city's population. some slides to talk about the age range in who was involved in gun violence now.

there was a slight increase during covid, but the increase in serious crime of juveniles and covid is mostly robberies, not shooting. so just understand, when we're talking about gun violence, we're talking about adults primarily. we have the individual incidents of teenagers, and we understand, and they get more news coverage, and they stick in our head more, so we tend to think it is younger, but when we step back, it is young adults, people in their 20s primarily. people in this cluster of, really, 18 to 35, that is involved in gun violence again. again, it's male, black, and latino. a little older, 18 to 35.

serious criminal justice involvement, that is the population that is involved in gun violence now. known to the criminal justice system, and we have supervision, prior parole. 67% had prior incarceration. 62% were prior convicted of a felony, so a population we know, that we can put our hands on, that there should be a level of support. one of the things that san francisco has going on is a good amount of resources dedicated to people involved. but we have a problem all across the country of resource and need. the city of san francisco is

well connected to resources, but we have to do better to connect resources to the needs, and until we do a better job of saying even forces that need the resources the most and ensuring the connection with that, we're going to continue to struggle. all right. so there's some work on prior probation, prior supervision, active probation, prior probation, looking at the vast majority of people who were involved in gun violence are now or were previously under some form of corrective supervision. so we have some dynamics. so somewhere between 53% and 70% of shootings involve groups, right? some people might call it gangs. we don't call it gangs for two

reasons. one, it has a legal definition that we want to be leery of, but when we think of gangs, we think hierarchal groups. that doesn't mean it's gang against gang war. sometimes it is, but sometimes, we're fighting over a young lady, right? and i'm in a gang, rico's in a gang, we're going out with the same girl, and we're fighting over that girl, right? and now, our crews are involved, and exacerbates the beat, right? it turns out a lot of shootings are over there, but it involves crews. it's identifying people that are highest at risk so we can have quality intervention with

these folks. and then, there's a large amount of violence that's -- a lot of it is not shootings, the stabbings and beatings in the tenderloin, which, what i'm going to talk about for the rest is not that, but there is an issue to address there. so 18 to 35 black and latino males who have significant criminal justice involvement who are in crews or groups of gangs, many of them have previous gun violence or victimization or they've been or knows someone who has been shot recently, often in the last 12 months. me and my boy are in part of harbor road. i'm 27 with seven previous arrests, and now, i'm on social media vowing revenge for his

shooting. we joke with some of these young people, you snitching. you the biggest snitch on yourself on social media. so you can address social media and get a sense -- and let me just go with that same example of the here is i'm on social media, saying, they got my boy, i'm gonna get y'all, i am clearly the focus of intervention, to focus intervention on, to dispatch people who have experiences who can build a relationship, trusting relationship, and help them make better decisions. i'll end the assessment and move into the strategy and

close. these are just letters. we -- when we finish this assessment, we met with a group, many of them with svip. this is -- there's actual real group names behind this, mapping the alliances and conflicts that generate a lot of the gun violence, and some of it is individual conflicts that are exacerbated by group dynamics. and so -- then, there's several groups -- these again, we just changed the name because we don't want folks to be competing up there. but these are real groups, and you see there are some that are involved in a lot of shootings both as victims and suspects. and what we saw in the analysis is there's little to no

difference between victim and suspects. again, we remember the incident that involves somebody that's not involved in these dynamics because they get a lot of attention when a child is killed, a small child, or somebody -- i hate the term innocent victim, but that's used, and the -- that gets a lot of attention. that is not usually the case around shootings, right? victim and suspect look very similar, and what we know is, sometimes, you're a victim one day and suspect the next. all right. the map -- this was presented to the police commission, so it's a public document. we can make it available to folks. okay. that was the problem, and now, we want to talk about the solution quickly. now as we do that, before we do

that, i want to say this. i think this is one of the most important pieces of the presentation, and we need to understand what actions or programs or services achieve what outcomes, right? there's a few obvious examples. gun buy backs have no effect on gun violence. now, i'm not telling you not to have a gun buy back. it's great to have those, but it's mostly old folks getting rid of those old ones, and that's fine. there's certain things that achieve certain outcomes. you don't have to call a gun buy back violence reduction. call it getting guns out of the streets or out of homes. that's a great goal, and you should do it, but understand what activity achieves such result. generally, we're talking about

intervention and transformation -- community transformation. there are neighborhoods in san francisco that don't need a gun violence reduction strategy. there are other neighborhoods that do. i want our neighborhoods to not need a gun violence reyuck reyuck -- reduction strategy andee the -- and keep the people there, right? prevention is awesome, but we need to understand prevention and intervention are different and have different timetables.

it can't be either-or. it has to be both. if you are effective about saving those babies in the river, somebody else in the strategy, in the coordination, has to stop the man from putting babies in the river. there has to be both ends, but you see, those are two different activities. those are two different activities. in the long run, they achieve the same goal. one is out in the river, getting babies out immediately. the other, i'm stopping people from putting babies into the river, and one does not achieve the other, right? and so one is not better than the other. they're just different, and we have to do both and.

so with that -- oh, here we go. we often have this mixed up. i call this my rocket science because it's so simple, that desired outcomes should be aligned with our actions and programs. i was in another city, working on gun violence reduction in another city, and they said, we're going to start a mentoring program for students. while a mentoring program is wonderful, it will never achieve gun violence reduction because that's not focusing on the people who are the problem. but it won't achieve gun violence reduction if it's

perfect in the next 12 months, right? so the strategy, and i know i'm over time or getting close to time. four primary pillars. one, data driven identification of people who are at highest risk. so i talked about the analysis that we did. another part of that is a weekly review of shootings, to say which of these shootings have a likelihood for retaliation. if it's a one-off family issue that is a crazy issue that does not have likely retaliation, you move on. if it's a crew versus crew and it's likely to cause some retaliation, you say okay, who is retaliating, who is likely to be retaliated against, and who is going to be retaliated,

and then, you inform them of their risks, similar to covid. people over 65 or people with underlying health conditions, we need to let them know, if you contract the virus, your likelihood of contracting the virus is exponentially more than someone else. same thing here. they need to be informed your likelihood of being shot is higher than other people. you need to be informed, but you also need to know. and then, focus enforcement. you need to reduce the footprint of law enforcement and focus on serious crime and

violence. reduce gun violence and also reform policing, which means stop low level enforcement of drugs and containers. if you stop doing low level enforcement and focus on serious crime and violence, you can effect public safety, so we talked about the risk factors of the people at highest risk. we talked about this already, and this is an example of how we implemented this in oakland, just as an example. used to be a reentry case

manager, but a reentry case manager's job is different than a life coach whose goal is to reduce gun violence. i want to emphasize this as much as possible in terms of goals and how your activities are connected to your clear goals. case manager, reentry, the goal is to not recidivate. that has some overlap but not the same as my pure goal is to get this person to not shoot each other and not get shot. clients are eligible for financial incentives.

we have improved coordination and employment, there's mental health services. there is quite a community of services. now, this exists in san francisco, and we want to focus the coordination. in oakland, we have 35 people to focus on this population, and it's been effective.

the live coaching is around relationship first. this is what is different between service brokering case management. it's about relationship first, and what this means is i'm going to spend time with you, i'm going to get to know you, i'm going to share myself with you, and when you build that relationship, and it allows you to get a mentality shift and then asking for services. you've got to know you are

building a relationship with them. so this is kind of how it works. i'll say this for, like, one minute. relationship, i can't emphasize enough. when you have a [inaudible] but he is my friend, and so i watched it. when you gain a relationship with someone, then you're able to influence them. it's having a relationship and guiding them to make better decisions, and better decisions produce better outcomes. so in oakland, we had six consecutive years of decline, 2020, at the end of march, we had a 38% year-to-date

reduction in homicides. it would have been the lowest homicide rate in the city's history, and then covid hit. so i want to close just by saying so where we are is svip are hiring these training coaches. we have hired two of them so far. so it's not enough, and we want to increase this level of work. we need every agency working together to solve this problem and to reduce this issue of gun

violence that we have. it's going to take all of us working together. we want to support the organizations doing incredible work right now to help them, a, get information to focus on the right people. or we need some support on these are the do's and don'ts in this population. we need to expand it, right,

and we need to coordination it together, and we will achieve extraordinary reductions in gun violence. thank you very much. [applause] . >> well, let's give it up again for david mohamed. [applause] >> this work is extremely important, and we want to really center everything when it comes to violence prevention on everything that happens throughout the day. we want to give it up for all of you for being here, but more importantly, we want to get the conversation started. so our first panel today is centering around this idea of cross cultural community connections, and we have a set of power house speakers for

today's panel. so with that, i'll go ahead and get started. we'll get started with joe jackson morgan, who is the executive director of third street youth clinic. we've got jose yanez [inaudible] de la raza. please welcome cynthia choi, codirector of chinese for affirmative action. an attorney by trade is also the secret of the affirmative action center for northern california. please welcome hillary nakano. [applause] >> please help me welcome patsy

tito, executive director of samoan community center, and please help me welcome nakira jackson, executive director [inaudible]. [applause] >> all right. first of all, how are you doing, and thank you for being here, and let's give them a round of applause. before we hop into it, just a few ground rules, and just expectations throughout the day as we do know some of this could be triggering, especially when we're talking about violence. so for those of you at home, and those of you in space, if that does become something that you're triggered by, we invite you to take space and get in a space where we can process that. we want to make sure this discussion is a healthy one for

all of you watching at home, as well. with that, we will go into this idea of cross cultural efforts. what do you see as similarities and differences in violence prevention and safety and approaches in your community? now before we start, we're running tighter than a holiday budget on time, so if you all just think about one song, think about the time it takes, too, because we're giving you two minutes. we know you get passionate, but we don't want a hard-and-fast time. what do you see as similarities and differences between violence prevention and safe issues/approaches in your communities? we'll start off with hillary. >> good morning. my name is hillary nakano. cochair of a group called

japantown for justice. we are based out of san francisco japantown but were built out of this idea that the japantown community needs to be better supportive of our neighbors in the fillmore and the western addition and needs to build that relationship where we had preworld war ii where our communities were living side by side, and we had black people that took up the japanese american property when they were incarcerated during world war ii, so we're trying to built those relationships between the communities again. i would say in our response to violence, in the japantown community, they are -- or i say we are trying to advocate for more police involvement, and that's not necessarily something that the fillmore or

the western addition community is advocating. i wouldn't call it a tension, but it's a difference in response. and in the japantown community, there's this idea of we should have more security cameras, we should have more foot patrol officers and just make sure that there is a greater response in action, and in the fillmore, the western addition, we're not talking about having a greater police involvement, we're talking about what are the relationships that we can build so that we can make sure that we're addressing mental health issues or black on black violence. it's just how are we going to address this on going issue?

>> and patsy, onto you. >> i think -- and i've been going into the samoan community. i think the difference is they continue with the stereotype of who we are, you know? they always look at us as these big, bad people. they look at us as we don't speak, we don't like to get into trouble, but when they just look at us, they just kind of stereotype us as that community that will try to invade their space. i wish they would just look at us as people and not our color,

but i think that's where the difference is in the samoan community is they continue to stereotype us as what they say. >> okay. >> hi. can they raise this a little bit because i'm kind of tall? thank you. i'm the c.e.o. founder of the transgender association for gender equality. we've got people from everywhere, people who aren't even naturalized here, and i really feel like a lot of the times with violence, it's more

systemic, and it's displacement and limiting based on color and being a black person from detroit, michigan, the outlook for my life and survival, i wasn't supposed to make it to 35 years old, so just bringing it to that space, i'm going to pass it to cynthia, yeah. >> well, hi, everybody. thank you so much for giving us the opportunity. i am the coexecutive director for chinese for affirmative action, but i am here representing a coalition, which includes the ccdc, c.y.c., and c.p.a., and just to tell a little story about our coalition, we have been working together in crisis when there were incidents of violence and

crime. we work with city agencies, regardless of your immigration status, your age, or what neighborhood you live in, that you get the services you need. one of the things we said to get us out of this, to address systemic racism, was to do this within our community to address this, and to do it across communities. we are not going to get to issues around equity if we continue to see each other as the problem, as the threat.

and so i'm excited to be on this panel. it's wonderful that this is kicking off the discussion of the fact that to make san francisco the place that we are loved, it's going to take time, it's going to take investments, and it's going to take leadership. this is why i'm so proud to be a part of the coalition and really applaud our city in those investments. there is no panacea, and we're also fighting misinformation and disposition at levels that we had not experienced before. so this racial reckoning is about all of us, and again, those investments are going to be critical over the next three to five to ten years, but this can happen in our lifetime with leadership. thank you. >> thank you for the question,

for the space. really graceful and blessed to be here. on above of the mission peace collaborative, we have a large investment or a large concentration of nonprofit organizations that have been working on violence prevention for decades, rights? and if anything, the mission has then created interventions that have been, you know, shared with the rest of the community, adopted by the city, and then, expanded. so i would think the biggest tension for us currently has a lot to do with the -- as has been mentioned has a lot to do with the energy and the displacement, the new physical entities in the mission which don't necessarily align with

the value of the community needs and the direction we would like to take when it comes to taking care of our children, right? dealing with our community, and the biggest tension i think -- >> closer? >> i believe the bigger tension does then become how do we work with the institutions and systems that are supposed to protect our children, supposed to protect our communities, and hold them accountable, and make sure that they respect the process that our community has created because the -- you know, the -- dr. mohamed mentioned that relationship being so important. you know, i remember starting the work in 97 also, and there's this thing called relationship capital, i would say. and when you're able to invest in providers that have long-standing relationships that can carry that

relationship during that middle support group through that first contact with police and really being able to hold them and their family through that experience so that they don't recidivate, so i would think that would become one of our biggest challenges. how do we deal with that new messaging that is impacting our community. and because of our documentation challenges in some cases, you know, that pressure then forces people to hide, and that only complicates the problem, right? because then, that interpersonal violence take place, and then, we obviously have people whose mental health is impacted and have the reactions that we have to have when economic distress impacts us. >> so thank you for this opportunity. i feel blessed to be up here for everyone, and i'm speaking

from the bayview-hunters point perspective. i think the technology that we're not addressing is our neighborhood has the lowest median income in san francisco, and as opportunities prevent themselves, we are dealing with the fact that poverty and idleness is playing out in our streets, right? and so i'm glad that he spoke to the displacement. we're also getting newcomers into our community and dealing with the fact that folks that have been here historically have not been addressed, as well. we're trying to compile resources for our newcomers, for problems that are existing, and that tension is playing

out. this is also a result of poverty, right? we saw this -- of course we saw this. folks started to see a crunch in resources. it started to become you're on your own. what we did see is we wanted to make sure that our community had what they needed, right? so this task force came about. folks were really trying to deal with that. >> and this idea that there's different perspectives to be

shared even within what we wanted to discuss. how do we build solidarity across demographics and tear down cultural barriers? >> well, at third street [inaudible] clinic, we've really been looking at this as as the community changed, how do we get services that will be timeless? we can't do everything, so of course we rely on all of our community organizations that will be coming in.

giving them that space to work it out amongst each other, hopefully will help us create this sort of tolerance and acceptance that we want to see in these communities. so i think it's important, being a daughter of san francisco, we grew up in this melting pot of -- of appreciating each other. and again, we celebrated each other, and i think we need to get back to that and stop sort of, you know, breaking apart, and also being aware that certain communities are hurting in a different way, and looking at that and also bringing in people to help solve these issues together. so i think cynthia was alluding to that earlier, that it's going to take all of us to come together and bring back the san francisco of this melting pot

and appreciating culture. we don't have that culture anymore. >> it sounds like what you're saying is celebrate, not tolerate. >> i completely agree. we need to celebrate our diversity, we need to share, we need to be proactive to celebrate spaces to exchange, to break bread, to drum together. when i first came out here, we had thousands of young people organizing, and we had peace marches. we need to be proactive about countering the message that our children are listening to and seeing 24 hours a day, unfortunately, that says that consumption and consuming these, you know, products, are going to get them to a better place or a happy place. we need to remind them that our culture, our resilience, the fact that we've been through what we've been through -- the invocation this year is 500

years since cortez started that invasion, and we need to recognize the pain that people -- the historical trauma that we continue to experience, and that is manifested in our institutions sometimes. so when we share together, when we break bread, we heal together, and we also are changing healing practices. one of my mentors once said, it takes many medicines -- therapy's not going to work for everybody. psychology is not going to work for everybody. but as long as we're modelling that healthy behavior, it will intervention in that concept moving forward. >> i love how we're all

building on each other's comments. if we don't have people's basic needs being met, we really can't address the tensions, the racial tensions in our city. if we are not building the saved -- safer needs, we need to build that into the system. i do want to lift up the work that ccdc is doing in the public housing units that they

manage because they're doing outreach and i want to make sure that everyone knows what resources and information are available to them. there's a great piece in the l.a. times about the difference between alliship and solidarity. allyship meaning statements of being one and being united, solidarity being a whole different definition, where we feel our destinies, our fate, are inexplicably tied we need to stop these incidents from occurring in the first place.

>> thank you, cynthia. for me, i just want to speak about me. i have to constantly remind myself that this work isn't easy. this isn't easy work, and i have to be willing to constantly modify the strategy because it's always changing, and being willing to continue collaborating. it's, like, so much strength in the world and sometimes you're strongest allies and the people that makes the most change aren't really the people that we pretty much envision, so just being up on it.

>> well, you know, i love to work with people. my folks, my culture, my heritage, we're all about family, and if anyone ever asked me, whether it be my sisters from potrero hill, or my brother down the street, drew, or joy or dr. drew from bayview, we just show up and make sure we're present in that moment in order for us to stand in solidarity. i think one of the things that feel like, you know, our community has to see all of us together as leaders, and when our community doesn't see us together or we're bickering or

we're fighting over some stuff, whatever it may be, then they look at it as if they don't get along, why should we? we need to leave the ego at the door. it will always be about our community, our kids, and not our titles because what we going to do with it? [applause] >> so i just feel like if we -- us samoans, we love to break bread, right? so any time you come visit -- we're up on sunnydale. any time you come visit, we doing barbecue or we doing something, but nonetheless, the substance of it all is making sure that we, you and i feel

like we're sisters, we're brothers, that we can do this together, and no matter what color skin, whether we're brown, black, blue, asian, whatever, that our community sees us, that we can hold hands together and not hold hands and i'm going to punch you in the face after -- i'm kidding, but we're brothers and sisters that god has placed us in that space at the moment. just like how we're sitting up here in solidarity, holding each other up, and you guys sitting there, holding us up 'cause we all need that,

especially that's where i see it as far as culture. i love sharing my samoan culture through music, dance, and language. in everything, there is a proverb we always use at scdc. [speaking native language] >> the path to leadership is to serve, and that's what we're here to do, is to serve our community as one. >> hillary, take us home. >> i love to piggyback off of this idea, this idea that we need to be there every step of the way. it's not about a one-time b.l.m. rally that we throw, and hey look at us rally.

it's not a one-time juneteenth celebration in the community. it's about the support, knowing that someone can call you up, saying hey, we need help. what can you do for us and how can you help us get there? for us, specifically, it's about japantown and the mission, saying how can we get back to where we used to be? in the marketplace, we're doing things such as black-owned businesses who don't have brick and mortars, we're closing streets once a month, and we're having vendors come out so that these small business owners are not so hard impacted by covid and they can continue their businesses.

we're putting district candidate forums. when district 5 district last november, and we're talking about issues that will affect both the japantown community and the western addition community. what are the policies that we want to push for and advocate for that will help our communities together, so it's about this idea that we need to be there every step of the way. it's not about showing up once a month, going to a panel. it's not about talk the talk, it's walk the walk. it's not about us asking folks to come out to the cherry blossom festival in japantown. it's showing up week after week, using our resources to help everyone else, and when we're able to collectively do

that, all our communities benefit together, and it makes the city a better place all-around. >> wow. let's give our panel a round of applause. [applause] >> first of all, let's give it up for them. wow. they just said some major fire. i mean, i lost five pounds up here, it's so hot. but we'd like to thank them all again, and remember as you think of questions throughout the day. with that said, we're going to shift to our next panel. let's give our panelists another round of applause. [applause]

>> before we go on, i'd like to invite a very special guest with us today to share a few words. last week was a tremendously rough and challenging week, but want to invite up jason young, sr., the father of jace young, jr., who lost his life last year on the fourth of july. i'd like to invite him up, and let's just give him a warm, warm welcome. [applause]

>> good morning. i'm going to try not to be too long winded, but i have a few things that's on my mind and my heart that i feel like is very important to the reason why a lot of us are here today. being a parent, a victim in san francisco, it has, in my opinion, started to become normal. we have normalized stuff happening to our loved ones, not standing up, speaking up, addressing the issues because the dynamics are so

intertwined. prime example, my son's case, my son's situation, it's -- a lot of people know or think that they know the story or know some of the story or have heard this tidbit and read that tidbit. but everybody connected, like i said, especially because a lot of the trauma and stuff that hit these neighborhoods and san francisco, everybody be connected tied in, some shape or form or fashion, whether it be from the children all the way up to the adults. and in my opinion, we as san franciscans, people that grew up in the city, love the city, we have to do more to standup for our people, our loved ones, our communities. these other kids that's within

these communities that don't have the proper nourishment. prime example. my son was murdered on the fourth of july, watching fireworks. people were told to go to a rival neighborhood and go shoot. they went halfway to a rival neighborhood and decided to shoot from across the street, and two people got shot. my son was one of them, and there was another individual. he got shot in the foot. in my opinion, the problem is there's not enough accountability at home.

in probation in san francisco, juvenile, adult, i'm somebody -- you know, i grew up in the system. me and damian posey, we was in group homes together, juvenile hall, everywhere; and in my opinion, these kids, they don't really see the big picture. there's a lot of big guys around incarcerated or don't care, but it's why us, we need to wrap our arms around these kids or families in any shape or form or fashion that we can to help them. whether it be making sure they get a ride to nate, to go play

rebels. you know what i'm saying? when i was growing up, we used to go someplace every week. great america, santa cruz. i'm not saying that that is the difference that's going to stap a lot of kids doing things that they're doing as well as these adults that prey on these kids. like i said, back to my son's case, these kids were sent. these are all juveniles with the exception of one. they were pressured by older people in their community to go somewhere and do a shooting and catch a body per se. i'm from west point. approximately seven years ago, my daughter right here graduated from junior high school. one of her classmates that

graduated with her from junior high school was the main suspect in the shooting of jaquan rice. he lost his life in the shooting of west point. est -- he was 13 years old when he lost his life. for my son's shooters, they were 16, 17, and 18 in his case. like i said, i'm all for accountability. when we have a kid, a niece, a god son, a kid that we just know, and we all they ain't on the right path, we have to do whatever it is necessary to get that message across. you know, when i grew up, if i did something wrong, miss susie might have been on the bus, and she grabbed me by my ear or whatever she had to do, take me to my grandfather's house, and

i got chastised for that. again, i think, for me, like i said, it's all about accountability. we have to standup and be accountable in all facets. again, like my thing, like, the district attorney's office. at some point, there's just some things that you can't do. killing kids, mothers, sisters, nobody is on the table. let me just say that, to make that clear, but there was just some unwritten rules on the street where it wasn't a go. kids, elderly, women, off the table, you know what i'm

saying? i hit here today, a year later, still advocating for my son to get the justice that i properly deserve, you know? trying to pick up the pieces for my family and get our new normal because when i say new normal, when it happened, it was right around the time with george floyd, back lives matter, there was a lot going on in the city, a lot going on all over united states. but for me, it's not just about my son. it was live other kids who lost they life on the fourth of july to gun violence all under the age of 15 years old. the youngest, i believe, was four. i never would have thought in a million years that i would be up here, talking about my son

and trying to advocate for my son, so like i said, in san francisco, we have to do better to speak up and standup to whatever that may be. whether or not they are, again, a friend, a relative, a whoever, because it's all intertwined. for me, like, hunters point, it's fucked up. excuse my language, but it's fucked up. i grew up in the city. i can go all over the city. i can still go all over the city. a lot of these kids can't. they scared, they afraid. they don't even want to go to school, and if they do go to school, a lot of them run around with firearms and a whole bunch of other stuff, so, you know, i'm adamant in saying

we have to do whatever we can to wrap our hands around the community, the people that are helping the community. like, everybody can't give many and time, but it's a lot of things that we can do to help and try to nourish our people in our communities in a better life than what we are. [applause] >> accountability. you driving down the street, you see something that don't look right? hold them accountable. that could be your niece, that could be your son, that could be your brother, that could be

your daughter. like i said, as san franciscans, we have to be more involved in that because we have situations like that. jaquan rice, his son was 13. he's now 20. his shooter is the person that these kids in these neighborhoods now listen to that's they big homie, you know? when someone like a dame or a raim, you know, little bruh, oh, you can't call me little bruh. i ain't your big bruh.

they're -- if you're already not holding them accountable at home, and you're not holding them accountable when you go to court, and saying, you know what? your honor, they need help. i need help. my son ain't going to school, they ain't doing this, that's part of what we need to do. we have made too many loopholes and leniency for things. so like i said, just please, man, if you know somebody, see somebody, hold them accountable and make them stand on they actions and they behaviors. thank you. [applause]

. >> hi, everyone. hello. i'm trying to feel everyone in here. i know this lighting is tricky for attention span, so i'm go >> no, it's okay. i know it's monday. i know it's monday at noon. i know stomachs are growling and e-mails are coming in, but director davis and mayor breed

have asked that we all prioritize healing in this conversation before we break, and so if folks can power through, i'm going to actually ask if folks can put their phones down. i promise you won't miss anything in the next 15, 20 minutes. we have some guests who have been waiting on the line who are here to chat, so everybody repeat after me. let's do a little calling-in response. everybody say healing. a little louder, healing. we're going to talk about healing justice, healing centered practices. a dear friend of mine always tells me that trauma that is not transformed then becomes transferred. all right? have we heard that before? trauma that is not transformed becomes transferred, so i'm going to ask the panelists in a moment to pivot and really

direct the conversations to those of us that are in this space. i know we're going to talk about macrolevel healing, but i know a lot of us experience vicarious trauma if not trauma ourselves. i know this is a violence prevention summit, but many of us have also been on the receiving end or have witnessed violence in our own minds as well as our community. so i'm hoping as when our expert panelists chat with us about healing that we actually take some and save some for ourselves, if that makes sense, so we can then give to our people and our community and our constituents. so i am aria said, and i am the president and cofounder of the transgender district, all the

way from the tenderloin, just around the corner. i'm so proud to represent both the transgender district and the tenderloin in this conversation, and we have some incredible experts that i will just name for now. we have lynn westry. we have reverend norman fong, former executive director of chinatown community organization, [inaudible], and then, we have two lovely guests who are going to start speaking on the zoom in just a second. and so we have dr. joyce, who's the cofounder and director of ucsf healthy environments and response to trauma in schools, and dr. michelle, associate

provesor, department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the ucsf [inaudible] for behavioral sciences. so i'm going to start off with the guiding question, and thank you, sarah and dr. harrison for sending them to me. okay. so what does healing mean to you, and where do you see a need for healing in, let's say for ourselves? and dr. joyce and dr. michelle, take it away on the zoom. >> hi, everybody. can you hear me? okay. just wondering if i should -- all right. great. i'm not sure if you can see me,

but i am joyce durado. i am a clinical professor at ucsf department of clinical psychiatry and behavioral sciences. thank you for the opportunity to speak with you all. i know that everybody in this room is all about healing justice, and as our moderator has said, the fact is that, you know, most, if not all of us are going to experience trauma at some point in our lives, and with the pandemic, that just adds to that and experiencing the trauma-inducing nature of things like structural racism and xenophobia is so impactful to all of us, so, so important to pay attention to healing, both the healing of ourselves

as well as the other. fundamentally, healing involves helping people feel safe, heard, cared for, respected, and valued. and of course, therapists can provide this type of healing, but also can friends, loved ones, teachers, clergy, and other caring others. and our keynote speaker emphasized how central relationships are. also, a include in healing from trauma is, at the heart, preventing violence.

it's that looming and all too often immediate threat that one person's safety or life is not as important as another person's, due to the lottery of our skin, our birth, and research tells us this kind of what we call socio cultural trauma has the same impact on our brain and on our bodies as other kinds of trauma. so just as another sort of framing thing that i think about healing, the rising youth center, they say that trauma is historical, generational, political, interpersonal, and embodied, so then must be our

healing. so we here have the honor to see healing in communities and in schools, and in our young people who are standing up to injustice. i think i'm going to say a little bit here. we were asked, since we're on the zoom, to say most of what we want to say, and then turn it over to our esteemed panelists. i can talk a little bit more about our program. we aim to promote healing in school and resilient success by collaborating with school systems to create more trauma informed safe, supportive, and equitable environments that create safe, supportive spaces for students and staff alike. we've been doing it since 2008 here in the bay area and across

the country to help educators understand how trauma can affect any of us as human beings, and that anybody, regardless of their role, whether they're a teacher or lunch lady or community partner can implement. we promote healing and resilience not only for the young people but for the adults who serve and care for them, and this is a really important point because caring for our staff in our systems is crucial to this because overworked and over stressed individuals can actually become trauma reactive organizations that cause harm,

right? and that's because despite our best efforts, hurt people hurt people. so we're looking to promote this in our workforce, as well, and that being said, in the work we do with schools and other systems, we encourage our schools to deeply listen to the communities we serve and engage their active participation and partnership so that we can really better understand what they're up against, what's working for them in terms overcoming adversity. just a quick word with our corvetting -- about our core vetting principles. we have these six principles that are grounded in core healing and resilience. our first is understanding trauma and stress. it's really -- it's helpful to

understand how trauma and chronic stress can affect us, and when we understand a little bit about what's happening for folks when they get triggered into sort of a fear and survival response, a fight, flight, or freeze, this helps us understand that behavior better, and when we understand that behavior and where it's coming from, it then helps us to have a response that instead of being punitive and harmful, it's helpful and healing. so really using our principles in this sort of lens to understand is what i'm doing or about to implement a practice or a policy trauma inducing or trauma reducing. i know i'm running out of time here, but i want to mention our second principle, and just as everyone has been saying all morning, we believe that attending to racial justice and

equity has to be central to any sort of trauma informed or healing center approach. what we're trying to do, we really want to make sure that we understand that, for example, things like structural racism is not something that we're post. it's not a posttraumatic stress disorder, it's something that people are up against right here and right now, and the stuff that people are so striving to over come the adversities that have been thrown against them, we need to amplify this and tap into. i think i'll end with that. i think the last thing i want to say that relationships, that

those sort of compassionate interdependable relationships, being able to facilitate their empowerment and their voice is all really key factors to really trying to provide healing in our communities and ourselves, so thanks so much for the opportunity. i'll stay in and stand by. [applause] >> hello. i'm michelle porsche, and i'm the director of psychology and behavioral sciences at ucsf. and again, i'll go through the same questions and try and add a little bit to what dr. dorado has presented. when i think about healing from a psychological perspective, you know, i think about not that the hurt and loss and trauma are not forgotten or

gone away, but we're better able to live our lives and find meaning in our experiences. we really need to think about systems when we're thinking about healing. healing requires that our schools, our health centers, our government institutions are caring for individuals who have been hurt and require healing. my particular research has been focused on aces, adverse

childhood experiences that include community violence, community violence abuse, separation, and loss, so when i see a need for healing in the community and myself, i think about how those experiences impact mental health and how they impact educational outcomes for our children. in my arch, i found people with these high levels of adverse childhood experiences are at higher risk for behavioral problems. they act out in anger or they use substances for numbing, and those things are more likely to have educational consequences. children having to repeat a grade or -- or dropping out of school, so i see a real need for education, how trauma and violence affect children, helping educators and help

children, especially as this pandemic rages on. a few months ago, an estimation was 40% of children will have lost a caregiver to covid. i'm sure that's greater now. [please stand by]

. . . . to the self and others and a them versus us mentality to focus on justice and to break the cycle of violence. thank you, i'll stop there. >> thank you, dr. joy. thank you, dr. shall. so we have about six minutes left. and we're going to -- you know

what? there have been amazing speeches and moments that have happened in five or 10 minutes. so anyway, i do have a guiding question for those of us in this space right here. a quick show of hands, how many people feel like they are stressed on the daily? just raise your hand. okay. and how many people feel like they're anxious today? i see a lot of people picked back up those phones. i'm going to try to be as entertaining as i can because director davis gave me strict orders that y'all get a nugget, a message of healing for yourselves before you go over to the asian art museum. is that where it is? okay. and so i have a guiding question for us. thank you, all, so much. so how do we as advocates develop a healing practice of our own? and i'll give some context.

i have been working in this work for over 15 years. i started as a teenager and i hear the words healing justice and restorative justice and trauma informed care. and i have no idea what those mean today. i just nod my head because in movement spaces we always do mmm, mmm-hmm, and we pretend like we know what's being said but we really don't know o kay? so how do we develop a healing practice of our own? let's focus on the front line as folks on the front line navigating violence prevention in our own community? reverend? >> a first, i want to say in all fairness to the two panelists that were on the video because i was on that email. so they were given five to serve

minutes and that is full. so that is the lens so that for all of us to hold systems accountable because i don't have a long time. this is to hold systems accountable in the communities and continue to do on a daily basis to hold the department heads that are making rules and decisions that are in their offices that touch us on the ground. and with the community awareness

which is a nonprofit that my husband started this and the other person faded into the background, but my husband donald greene has been in the trenches doing this work day in and day out. and when you give funding and take it away without warning, that is systems causing harm to our community. we are that or the ground are given bits and crumbs to do this work. and funding organizations and yet we continue to do this work on an everyday basis because we care. i live in petreo hill and i always acknowledged that i live in public house. why do you say that?

i am not ashamed to live in public housing. you can come from no matter where you come fru, but it is what you do with your life. and we as adults have to show and continue showing your young people that there is another outlet. and there used to be rules to the game. there were street rules an as a lot of us have been saying and somebody didn't teach the young people the street rules. the street rules went out the door because you weren't supposed to do things with imwith, children, seniors and disabled. those were rules. you walked up to the person you shot them, and i am not advocating for this, but there were rules to the game, and the rules have been lost. and our young people feel there is no ending and no light at the end of the tunnel for them.

i ran for supervisor district 10. i didn't run to win. i ran to show your young people no matter where you come from and no matter what you have -- i'm an ex-dope and have been in recovery. ex--prostitute. used to live on the streets and everything else. you have to give your past and tell the young people and show people the future. healing to me? hold systems accountable and it's us grown ass adults that forget what we were doing that age. we just didn't get caught or we had somebody to lift back and miss hattie would say, girl, i'm telling your mamma. so i can go on and on. and it's just that we have to back the ones that are doing the jobs. director davis and my hats off to you.

all the other black women and men and samoan brothers and sisters, asian brothers and sister, pacific islander, all the people of color in the trenches, we have to start recognizing and you really have to start giving money to the ones that are doing the work and quit playing. >> reverend, healing -- okay. god sees and god knows all things. reverend, how do we as advocates develop a healing practice of our own? >> i'm going to start off needing understanding. when i got beat up as a kid, i didn't understand it. i think it impacted my life and i got into violence. i started my own gang just to

fight back. in the 50s and 60s, china town and the ieal yans of north beach did not get along. and a lot of people don't know the history and we were short and fought that law. growing up with racism as a normal thing, the d.a.c.s tied me to a fence as a little kid, one of the cutest kids of china town, but bags of water balloons they threw at me. it really hurt me and taught me to fight back. we don't want to fight back like we did back then, but it worked. and we are not supposed to

promote violence and i am a minister not making up for my past, but their are some creatives. chinatown was traumatized back then we were nobodies. and i got to go to the work for the community center and we took over public housing in chinatown and we are the beloved community as best we can. reverend jesse jackson -- i got to go quick. he helped us when there was ain't anti-asian hate in the 80s. but he just came in june and i love vincent chen. talk about solidarity. we did a vincent chen and george floyd unity event for the city. it pent a lot to chinatown and feeling like nobody loves again and why pick on the seniors? we need the moments of solidarity. we need to build housing and this country is getting rid of public housing.

and we have to protect it because it's affordable. and the thing that i'm going to end with because time is tight, when i got beat up and knifed a little and i don't know what to do. i didn't tell my friend until recently. it's been in the closet. i was too ashamed back then to tell people i got beat up. my mom -- i love my mom. my mom tried to calm me down because i said i wanted to kill and i was so angry. she said, do you know our landlord was italian and he only charge us 90 bucks rent for, you know, for a long time for years. and then after that a few years later, we got evicted. a chinese dude bought the building. and life was about contradictions but also, no, no, this is really important. life is about balance and like

we need to spend money in building those relationships. we will have a noodle fest next year so that chinese and italians can fight it out through food. okay. we used to get money and i am just sharing ideas. we used to get money from -- i won't name the foundation, but they funded us to have community kitchens. so i could bring different racial groups together in our housing to have to share a story. and time is up. i know. and you get the idea. there is creativity and turn your pain like your grandma. got beaten to death. and she is going to rename that park after her grandma. i support that. so we got to get creative out there. i'll shut up. time is tight. i know. >> lynn, i will have to make it up to you. i am so sorry. we are at time.

you all have 15 minutes to go to the next building. >> wait, wait, no, we don't. we should have at least two minutes for lynn to speak. lynn says she can make in it one minute. she a female. go ahead. >> go for it. >> sorry, i am getting competing signals from the back and up here. sorry, lynn. >> okay. healing, what healing looks like for me. is transparency. to be honest, to be real, to be wholistic. and until we can start being transparent, until we can start speaking in honesty, until we start really addressing the real issue of violence, we're going to keep repeating the same cycle. and none of us is healing, but i'll tell you today i must heal. i must be healed in order to survive. in order to continue to do the work that i do. as a mother that child was

killed at 18, i have to be able to heal. i have to be able to love. i have to be able to continue. but i must say i'm sick of and i'm tired of and i know quite often i probably sometimes seem like the mad, angry black woman, but on many occasion let me tell you i am. because i understand what it feels like not to have that healing. not to have that space to really heal. not to have that transparency. so again, until we can speak in honesty and speak our truth, we're going to continue to have these type of summits. [applause] >> thank you. >> thank you, miss lynn. if everyone can give a round of

applause for all of you are panelists. thank you, all, so much, for taking the time out today. you could have been anywhere, but you're here planting seeds of thought for everyone in the room. just really grateful. thank you, dr. michelle, and dr. joy, reverend fong, and miss lynn. thank you all so much. so i am sending everyone to the library to -- >> a first off, give it up. do you want to give a tip before we leave for healing? do you have a healing tip? >> okay. pay off your credit card bill. it promotes healing. it is more than bubble baths and pasta. healing is actually deep, critical work that we have to prioritize. okay, bye.

>> give it up for the panel. thank you, all, so much. >> when i first started painting it was difficult to get my foot in the door and contractors and mostly men would have a bad attitude towards me or not want to answer my questions or not include me and after you prove yourself, which i have done, i don't face that obstacle as much anymore. ♪♪♪

my name is nita riccardi, i'm a painter for the city of san francisco and i have my own business as a painting contractor since 1994 called winning colors. my mother was kind of resistant. none of my brothers were painter. i went to college to be a chiropractor and i couldn't imagine being in an office all day. i dropped out of college to become a painter. >> we have been friends for about 15-20 years. we both decided that maybe i could work for her and so she hired me as a painter. she was always very kind. i wasn't actually a painter when she hired me and that was pretty cool but gave me an opportunity to learn the trade with her company. i went on to different job opportunities but we stayed friends. the division that i work for with san francisco was looking

for a painter and so i suggested to my supervisor maybe we can give nita a shot. >> the painting i do for the city is primarily maintenance painting and i take care of anything from pipes on the roof to maintaining the walls and beautifying the bathrooms and graffiti removal. the work i do for myself is different because i'm not actually a painter. i'm a painting contractor which is a little different. during the construction boom in the late 80s i started doing new construction and then when i moved to san francisco, i went to san francisco state and became fascinated with the architecture and got my contractor's licence and started painting victorians and kind of gravitated towards them. my first project that i did was a 92 room here in the mission.

it was the first sro. i'm proud of that and it was challenging because it was occupied and i got interior and exterior and i thought it would take about six weeks to do it and it took me a whole year. >> nita makes the city more beautiful and one of the things that makes her such a great contractor, she has a magical touch around looking at a project and bringing it to its fullest fruition. sometimes her ideas to me might seem a little whacky. i might be like that is a little crazy. but if you just let her do her thing, she is going to do something incredible, something amazing and that will have a lot of pop in it. and she's really talented at that. >> ultimately it depends on what the customer wants. sometimes they just want to be understated or blend in and

other times they let me decide and then all the doors are open and they want me to create. they hire me to do something beautiful and i do. and that's when work is really fun. i get to be creative and express what i want. paint a really happy house or something elegant or dignified. >> it's really cool to watch what she does. not only that, coming up as a woman, you know what i mean, and we're going back to the 80s with it. where the world wasn't so liberal. it was tough, especially being lgbtq, right, she had a lot of friction amongst trades and a lot of people weren't nice to her, a lot of people didn't give her her due respect. and one of the things amazing about nita, she would never quit. >> after you prove yourself,

which i have done, i don't face that obstacle as much anymore. i'd like to be a mentor to other women also. i have always wanted to do that. they may not want to go to school but there's other options. there's trades. i encourage women to apply for my company, i'd be willing to train and happy to do that. there's a shortage of other women painters. for any women who want to get into a trade or painting career, just start with an apprenticeship or if you want to do your own business, you have to get involved and find a mentor and surround yourself with other people that are going to encourage you to move forward and inspire you and support you and you can't give up. >> we've had a lot of history, nita and i. we've been friends and we have been enemies and we've had conflicts and we always gravitate towards each other

with a sense of loyalty that maybe family would have. we just care about each other. >> many of the street corners in all the districts in san francisco, there will be a painting job i have completed and it will be a beautiful paint job. it will be smooth and gold leaf and just wow. and you can't put it down. when i first started, it was hard to get employees to listen to me and go along -- but now, i have a lot of respect. >> 5, 4, 3, 2 , 1. cut. >> we are here to celebrate the opening of this community garden. a place that used to look a lot darker and today

is sun is shining and it's beautiful and it's been completely redone and been a gathering place for this community. >> i have been waiting for this garden for 3 decades. that is not a joke. i live in an apartment building three floors up and i have potted plants and have dreamt the whole time i have lived there to have some ability to build this dirt. >> let me tell you handout you -- how to build a community garden. you start with a really good idea and add community support from echo media and levis and take management and water and sun and this is what we have. this is great. it's about environment and stewardship.

it's also for the -- we implemented several practices in our successes of the site. that is made up of the pockets like wool but they are made of recycled plastic bottles. i don't know how they do it. >> there is acres and acres of parkland throughout golden gate park, but not necessarily through golden community garden. we have it right in the middle of yesterday was my birthday and i was out a little later than normal. it was nice to really celebrate a birthday for a change and i celebrated in ashia sf in san

francisco where -- oh, my goodness, the performance was amazing. the food was great. the drinks were wonderful, the people were wonderful, but what i most enjoyed about being at asia sf is that they require everyone who comes through the door shows proof of vaccination. and so i felt a little bit safer when i was there last night and today's announcement is really about making sure that people feel a little bit safer in our city, but most importantly, what we're seeing now with this virus is very challenging. and of great concern to me and i know many of you as well. but let's take it back just a little bit. the fact is that we should be proud of san franciscans. when i asked you all over a year ago to shelter in place

and basically change your entire lives to support one another and ensure this virus didn't spread. you answered the call, you stepped up, you did your part. our health care workers showed up to the hospital to take care of those who unfortunately contracted the virus. but ultimately, we saw the best of the people of this city. and now, we need just a little bit more. and, again, going back to where we are. we've seen in this city 78% of people in san francisco have been fully vaccinated. that's still more than any place else in the country. and i know the rest of you all are coming kicking and screening, but let me explain why this is so important. it's important because kids

under the age of 12 cannot be vaccinated. so we have to make sure we're protecting them. it's important because there are still people who are elderly and sick and those with underlying health conditions that may not be eligible for the vaccine. we're doing this for them. so the reason why we're here today is because we're actually following the lead of small businesses and in particular, many bars in san francisco that decided on their own we're going to require proof of vaccination before you enter our bar and the reason why we're here at vericio is because the owner, wherever she is, there you go. janet clyde, she took it the extra step. she took a lot of heat for it. she said i want to keep my

customers and my employees safe, so i'm going to do this despite how challenging it was. how it impacted her business because she put the health and safety of the people of this city and her customers and her employees before anything else. that's what being a good san franciscan is all about and so we appreciate you letting us be here at this historic location to recognize that we really are in this together. and because this delta variant has been so brutal i don't know about you, but when the virus first happened and over that time period. i knew less people at that time who actually got the virus. and there are a bunch of folks that i know how who have in some cases been vaccinated that

have contracted covid because the delta variant is just that more contagious and we are not out of the woods as it relates to covid, we're still going through it. yes, we're sick and and tired of it, but it's not tired of us it's still coming back with a vengeance. we're seeing 263 new cases and those people are younger in some cases than what previously existed and dr. cofax said if i'm going to get covid anyway. it's a difference being home every day or being in a hospital on a respirator where

you can't breathe and this is real and it's hard to understand when you don't complooeld see it, but in some cases they can't talk where in this past year and a half, there have been people who died who have not been able to have funerals. when we think about those sorts of things, how can we not do our part to get better, to get vaccinated to make sure we're protecting one another. to make sure we're protecting our children because they can't get vaccinated. so why are we here today? well, part of it is we're taking our steps around vaccinations just a little bit further and starting

august 20th, you will need proof of vaccination in businesses for your customers in high contact areas like bars, restaurants, clubs, theaters, entertainment venues. indoor gyms and fitness and large indoor events with more than a 1,000 people. by october 13th, employees at these establishments must be vaccinated as well. all of the employees need to show proof of vaccination by october 13th to their employer. now, to be clear, this will not include people or kids who are under the age of 12 because they can't get vaccinated. so what we don't want folks to think is a family of four that you can't go to a restaurant, you can. because we know that your children cannot be vaccinated and will not have the ability

to show proof, but the parents will need to. and, this does not impact those who are coming to pick up to-go orders. a lot of folks who do the deliveries. so this won't impact that. as i said, why are we doing this? it's to protect the workers. it's to protect kids. it's to protect those who can't get vaccinated. it's to make sure we don't go backwards. it's to make sure that i never have to get up in front of you and say i'm sorry we just re-opened and now the city's closed again because we are seeing too many people die. so to find out information about getting vaccinated go to

sf.gov/vaccinated. you can call if you have any questions or need additional information, but this is an important step towards our recovery. i saw on the news hamilton just opened and people were there with smiles on their faces. underneath the mask, i saw the high cheekbones. i know you guys know what that looks like and it felt good. i don't know about you but when i went out to asia sf, the women who performed there to be out in a city, to go to a restaurant, to see people again, there was a time we could not do this, so if we want to continue down this path if we want to make sure people

are healthy to make sure we're in a good place as a city from a public health perspective so that our economy can really recover to its fullest extent, then we all have to do our part. we need to get vaccinated. we need to make sure that we are respectful to the businesses that ask us to put on our mask, or to produce your vaccination cards. we need to continue to have grace as we deal with one of the most and count your blessings and let's make sure it isn't anyone else in the future because that's what this is about. making sure that now that we

have a vaccine that we take full advantage of it because that's going to make the difference for us. and i want to thank a couple of folks here joining us including rodney fong from the san francisco chamber. thank you for being here. sharky laguana, thank you for your work and advocacy. thank you. and we have a couple of other folks joining us. i think ben blyman is going to say a few words representing the bar owners here today. you know, it was not -- asia sf is somewhat like a bar. it's a bar, performance, food, they have it all. so it's like the perfect bar space where you get everything. anyway, ben is here to talk a little bit about that.

mary ellen carol is here from the department of emergency management to answer any questions. and, i think um, who else is here? like i said, it was a long night. and, right now, i'm going to call up dr. grant cofax to talk a little bit about the specifics of our health order, what the plans are and just thank you all so much for being here and thank you all for continuing to do your very best to comply with these very complicated sometimes numerous health orders, but they will keep us safe and they will save lives. thank you so much. well, good morning everyone. and thank you, mayor breed, for your steadfast leadership. as we continue to navigate covid-19 as a city. and thank you, janet, and

visuvio for your important efforts as we recover from this pandemic. and i want to thank our acting health officer who worked hard on these orders and for director marry ellen carol for your ongoing partnership in this response. the business community has been an important partner in our efforts ever since the early days of the pandemic which is now well over a year and a half. from capacity limits to masking requirements to everything in between, you have responded and adapted to the many new ways of doing business throughout. and, for that, we thank you. i look out at all the new outdoor dining pots and walk-ups these days and i'm so pleased to see the way san francisco has adapted and come bang to life. even in just the last few months. the difference is palpable. our ability to adapt, change and respond will service well because even as we beat back

this disease. we also know that covid-19 will be with us in some capacity for the foreseeable future. we are now in a new phase of the pandemic. and even as we see a surge of cases, we have the powerful tool to fight this disease and keep ourselves and each other safe. the vaccines. let's use them. the updates to our safer return together health order are designed to make sure we can continue to keep businesses open and enjoy our lives in san francisco safely even as we face the delta variant and other variants to come where people are at close range. breathing heavy indoors. it's simply common sense. it makes sense to require

vaccinations in indoor settings where food and drink is served like restaurants and bars and where aerobic exercises happen in gyms and fitness establishments and where many people gather like at indoor venues of a thousand people or more. we believe we will continue to make a major difference in lowering the spread of covid-19 with the common sense solution of vaccines. the vaccines continue to work remarkably well especially and dramatically lowering the risk of hospitalization and death from covid-19. the vaccines are our armor. they are our life jackets. they are parachutes.

d.p.h. launched a vax to you campaign last week that will bring a mobile vaccination team to your home or business if you have at least five people ready to get the vaccine. we ask businesses to please take advantage of that and you can go to sf.gov/vaxtoyou for more information. you can continue to get the vaccine from your health care provider or at a farmee or many of our drop-in sites across the city. we are also ready and in hand to have the new tools to implement the new vax even requirements. while today's announcement applies to these specific kinds of business, we also encourage all businesses in the city to do their part and require their employees and patrons to get vaccinated as soon as possible. for anyone who is on the fence about getting vaccinated or hasn't made the time, we very

much hope that the incentive of eating at your favorite restaurant in san francisco or grabbing a drink will remove any barriers that you may have for getting vaccinated. the vaccine is safe, effective, and appointments are readily available. and, just a reminder, that even if you've already had covid-19, we in the city strongly recommend that you get fully vaccinated. thank you, and, with that, i'd like to introduce ben blyman, head of the san francisco's bar owner's alliance and an early leader in requiring vaccinations at bars and encouraging others to join. ben, thank you. >> thank you. first of all, i'd like to say happy birthday to mayor breed. happy birthday. second of all, i just want to thank mayor breed for her leadership throughout the

pandemic. for many of us, it's the worst year and a half of our professional lives and i can't say how grateful we are to have somebody in the highest leadership of san francisco who actually cares about us and doesn't just help us when it's politically expedient to do so. time and time again the mayor's shown she truly cares about our issues and is willing to go to the mat for us. thank you for that. i just wanted to call that out. about three to four weeks ago, the san francisco bar owners started to notice alarming cases of break through infections with staff members of ours. these are vaccinated individuals working in bars who suddenly were coming down with covid, thankfully, none of the cases were serious. there were no hospitalizations but it was enough to give us pause and have a robust conversation. in that conversation, three things came up that i noticed and it was a very robust conversation. one was how scared we were for the health of our staff

members. specifically, we have a lot of staff members who have young children. we have a lot of staff members who take care of elderly parents and the idea they could bring something home and put them in danger was scary for us and real. we have a sacred obligation to our staff members. we know that. we feel that way, and that was really first and foremost in our minds. the second was the impact it was having on our businesses. if somebody comes down with covid, even if they don't go to the hospital, they're out for at least ten days and we're having a staffing shortage already across the u.s., so this has a serious impact on our ability to do business. i myself had to close a bar for a night because my bartender got covid at a different job of his and we were unable to find coverage. and the third thing that came up was the frustration that we felt as a community. for the first year of the pandemic, we were fighting an uncontrollable virus. it could be sort of managed,

but it was kind of out of control and we kind of had the sense of fatalism. but that was no longer the case. and the bar owners were veryis a sievous and it was something that came up and we floated the idea what if we just don't let them inside. after a poll we did, over 80% of our membership responded that they would like to go through with that and they declared we would only allow vaccinated individuals to hang out indoors at our establishments. in actual practice, it was a little bit of a nothing burger. if anything, almost every single person was happy about t. they were thrilled. they were thankful. they were safer. the pushback we got was online from a bunch of remarkably

right wing trolls whose trolling was so bad hopefully i could teach them about how to troll correctly. that said, we've gone through with it. it works. it's helping to decrease exposure to our staff members. we know that unvaccinated individuals are eight times more likely to contract and spread coronavirus and we need to make sure that we keep them from exposing our staff and their families as much as we can. even though there wasn't much pushback, we still kind of felt like we were on an island as a group. we didn't do it thinking other people would follow. we didn't do it to change hearts and minds. if hearts and minds do change, that's fantastic. but we did to to protect our staff and families. but the fact that san francisco is doing this now is a huge thing for us. we're not alone anymore. the city is making a bold statement if you want to participate in our society fully, if you want to be able

to cough into the mouths of other people around you in closed tight areas, you must be vaccinated indoors. the fact that we're not alone is a huge benefit to us and i thank the city of san francisco for going through with this. it's a giant deal for us so thank you very much, thanks for having us. >> thank you, ben. and, thank you to all the bar owners in san francisco. thank you to the vasuvio and janet in particular for your leadership and work and advocacy. as i said, the bars did this a couple weeks ago and the city is following their lead which i think is truly remarkable. the example that they're setting what we're doing to keep people safe is most important at this time. and, with that, i'll open it up to questions from the press.

>> coping with covid-19 with chris manning. >> hi. i'm chris manners, and you're watching coping with covid-19. my guest today is tanya peterson. she's the director of the san francisco zoo on sloat boulevard, and she's here today to talk about how the zoo's managing during the pandemic and how they're reopening. tanya, thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> i'm really pleased to hear that the zoo has reopened again. that's great news. can you tell us what changes

you've made to make visitors to the zoo feel comfortable and safe when they're there. i understand now you have to make reservations, and there's only a limited number available each day. >> we were making changes before shelter in place. fortunately, because we work with animals, and we have a vet hospital on-site, we have the safe coverings before the shelter in place. while we were closed, we made some internal and external changes. the first one, i guess, would be on-line reservations. you now need to make reservations to visit the zoo, just like your favorite dinner restaurant. that is an effort to slow down congestion. try to keep everything smooth, and we can control the number of families coming in over the course of time. >> that's great.

what about the indoor exhibits and the playground. are those off limits now? >> well, they're not off limits, but the playground, we had -- we had started child care program for essential workers even when we were closed, and the playground is used exclusively by our child care programs. so if you can think of the zoo, 100 acres, about a good third of it right now is reserved for child care, so what we do is we have the -- we've got the children in their safe pods. they're with each other for three weeks. they're in a controlled environment, and in the morning, one pod has the playground, we disinfect, and in the afternoon, another pod comes. all indoor spaces were closed before the shelter in place. the one thing i'm asked most frequently about is the train. we have a 100-year-old train,

and as soon as we can disinfect that, we'll get that open, because that's the number one question i guess, when is the train reopening. >> is there a map how you're supposed to walk around the zoo? >> yes. in certain areas, we created a one-way path. we try to make it fun. they're generally in the shape of bear paws and colored -- you know, follow the blue bear paws, follow the red bear paws -- but we've tried to make it fun. when children have not been out for three months, they were climbing anything and everything. we didn't anticipate that, so we put coverings open water fountains, statue signs.

kids had been cooped up, so they went crazy the first few days. more control in place. >> that sounds great. how did the zoo's residents respond to a lack of visitors. did you observe any behavioral differences? >> absolutely. we have some shy residents, gorillas and orangs. we have a male orangutan, he would blow me kisses. the rhinos, they would come out when i would feed them. >> how does it feel to have the zoo open again to the general public, even if it's a limited fashion? >> it feels fantastic. i'm a mother, and i know it's been hard on kids.

to be able to open safely outdoors -- we're one of the few zoos on an ocean, so you've got the coastal air coming through. we see families or self-ascribed pods coming through. it's been great for our staff and for our visitors. it's been heart warming, all the true experiences the first few days. >> clearly. you have a lot of mouths to feed. how did you cope with the pandemic so far? were you able to get some financial assistance, and how can viewers contribute if they'd like to? >> well, thank you. we received some help, but we burned through that quickly,

and we received some financial donations. we burned through a lot of our funding, and we were really feeling it. all of the people who supported us and hung in there, i thank you. you can join as a member. it's a tax deduction. david attenborough said it best. if the zoo becomes extinction, we all do. in the wild, poachers are getting the best of the wild

animals, but i think with the help of the zoo and the community, we can save the animals. >> where can i go if i want to donate? >> you can go to sfzoo.org. you can join, become a member or make a donation. it takes about $30,000 a day to feed all of our 2,000 animals, so you can pick how you want to help. >> well, i appreciate you coming onto the show today, miss peterson. >> thank you. the animals and i thank you from the bottom of our hearts. >> you've been watching coping with covid-19. for sfgovtv, i'm chris manners. thanks for watching.

you. >> when i first moved here people come to san francisco to be the person you want to be can be anyone you want. >> the community is so rich and diverse that i'm learning every single day san francisco is an amazing photoy town historically been base on evolution and that applies to every single professional field including philanthropic arts today what i do is photo based art manifests traditional forest and some colonel lodge and other frames of digital forest is a meeting that has been changing like super rapid and the quality is not extended by the medium if

you took forest in school or you get a job in a newspaper they'll give give you a list of how to create a philanthropic story my goal to break down that model and from a to b that is unique and allows the ability to incorporate different types of i believey about propels someone through the rise and a fall of their own experiences one of the main things i'm trying to contribute it unconditional narrative form the narrative art of photograph the in between of photos how does a group of photos come together as how to use the space between photos to alight emotional responses from the audience and bring innovation and create bodies of work that narratively

function the way that photos do san francisco as the commission came out and you visited me and one of their prerestricts was to find an art with enough work to fill a large says that a quad down the hallway downstairs and we hung that quad to feel like a train station that constant sensation from all different directions some of the major characteristic of the landscape festivities the blur of the train their 70 miles per hour and they're not perfect as opposed to to what landscape will look like it creates a dichotomy for people insides the train not just the story of the subject it is not just the visual design the composition

juxtapositioning, etc. not just all autobiography boo-hoo it creates pictures with meaning within them and then some of the portraits feel awkward some of them feel welcoming and the person that mime making the picture is really comfortable and other ones feel awkward and weigh i didn't and tense that sensation is counter to what we feel like makes a successful portrait that sensation makes that work it is hard to be an artist in a city is 100 percent focused an business the cost of living is expensive and to value your

success not scribble on financial return creates a conflict between the paramount egos in san francisco today. >> you see a lot of artists leaving for that reason because you need space to make work my ultimate goal to make work that firms people firms this gift and just the experience of life and of their worst and of the amazement the wonderment of everything around us

>> ♪♪ ♪♪ we are definitely pioneers in airport concession world a world of nationally if not entirely or internationally >> everybody is cop us right now. >> the people that were in charge of the retail this is where that began. >> i didn't think we would have

a location at the airport. >> we've set the bar higher with the customer commerce. >> telling me about the operator and how you go about finding them and they get from being in the city to being in the airport. >> so first, we actually find a table and once we know what we want a sit-down we go to the neighborhoods in san francisco and other people seminary of the retail let us know about the rain water and are excited to have the local operators in the airport. >> we have to go going through the conceive selective process and they award a lease to the

restaurant. >> they are planning on extending. >> we that you could out the china and the length evens and the travel serve and fourth your minds and it's all good. >> how long for a vendor to move through the process. >> i would say it could take 80 up to a year from the time we go out to bid until they actually open a restaurant. >> i don't know what we signed up for but the airport is happy to have us here. and, you know, even taking out the track simple things there's a learning curve >> with once we're here they are helpful. >> it's an award-winning program. >> we're prude of your awards we have won 11 awards the latest for the best overall food

address beverage program and . >> like the oscars (laughter). >> the professional world. >> tell me about the future food. >> all the sb national leases are xooirz and we're hoping to bring newer concepts out in san francisco and what your passengers want. >> well, i look forward to the future (laughter) air are we look fofofofofofofofo