>> hello everyone. thank you so much for being here today. welcome to the 2022-2023 san francisco youth celebration. give yourselves a round of applause. my name is emily nguyen the chair district chair on the san francisco youth commission. i feel grateful to be here today to celebrate this incredible group of youth commissioners. there is no way that i can incapsulate everything we accomplished together in a 5 minute speech, but i'll try do my best. when

i first stepped into city hall for the first youth commission meeting, i knew nothing about government but now it is one of my greatest passions. little did i know how much we would accomplish as a team and how much the youth commission would mean to me. seriously though, it has got ten to the point where family and friends are concerned how much time i spend in isthe building. coming back from the pandemic a main goal is bring back the youth commissionism we interacted with youth from all over the city through office hours, our budget town halls and our community events. from passing out candy to youth at the great-to teaching third graders about local government and district lines to tabling sunday streetss, we have been able to center youth input and engagement in our work. another main goal was to have all our work and all our legislation be rooted in empathy and personal

experiences. growing up next to freways my whole life, i'm so grateful to have gotten there opportunity to explore the central freeway on the youth commission and to speak on a panel with senator scott wiener about the freeway harmful impacts on youth and are marginalized communities. we priortaz issues thatd mat to us. we advocated for more transit stops and frnd lestreets. mew free muni for all funding and embarking to make bart more youth frndly and youth accessb. additionally, we are working to advance 16 to the 2024 ballot to champion youth civic engagement. lastly, we are exploring how to make juvenile hall more rejuvinated. we held a hearing meeting with several departments and district offices and hearing from constituents to

advance the issue. all this work and much more culminated in a 75 page budget policy report with 16 recommendations to the board of supervisors. making this report in under three months was probably one of the hardest things we ever had to do together, but we did it and we did it together. this youth commission achieved so much this year, but most importantly, we made life-long memories and lifelong friendships. commissioners dedicated them sevl jz gave their all to the youth commission. i can't count all the hours we spnt in city hall arguing about legislation until ten p.m. on a school night or working on youth commission legislation instead of homework. grateful to say i made lifelong friends and lifelong partners through the youth commission. i firstly want to appreciate vice chair barker plumber for all the support this term. thank you for all the 10 p.m. phone calls to plan town hall meetings and

presentations and thank you for being the best partner i could ever have on the youth commission. can we give commissioner plumber a round of applause? [applause] i also want to appreciate our staff for all their hard work and endless dedication to this youth commission. we cannot have done everything we did this year without their hard work and their expertise on organizing and government. can we please give them all a round of applause? [applause] all and are all i'm so proud of everyone and everything we accomplished this term and grateful for all the memories. you all make the youth commission what it is. can we please give every commissioner here today a round of applause? [applause] thank you everyone so much and now i'll be passing it off to commissioner barker plumber for his speech. [applause]

>> thank you chair nguyen and thank you all for joining us today as we celebrate the work and accomplishments of the 2022-2023 san francisco youth commission. it has been a busy year to say the least. it is kind of surprising to think it was les then a year ago we were on this very balcony with our mayor getting sworn in to serve and during that time we focused on service the young people of san franciscoism i want to say one statistic that i was really surprised by at the end. one of our staff members added up all the hours youth commissioners have put into public meetings here in san francisco, whether that's the commission or our subcommittees, and a totaled to over 138 hours of work youth commissioners did here in city hall representing young people in the city and county of san francisco and that is really important work we all partake in and something i'm really proud i was able to do alongside all you, so

thank you for that opportunity. i want to say one thing of what i'm most proud of us doing this yoor, which is really the yurk we did investing our time, our energy and connecting with our communities. covid has been a difficult time and people got disconnected in this city because of isolation and because of people's individual struggles and the work that not only the youth commissioner is doing, but our mayor is doing and many of the elected leaders and appointed leaders in the city are doing to reconnect with our san francisco community is so important and something that i'm very proud we were a part of. so, i want to really introduce and welcome someone who i think really understands that. who understands the importance of connecting to these communities, listening every day and that is our mayor london breed who is a personal inspiration and someone the youth commission learned from

over the past year in terms how we can connect with our communities and how we can create a good coalition to fight for the best san francisco we can, so thank you so much. [applause] >> thank you. thank you for your work and your advocacy and thank you for the great remarks to emily put those into perspective. all the great work that you all did throughout the time that you served as youth commissioners, i bet you didn't think you would be working so hard. but, you were able to accomplish great things in the process. what is interesting about being here today, it takes me back, because just recently i was redoing my retirement forms, and one of the persons who i was meeting with to help understand what was going on said, you have some time that you could actually buy

back in 1991, and i said, 1991! wait a minute, i was in high school in 1991 because i graduated 1992. i remember i was a part of one of the first organizations to bring youth into city hall to learn about policy in government. i completely forgot about this, but it was called the mayor's youth forum. the mayor's youth forum was put together by former mayor art agnus and i like to remind mayor agnus i got to meet him in his office in high school and he laughs about that. the mayor's youth forum was filled with a lot of department heads at that time. people who helped us learn about

government and how to make a impact. what is interesting to hear emily talk about the amazing work you all did over the course of the past year, what we did back then pailed in comparison to how advanced you are in your thought process and how you have taken the positions that you are in and have gone above and beyond to really try and shape policies and to shape resources for young people in san francisco. now, we collected a small pay check and we learned more about government and learned from those who represented government, but never were we given or even asked for a platform to do the kinds of things that you all are doing, because the youth forum i think had a lot to do with why we have the mayor's youth

forum that existed then has a lot to do why the youth commission was created. it was created to provide a real platform, because it has been a long time since i have been a young person, even though i consider myself young at heart, and the experiences that you have are a lot different then what we experienced growing up. how do we evolve? how do we change as a government to meet the needs of young people today? the internet want around when i was in high school. it was just forming somewhat when i was in college. the access to computers were very limited and cell phones, forget about it. those things remember expensive and i don't know if you have seen an original cell phone but it was heavy and had to carry it around in a case and unless you had money you could ntd afford it. when i think what i experienced growing up and what you have access to and the kinds of experiences

you have now, it is so important as policy makers that we are not shaping policy for young people based on what we experience. we need to hear the voices of young people based on what you are experiencing today so that our policies reflects the needs of the next generation in a way that is effective. is more effective in delivering for you at a faster pace then we have in the past. so, i want to express my appreciation to all of you, because it take as lot of time. there are so many other things that you could choose to do. you could-i'm sure you all in looking at your various applications and your resumes and what you submitted, many of you are involved in other extracurricular activities. you have responsibilities at home. you have responsibilities in community and the fact you are dedicating so much of your time to not just make your

lives better, but to make the lives better for other young people in this city is stored. extraordinary. it was important we not just swear you in and talk about what you are going to do, but we take a moment to reflect on what you have done, so that you can put it into perspective and to really appreciate all that you accomplished, because sometimes we do things and then we are on to it next thing and we do something and on to the next thing and we don't take a moment to pause to real ly appreciate the heart and soul watt we put into making something extraordinary happen so today is about that. a day to honor all of you on your accomplishments, especially those who are moving on to universities, including places like howard and washington dc, across the water to uc berkeley and even harvard. it is really a accomplishment to move in this direction and to be able to go on and to take

what you learned here in your further studies and my hope is that public service is calling you to a certain capacity. public service is what was my calling. i realized that after we were seeing changes in the community and i was being exposed to so many extraordinary things, i wanted to be a part of the decision making body that has a impact on community. now, it may be public service for you, it may be making policies, it may be creating the next new cell phone that you don't have to hold, but it is just in you- [laughter] with technology the way it is moving today you never know what it could be. i used to watch the jetsons cartoon and had flying vehicles and now we have vehicless in the city driven without drivers

so anything is possible and you are the nest generation that will lead the city and create. san francisco has a history of resiliency and invention. the first television was invented here. the first (indiscernible) no one was talking about climate change and what we needed to do to protect our city and our planet. so, that is the kind of invasion that we have in the people who are part of the fabric of our city, and you all as leaders in san francisco represent that. i want to say thank you for your work. thank you for your service, and thank you for all that you have done, and will continue to do for san francisco, but also i know without a doubt that you will go on to whatever university or whatever job opportunity and a lot of the same things you did here you'll carry that with you in those various

positions, and you'll do great things, so just be proud of that, take a moment to reflect, and also continue to maintain your very important relationships with one another. i still have friends that i had since i was in kindergarten, and those relationships are special. you will look back on those relationships and think, wow, we have known each other this long and those are going to be the people that carry you through and sustain. thank you again for being here and all your hard work and commitment to san francisco and congratulations on a successful year for those who are going away to college, good luck and make sure you come back and you work for opportunities for all so you can earn some money during the summer and you can develop some additional skills and for those who are moving on to the next level, whether high school, continuing high school or moving from junior high to high school, continue to do great things and much success and please know this

city will always be there for you. thank you and congratulations. [applause] >> can all the commissioners come up front?

>> the stewardship program is a (indiscernible) based program. we work with student kind r garten through 12 grade and work with scrks fusd and (indiscernible)

focus on 5 themes. sense of place, plant adapation and animal adaptation, water soil or (indiscernible) depending on the grade level and accommodations the class may need the educators work to adapt the programming to be whatever works best for the class, so they can gain activities (indiscernible) some don't, we try to meet students where they are at and get comfortable connecting in the space and feeling a sense of ownership and safety within their (indiscernible) >> the first component of a youth stewardship program trip will be a in clasds visit where we go to the school, we give a presentation on the natural history of san francisco, we talk about the concept of a habitat, so what does a habitat contain, understood, water, shelter, space. >> children at this age, they

learn best through using their senses, having the real life experience and (indiscernible) students also learn about responsibility and it is a great message for student to learn, if you take care of environment, the environment will take care of you. >> so, when we finally get the kids outside, we have two main components to the field trips. one is going to be the restoration component where we are working on the habitat and parks by pulling out (indiscernible) or maybe watering, and then the other side of our trip is going to be the educational component, which can range from a nature walk with a sensory theme where we are talking about what we smell and hear, to a focus on plant adaptation and animal

adaptations. >> (indiscernible) >> just a great opportunity for students to learn more, connect with nature, and hopefully what they learn from the youth stewardship program they can take with them for the rest of their lives, and they will appreciate their environment more. hopefully, when they appreciate it, they take care of it more every day. >> (indiscernible) >> so every year we open the application up in the fall. interested teachers can apply for a classroom visit and up to two field trips to the city park of their choice. field trips are 2 and a half hours long and like i said, they can happen in any city park (indiscernible)

as latinos we are unified in some ways and incredibly diverse in others and this exhibit really is an exploration of nuance in how we present those ideas. ♪♪ our debts are not for sale. >> a piece about sanctuary and how his whole family served in the army and it's a long family tradition and these people that look at us as foreigners, we

have been here and we are part of america, you know, and we had to reinforce that. i have been cure rating here for about 18 year. we started with a table top, candle, flowers, and a picture and people reacted to that like it was the monna lisa. >> the most important tradition as it relates to the show is idea of making offering. in traditional mexican alters, you see food, candy, drinks, cigarettes, the things that the person that the offerings where being made to can take with them into the next word, the next life. >> keeps us connects to the

people who have passed and because family is so important to us, that community dynamic makes it stick and makes it visible and it humanizes it and makes it present again. ♪♪ >> when i first started doing it back in '71, i wanted to do something with ritual, ceremony and history and you know i talked to my partner ross about the research and we opened and it hit a cord and people loved it. >> i think the line between engaging everyone with our culture and appropriating it. i think it goes back to asking people to bring their visions of what it means to honor the dead, and so for us it's not asking us to make mexican altars if they are not mexican, it's really to

share and expand our vision of what it means to honor the dead. >> people are very respectful. i can show you this year alone of people who call tol ask is it okay if we come, we are hawaii or asian or we are this. what should we wear? what do you recommend that we do? >> they say oh, you know, we want a four day of the dead and it's all hybrid in this country. what has happened are paper cuts, it's so hybrid. it has spread to mexico from the bay area. we have influence on a lot of people, and i'm proud of it. >> a lot of times they don't represent we represent a lot of

cultures with a lot of different perspectives and beliefs. >> i can see the city changes and it's scary. >> when we first started a lot of people freaked out thinking we were a cult and things like that, but we went out of our way to also make it educational through outreach and that is why we started doing the prosession in 1979. >> as someone who grew up attending the yearly processions and who has seen them change incrementally every year into kind of what they are now, i feel in many ways that the cat is out of the bag and there is no putting the genie back into the bottle in how the wider public accesses the day of the dead. >> i have been through three different generations of children who were brought to the

procession when they were very young that are now bringing their children or grandchildren. >> in the '80s, the processions were just kind of electric. families with their homemade visuals walking down the street in san francisco. service so much more intimate and personal and so much more rooted in kind of a family practice of a very strong cultural practice. it kind of is what it is now and it has gone off in many different directions but i will always love the early days in the '80s where it was so intimate and sofa millial. >> our goal is to rescue a part of the culture that was a part that we could invite others to join in there there by where we

invite the person to come help us rescue it also. that's what makes it unique. >> you have to know how to approach this changing situation, it's exhausting and i have seen how it has affected everybody. >> what's happening in mission and the relationship with the police, well it's relevant and it's relevant that people think about it that day of the dead is not just sugar skulls and paper flowers and candles, but it's become a nondenominational tradition that people celebrate. >> our culture is about color and family and if that is not present in your life, there is just no meaning to it you know? >> we have artists as black and brown people that are in direct

danger of the direct policies of the trump administration and i think how each of the artists has responded so that call is interesting. the common. >> shop and dine the 49 challenges residents to do they're shopping with the 49ers of san francisco by supporting the services within the feigned we help san francisco remain unique and successful and rib rant where will you shop the shop and dine the 49 i'm e jonl i provide sweets square feet potpie and peach cobbler and i started my business this is my baby i started out of high home and

he would back for friends and coworkers they'll tell you hoa you need to open up a shop at the time he move forward book to the bayview and i thinks the t line was up i need have a shop on third street i live in bayview and i wanted to have my shop here in bayview a quality dessert shot shop in my neighborhood in any business is different everybody is in small banishes there are homemade recess pesz and ingredients from scratch we shop local because we have someone that is here in your city or your neighborhood that is provide you with is service with quality ingredients and quality products and need to be know that person the person behind the products it is not

like okay. who thank you for c today for the budget signing. i know supervisor chan, there were a lot of challenging time and doubt and frustration. when i am surprised throughout this entire process no are matter what you kept a smile on your face. thank you very much for your heard work and for working with your colleagues and you know getting us through, i know we had to make hard decision in light of 780 million dollars, two year deficit. fact we got through it, and almost record time is pretty surprising. and add moirable. congratulations and thank you to each