>> good morning, good morning, good morning and welcome to the urban alchemy oasis. we are excited to be here and thank everyone for time to come and to celebrate with us. we are here to discus the results somewhere outcomes of a

study in the work of tenderloin and midmarket community, supported and launched by mayor breeds office. the work done by urban alchemy practitioner, the community safety work, the goals for the program are to provide servicess to our unhoused neighbors in san francisco to reduce crime and struggling neighborhoods and to provide an alternative community based public safety where folks from the community, folks with lived experience can do the work of restoration and healing and support for some of our most vuliable neighbors. this study was carried out by stanford university, lead by dr. stuart, the director of stanford's ethnology lab and they have studied the results of this program and are happy today to discuss the findings and so we are really grateful you all grathered here to talk about this work, to hear about the phenomenal impact we have

been able to make in these communities and as you can imagine, the results you will hear today you probably have seen them. you probably have felt them and today we are just really excited to not just have to rely on what we see and what we feel, but to have data to back up what we know we are experience igin our community. to kick off this morning i want to welcome cofounder and ceo dr. miller to greet you and bring you remarks. why don't you receive her. [applause] >> today is a really good day. today we have some good news. we have been hearing a lot of bad news about san francisco and the conditions on our street, but today, we have some really good news. we are here to talk about the exciting initial results of stanford university study that

shows presence in the tenderloin caused a significant reduction in total crime and drug crime. i think the important thing to know about urban alchemy you can't read obour website is urban alchemy was born and bred and grew right here in the cracks concrete in the streets of san francisco. in this grit and grime, we grew and i want to thank you mayor breed for seeing us. [applause] and allowing us to grow and not plucking us out before we really have a chance to show our beauty and our brilliance to the world. we know what we feel on these

streets. the residents of the tenderloin know what they feel on these streets. businesses, universities, they know what the difference is when urban alchemy has been on these streets. but it seems more like a political conversation then it does a reality. when dr. stuart came to me and asked for permission to study the results of urban alchemy or what was happening with urban alchemy out on these streets, i said, on the condition that you look at our impact on crime in the streets that we are, because i know we are making a difference. i know we are changing the environment. thats why urban alchemy has

grown so much and been in demand, but i don't have any data. i can't prove it, so i feel i'm out here trying to scream to the world, what is happening here? ! no one is listening. but today we got that data. crime rates are dropping throughout san francisco. in here in the tenderloin, dr. stuart's research shows that crime rates have dropped by 52 percent in the tenderloin on the streets where urban alchemy is. we have saved the lives of a average of over 200 people a year . during the pandemic it was up

to 4 or 500. through not only narcan reversals, but first aid procedures. our results show the difference between social service programs built by and for the people in our own neighborhoods and people who are looking from the outside in and making opinions and conjecture about how it should be done. we grew organically in response to the conditions that we saw. using common sense approach to the realties we were engaging with every day to create this unique model that is urban alchemy. we talk a lot about san francisco being the heart of tech, but what a lot of people

don't understand about san francisco is it is a always been a boom or bust city. this city has always been gritty and grimy. we are beautiful too and have a lot of things going on, but the grit, and grime, the wind that shaped the topography that shaped san francisco, there is something that infuses the people. we have this creativity to deal with stuff in a way that unique to this place and that is what gave birth to urban alchemy. that is the invasion that we are going to export throughout this country that we have already began exporting throughout this country. los angeles, our circle program, response connected to the 911 system. this program has also been replicated in san francisco

throughout the heart program. we are also going to be launching it in austin and portland. what we are demonstrating is this is not a fluke. there is something special happening here. my dad used to say to me and so grateful to him for instilling this in my mind and my soul, lana, dont tell me what you don't want, tell me what you do want. if we want something different, we need to start focusing on the things that are working and to start naming what it is that we want. to our practitioners, this data is proof that what you are doing is working.

i know it is heartful when people say stuff like, all you are doing is standing around. we are responding too much money. day to day you know you are out here making a difference. you are watching these miracles unfold. you are connecting with people and i know you know because you feel the love from the people. if you were not doing that work, that wouldn't allow you to be here, but the fact you are embraced and loved, you know the difference you are making. but now we got the data and it is from stanford university. you are those heroes and i see you, i thank you and next i want to introduce our alustrous mayor, mayor london breed who allowed us to be, who allowed us to thrive, and who allowed

this miracle to grow in san francisco. [applause] >> alright. thank you dr. miller and welcome to the tl everybody! let me just say, as someone who was born and raised in this city and someone who grew up in san francisco not too far from the tenderloin, we always knew that this neighborhood had challenges, but i will tell you that it is an amazing community filled with people. filled with families, filled with immigrants, filled with people from all parts of san francisco from lake view to the bayview to fillmore, all kinds of people from all walks of life live and grow and thrive in the tenderloin. but we also know there are real challenges here as well and we also know that police alone can't just be the solution.

part of what i appreciate so much about today is many of us like dr. miller and i and folks who work with urban alchemy, they understand an icdotally what is going on in the tenderloin and how much an impact that the people who work for urban alchemy who are out there putting their lives on the line when other s won't even walk through the tenderloin, they understand the significance of the impact because every single day, can you imagine confronting someone with a knife or someone who is about to overdose or someone who is in and out of the streets and they are trying to save lives and this is happening regular basis with the people of urban alchemy every single day and here we have instead of folks criticizing urban alchemy, instead of people saying it is too much money and they ain't doing nothing and being mad and

political about it, stanford came, dr. stuart came and said we want to come because we want to help and see and notice a difference and we want to work with you. we don't want to be on the outside analyzing and telling whautyou are doing and not doing, we want to work as a partner with you to really analyze the data and really understand what is happening and on the places as dr. mill er said,en othe areas where urban alchemy is located, there is 52 percent reduction in crime in the tenderloin and those particular areas. how significant is that? it is significant because the people that would have been attacked, the people who would have died from drug overdose, the people in other situations in those situations because of urban alchemy and urban alchemy alone. that is significant in and of

itself and that is why we are here today, because this is a important institution filled with people who care about community. filled with people who may have had their own challenges with the criminal justice system or with addiction or other issues they see people on the streets are facing. the empathy comes from a place of experience and understanding and a desire to see something better for those who are struggling. that's what urban alchemy represents for the tenderloin community. that is the work they do often times goes unnoticed and thankless from leaders of the city, about not from this one. [applause] so, today as you hear the data and get a better understanding of what urban alchemy is about and what they do, it is not just about the data. it is about the people.

ships. it is about that person that says, just because that individual like louie is talking for urban alchemy they are agreeing to treatment and they are clean and sober for a year. it is about the person that did want die on the streets of san francisco from a drug overdose. we talk about how amazing and how beautiful this city is and this is a beautiful city. this is incredible city filled with opportunity. i understand and i'm the beneficiary of that opportunity, but too often people who suffer in is community are not and the fact is, without urban alchemy it will be far worse. i feel it is getting better. now, we are not where we want to be, but we are definitely in a better place then what we used to be. in the tenderloin we have seen overall 11 percent drop in crime and again, that attributed to the relationship

that exists based on the work of our police department, our ambassadors and especially urban alchemy. thank you all for being here today to report on this data, but more importantly let's report on the facts and various situations and incidents occur where no one talks about it or sees it. those are the stories of lives saved and changed that need to be told more and that is why we are here today, to talk about the data and talk about the stories and make sure people understand we will continue to do all the work necessary, all the investment necessary to continue to support urban alchemy, to continue to invest in the tenderloin community to make sure every person who lives and works here is safe. thank you all so much. [applause] >> thank you so much dr. miller. thank you so much mayor breed.

the relationship to academia can never be under-stated. the importance shape our young brilliant minds. they give us benchmarks to hold us accountable and today they provide the data that makes the things we see on the streets and in our communities data, so don't want to take up a lot of time. i want to invite dr. stuart from stanford university to come and share the data that we have all gathered together to hear, so if you all welcome dr. stuart to talk about the impact report that has come from their study. thank you. [applause] >> good morning, i'm forest stuart professor of sociology at stan ford joined by nab nob ph.d candidate spear hp heading the analysis and stats i want

to share today. for the last decade or so i specialized in research across the country so cities like los angeles chicago and seattle focusing on how cities responds to issues like urban disorder violence and homelessness and last year i trained focus obtenderloin and midmarket with cilen more and patrick [indiscernible] professor at the northwestern medical school. we just finished the study where we evaluate whether or not the urban alchemy street practitioner program has indeed reduced crime in san francisco and i want to point out origins of the story. some of the origins of the study. a lots of these evaluations are typically commissioned by cities. often commissioned contracted out by organizations. we have done ours differently. we have done differently funded

and run through stanford university and wurlth noting the study came as a coincidence. i had been walking down hyde in the summer 2021 as a part of different project in the city and had time to kill and hit the corner of eddie and hyde and notice two very different scenes on both sides of the street. on the northern side unfortunately there was a active drug market, people sell ing on the sidewalk, the sidewalk was so full i had to walk in the street and when i are hit eddie i looked across the street and it was peaceful and no crime and the big difference was besides the conditions there were people wearing green vests. with this urban alchemy logo on it. i started to talk to residents and business owners over the next d they said that urban alchemy, those folks standing out there made them feel safer and they were convinced urban alchemy was

reducing crime, but it is one thing to feel safer, it is another to be safer. this is nigh job to parse out the difference to the two. we put the question to the test. all the crime stats availability from the san francisco police department and analyzed them and design we did i'm not getting too technical but called a quasi-experimental design and pretty standard in policy analysis if you want to evaluate a policy has effect and borrowed from experimental drug trials. we grabbed every intersection with urban alchemy is stationed and treat as the experimental group and match a intersection with one where there is nomake are matcheds a well as they can. we have a experimental group and control group and then we start the clock and look to see how the urban alchemy

intersections, the experimental intersections differ from the control intersections and we watch them over proceeding 12 months and we found that in urban alchemy intersection crime went down 52 percent. there were about 320 crimes per week in those 40 intersections, this falls to about 150 crimes per week once urban alchemy comes on the scene. we found a larger graup in drug crime which fell 80 percent in the urban al scaem intersections. when you see the big results you want to double check to make sure anything else isn't pushing reductions. there are lingering things that could be responsible. what is neat by a quasi-experimental design, it is called a causal design so we can say urban alchemy caused the changes, but we have to include other potential theories and explanations as to why crime dropped. the 1st we tested was covid.

covid caused drop in crime all over the place so was the reduction attributed to urban alchemy or covid? according to the the analysis this isn't attributed to was urban alchemy displacing the crime in the 40 intersections to nearby intersections. we include this in the model and determined 52 percent reduction is not attributed to displacement to other intersections, so this is pretty confidently redurkz caused by urban alchemy. so, moving forward some things we have done over the last year and a half members of the research team have been shadowing urban alchemy practitioners, sometimes up to 10 hours a day watching what they do trying to figure the secret sauce and mechanism responsible for reducing these crimes. things like building trust, creating social debt, providing

resources. these are the kinds of things we will be integrating into analysis as the next step is write up the findings and begin submitting for scientific peer review so those will be done in the next couple weeks. i want to conclude describing the study sharing gratitude and thanks to the team at urban alchemy. subjecting to these kinds of rigorous evamuations can put you in hot waters if the results don't turn up but urban alchemy approached with a confidence and transparency that allowed us to come in and hold them accountable and a model how we can do academic and organizational collaboration and accountability in the future so thank you all for being such a outstanding partner for [applause] >> thank you dr. stuart. thank you and your team and thank you to stanford

university. next up is mr. steve gibson from midmarket foundation. this type of work nation wide is not possible in a vacuum. it means we have to be partners with our academic partners, with civic partners and also with our business improvement partners and are so we want to invite mr. steve gibson up to talk a bit about their role in our partnership and how it contributed to our success. thank you. [applause] >> steve gibson, executive director of midmarket foundation, midmarket business association. i want to say a couple of things. one, we recognize urban alchemy in the talents quite a way back. in 2019 we teamed with urban alchemy with a pilot project on 6th and market and that is the idea of the community based safety program began. we were asked by businesses on the intersection to make change

bought it was chaotic at the time. we teamed with urban alchemy and did a small pilot project and that proved the urban alchemy approach could make a difference. from this pilot project, with the blessing and financial support of the mayor and her office of economic workforce development, we were able to grow this program. we are now entering our fourth year of the community based safety program working with urban alchemy and you heard about the change, the data behind it, the statistics, it is all true. we can give you stories about businesses that were saved, about certainly saved hundreds of lives on the street and they have made a incredible difference. the biggest thing we have is that, where they are not people begging us to extend the

program and are now it is throughout all midmarket, most of the tenderloin and has grown from this one intersection to all of that area and been very successful and continuing to be successful and before i leave i want to bring up one thing that has not been mentioned here, but incredibly important to this whole program is the fact-it chokes me up a bit, but the lives practitioners and how their lives have changed by doing this work. the people on the street as we call them, the guests on the street, they lives have been saved and changed, but so have the practitioners and they have gone on to other jobs to college degrees and number of things, but 2 or 300 practitioners passed through this program and ly changed their lives through this and

that's-urban alchemy does not get enough credit for that part of this, so i want to thank stanford for recognizing this, for validating what we knew and have seen on the street, the positive changes. thank the mayor again for supporting us and for continuing to support us and this program and thank you for caring enough to be here to record this event and to spread the good positive news about tenderloin, midmarket and about urban alchemy and their program. thank you very much. [applause] >> thanks so much steven. a perfect segue to our final speaker for this morning to represent the men and women who spend countless hours in the tenderloin and midmarket community who do this work every day and support of our most vulnerable neighbors and all those who pass through the streets. i want to introduce our director of operations for san

francisco, mr. arty gilbert who will come and talk to us on behalf of the practitioners that you see around you. come on, arty. [applause] >> thank you kp. i want to share two stories. the first story i want to share is about when we received our first office on 72 6th street and when we received our office over there, i was walking down stevenson alley and a guy approached me how he had got off drugs and stopped drinking and asked me withed it be possible for him to become a employee for urban alchemy. i said of course. he plied and begain a employee 3, 4 days after that. a week after that, or two years after that he became a supervisor for urban alchemy.

two years after that he became a director for urban alchemy, he is currently a director for one of our bigs program, the bar sfmta program. the second story i have to share is about 54th mcallister street. if anyone know about 54 mcallister street there fsh a lot of negative brhavior. a lot of people selling drugs, using drugs, sleeping in tent, blocking the doorway where the senior citizens couldn't go inside their homes and also they had a truck that come and drop them off irn the wheelchair to get fl to the senior citizen home. when we was called upon to go over there and see could we address the issue, one thing about urban alchemy, we are kind, so when we say we are kind and have empathy and compassion that includes avenue over everyone.

we went a week in advance to th here in a week and in a week that when we arrive the next week we arrive this behavior and negative selling drugs and sleeping in front of the establishment cannot go only claung. the week after that ved and the place in front of 54 mcallister is clean and able to walk through. the senior citizens can come in and out of the establishment in their wheelchairs. thank you for your undivided attention. back to kp. [applause] >> so, we heard from the folks doing the work, we heard from our stakeholder partners, we heard from our amazing mayor, we heard from the leader ership of the organization. we heard the data. now we have a question to answer. when we walk out of here, do we

go back and continue in the course of dispair? saying there is no hope, nothing is changing, or do we take the data that we hold so valuable, do we take the narratives we heard, do we do what our mayor said and recognize that while we are not where we want to be, that we are not where we were and take that to encourage us to move forward. to double down on interventions that have been proven by data to work. to continue to support and speak up for the men and women that do this work. or do we just go back to business as usual? do we decide that we actually want to continue pushing a message that says nothing is getting better? i think we all know the answer to that. i think we all know our intellectual responsibility. our responsibility to the city and our responsibility to the people that we ■mall have been tasked to serve in one way or another and we have the

responsibility to push a message that says, there are options. there is opportunity. there is hope and when we all pull together, when we are willing to be honest with one another, we can make changes throughout the communities that we hold so dear. thank you all for being here today. thank you for taking this time. thank you for spreading the message and are sharing the news. while we won't do question and answers, all of our speakers today are willing available for the conclusion of the program and so, without further ado, thank you all and have a fantastic day.

>> i went through a lot of struggles in my life, and i am blessed to be part of this. i am familiar with what people are going through to relate and empathy and compassion to their struggle so they can see i came out of the struggle, it gives them hope to come up and do something positive. ♪ ♪ i am a community ambassador.

we work a lot with homeless, visitors, a lot of people in the area. >> what i like doing is posting up at hotspots to let people see visibility. they ask you questions, ask you directions, they might have a question about what services are available. checking in, you guys. >> wellness check. we walk by to see any individual, you know may be sitting on the sidewalk, we mak.

you never know. somebody might walk by and they are laying there for hours. you never know if they are alive. we let them know we are in the area and we are here to promote safety, and if they have somebody that is, you know, hanging around that they don't want to call the police on, they don't have to call the police. they can call us. we can direct them to the services they might need. >> we do the three one one to keep the city neighborhoods clean. there are people dumping, waste on the ground and needles on the ground. it is unsafe for children and adults to commute through the streets. when we see them we take a picture dispatch to 311. they give us a tracking number and they come later on to pick it up. we take pride. when we come back later in the day and we see the loose trash

or debris is picked up it makes doing. >> it makes you feel did about escorting kids and having them feel safe walking to the play area and back. the stuff we do as ambassadors makes us feel proud to help keep the city clean, helping the residents. >> you can see the community ambassadors. i used to be on the streets. i didn't think i could become a community ambassador. it was too far out there for me to grab, you know. doing this job makes me feel good. because i came from where a lot of them are, homeless and on the street, i feel like i can give them hope because i was once there. i am not afraid to tell them i used to be here.

i used to be like this, you know. i have compassion for people that are on the streets like the homeless and people that are caught up with addiction because now, i feel like i can give them hope. it reminds you every day of where i used to be and where i am at now. >> i came here to san francisco the day after september 11. i have been here since and homeless since when i met erika and claudia and them, my life changed. for the better. why they got mow in the navigation center. >> good morning! >> >> hi. >> this is claudia and aircraftasm how are you. hi. >> they are working doing out

reach t. is building trust. and -- finding out what their needs are. everybody who i should that is true. a lot of people don't know how to live indoors and how do we fix that? the number one service this we need to do that is the new vision of the team, is to be a familiar face that is consistent and reoccur nothing the community. >> behavioral health starts with us and other coalitions that relate. just building the friendships and the resource this is go with that. >> once hi near i better place they will be able to help and support someone else. peers and inspire someone based on the hard work. like a lot of people around him in the castro. >> y'all saved my life getting me up off the streets. thank you.

>> if you see someone experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis on the streets call 911. for nonemergencies use 311. you can learn more about the street >> manufacturing in cities creates this perfect platform for people to earn livelihoods and for people to create more economic prosperity. i'm kate sosa. i'm cofounder and ceo of sf made. sf made is a public private partnership in the city of san francisco to help manufacturers start, grow, and stay right here in san francisco.

sf made really provides wraparound resources for manufacturers that sets us apart from other small business support organizations who provide more generalized support. everything we do has really been developed over time by listening and thinking about what manufacturer needs grow. for example, it would be traditional things like helping them find capital, provide assistance loans, help to provide small business owners with education. we have had some great experience doing what you might call pop ups or temporary selling events, and maybe the most recent example was one that we did as part of sf made week in partnership with the city seas partnership with small business, creating a 100 company selling day right here at city hall, in partnership

with mayor lee and the board of supervisors, and it was just a wonderful opportunity for many of our smaller manufacturers who may be one or two-person shop, and who don't have the wherewithal to have their own their products and it comes back to how do we help companies set more money into arthur businesses and develop more customers and their relationships, so that they can continue to grow and continue to stay here in san francisco. i'm amy kascel, and i'm the owner of amy kaschel san francisco. we started our line with wedding gowns, and about a year ago, we launched a ready to wear collection. san francisco's a great place to do business in terms of

clientele. we have wonderful brides from all walks of life and doing really interesting things: architects, doctors, lawyers, teachers, artists, other like minded entrepreneurs, so really fantastic women to work with. i think it's important for them to know where their clothes are made and how they're made. >> my name is jefferson mccarly, and i'm the general manager of the mission bicycle company. we sell bikes made here for people that ride here. essentially, we sell city bikes made for riding in urban environments. our core business really is to build bikes specifically for each individual. we care a lot about craftsmanship, we care a lot about quality, we care about good design, and people like that. when people come in, we spend a lot of time going to the design

wall, and we can talk about handle bars, we can see the riding position, and we take notes all over the wall. it's a pretty fun shopping experience. paragraph. >> for me as a designer, i love the control. i can see what's going on, talk to my cutter, my pattern maker, looking at the designs. going through the suing room, i'm looking at it, everyone on the team is kind of getting involved, is this what that drape look? is this what she's expecting, maybe if we've made a customization to a dress, which we can do because we're making everything here locally. over the last few years, we've been more technical. it's a great place to be, but you know, you have to concentrate

and focus on where things are going and what the right decisions are as a small business owner. >> sometimes it's appropriate to bring in an expert to offer suggestions and guidance in coaching and counseling, and other times, we just need to talk to each other. we need to talk to other manufacturers that are facing similar problems, other people that are in the trenches, just like us, so that i can share with them a solution that we came up with to manage our inventory, and they can share with me an idea that they had about how to overcome another problem. >> moving forward, where we see ourselves down the road, maybe five and ten years, is really looking at a business from a little bit more of a ready to wear perspective and makinghat thoughtful and mindful, mindful of the end user, how they're going to use it, whether it's

the end piece or a wedding gown, are they going to use it again, and incorporating that into the end collection, and so that's the direction i hear at this point. >> the reason we are so enamored with the work we do is we really do see it as a platform for changing and making the city something that it has always been and making sure that we're sharing the opportunities that we've been blessed with economically and socially as possible, broadening that

please stand by for the san francisco health commission meeting of january 16, 2024. >> i have the privilege of reading the land acknowledgment. the san francisco health commission acknowledges that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the ramaytush (rah-my-toosh) ohlone (o-lon-ee) who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as the indigenous stewards of this land, and in accordance with their traditions, the ramaytush ohlone have never ceded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. as guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders, and relatives of the ramaytush ohlone community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. before we get the year started i wanted to