and people can go to our website sfpublicdefender. org and move their live in a positive direction >> thank you very much. >> thank you >> that's it for this episode we will be back shortly for government government i'm chris manners, t t t t t t t t t t t t

welcome to sfgovtv in person i am jeremiah estep. your host today. and we are here at the united players clubhouse. and we are celebrating their 30th year anniversary of serving the community, specifically the south of market here in san francisco. and united players is a san francisco based youth development and violence prevention organization and i'm very happy to be here to talk to rudy and the rest of his staff. so let's introduce ourselves. hi. my name is vanessa. i'm one of the program managers here at united players. hi. my name is brandon jackson. i'm a program coordinator for middle school. hi. my name is maria fabia. i'm a k-2 coordinator and i'm rudy corpus, better known as the gorilla pino, aka rudy valentin. i'm the edd of up. cool, cool.

so can you tell us your journey and mission, how you got involved with united players? so originally when i started united players, it wasn't even something that i thought about doing. it was it just all kind of happened organically. i was hired at a nonprofit organization in san francisco called bernal heights neighborhood center, which is in district 11. i got hired as a filipino gang prevention counselor, and so my mission was to go find the filipino gang members, right? in that district 11. there's 11 districts in san francisco. and so i knew who they was all at. i'm born and raised in san francisco. i was appointed at lifestyle, so i knew they was all that went to balboa high school, which is in district 11. in 1994, it was off the hook. and so upon being up at balboa, sure enough, they're all there. big fight ensued, right between different ethnicities. and from there, nobody was able to learn because

of the violence that was going on. between the big fight between filipinos, blacks, samoans and latinos. so myself and several other people, andre alexander, right, shouts out to andre alexander. he was the coach of the football team at bao. there was a brother named late. you remember late big samoan. excuse my language. around six four. you know what i mean? from frisco, north beach, one of my partners. he was a hall guard. and he had, you know, a lot of good credibility with the youngsters that was up there at bao. and so at the time there was a filipino principal, their name was mr. montevergine. she was looking for solutions and the police couldn't stop it. nobody could stop it. so i got what all those dudes, they was able to come in the room they wanted to meet. and from there they wanted to make a club because they came up with all the solutions and the answers to stop the violence. the kids did. the youth. and so they said, hey, we should name this a club.

this is our this is in october of 94. and i gave the power to the people. i said, what do you guys want to name the club that we got right here? because everybody was getting along in the room, you know what i mean? and so united players up october 1994 was born. and that's how the name came. and so boom, fast forward. we're here in 2024 in october. so they're celebrating 30 years 30 years. yeah yeah. worldwide baby. yeah it is worldwide. you have so many people supporting you like kaepernick and yeah steph curry everybody right. they they they yeah they they they all seen i believe the spirit of what we do and what we're about you know which is based on love. everything that we've been doing from day one way back then. way back then we was at balboa high school. right. so i met that guy at balboa. right. these two sisters right here from the neighborhood that i'm from, you

know, i ain't from district 11. i'm from district six. born and raised south of market tenderloin. and so all over the world. and people saw that the love that the youth. right. yeah. who were involved in it, spread it. and you know who don't want to get no love. yeah. so they all part of it i'm thankful. yeah. that's dope. so how did you get involved? well, so i'm born and raised here in south of market area. so, you know they had the rec center over there. and so that's where all the youth would come and just gather. just everyone from the hood, you know, would just play basketball, you know, meet up, hang out after school. so i was in the third grade and i joined basketball for the first time. i was garbage, like totally garbage. didn't like i was not the best, but i had this mentor named tim and he. really. yes. and he really motivated me and kept me focused and really kept me in the game and say, like, you know, keep going, keep

practicing. you could do this. so by the time i got to fourth or fifth grade, you know, i was balling. yeah. you know, and so without his guidance i wouldn't have made it you know that far in playing basketball. but you know rudy he's like the neighborhood hero. he's at the rec at the rec. you know he chopping it up with everybody. and you know he just made everyone feel welcome. and that that was even before there was like a headquarters to even be at, you know. so it was just the rec. that's a public place to be. and so, you know, he just built community there. and, you know, i just felt at home and you've been there ever since, and i've been here ever since. and she's still balling. she's still balling. and yeah, we got to play ball then. so and you started when did you start? i started in sixth grade. i started going to bessie carmichael for the first time. i didn't know anybody except for like my neighbor. and then i got introduced to united players by bqe. he was my mentor. may he rest in peace as well. he really

introduced me to this. he pushed me out of my comfort zone because i was very much like a loner. didn't know anybody, i didn't i wasn't very open to being social with other people. but when i came here, he was like, go introduce yourself to everybody. like left me alone to go introduce myself and i did exactly that. and i mean the rest is history. it's like super fun. everything's cool. so i love it. and you've been with him since how many years now? i don't know, i think maybe 2009. that's amazing because that's when i went to sixth grade. yeah, she was a participant and now she's a staff. yeah. but just just real quick, thank you for bringing up e. so eric, eric also is one of our staff who worked with us, who passed away, and tim was a mentor of mine. these are all filipino cats that we're talking about, the south of market. we're in here has over 120 year history of

filipinos. so as you can see, right, it's filipino too, right there by heart. it's black, filipino, black filipino. you know it's filipino. we was black before we came right. but but but everybody they mentioned is actually been a part of the fabric with the love. tim was love, eric was love. and that's all they did was give out love. and look what we got here now. love, love. all right brother, when did you get involved with. i was at bell back in. oh four, and rudy wanted me to be a part of up. but unfortunately, due to, like, the gang culture i was a part of, i couldn't. because basically the people that i really didn't get along with was already in u.p. so it was kind of like i couldn't be a part of up even though i wanted to. but due to stuff that transpired, i was just like, i can't do it, i can't do it. you know? and then how did i end up getting the job here? shout out to my mentor, mike brown. may he rest in

peace. i got a call from mike brown. he asked me, was i open to working with kids still? because i was working with kids over there in my neighborhood and i said, yeah. and then he was like, call this man named rudy. and i was like, rudy. i'm like, i only know one. you know, one rudy in the city. so i happened to call rudy and then did an interview, and then i got hired down here, and i've been here for 12 years, and it's a blessing. it's a blessing to work with kids. you know? you a blessing, bro. to be a part, to just be a part of a positive environment. yeah. coming from a negative environment, to be a part of a positive environment is a blessing. yeah. you want to talk about that negative environment. negative environment was just growing up being a part of a neighborhood, you know, doing things to feel accepted. you know, not getting the right nurturing love at hom. so you step out your comfort zone to go get it from friends or you know, to when you just want to be loved, bro. it don't matter what environment you're in. it don't matter if it's positive or negative because love can come from either environment. it's about what environment you choose that you feel like you can succeed in. and at the time, me being a

negative thinker at the time due to my way of living, due to my environment inside my household, i chose a negative environment. yeah. so how did you what attracted you to want to come to up at that age? because it's hard for teenagers at times. it just seemed like a fun thing to do. like if i could, if i could go back in time, i think i probably would have been a part of up. but it was just like, you know, when you have to go there and then you still have to go back to your neighborhood and they're like, oh, you was over there with them. like, what are you doing hanging with them? like, you know, that type of stuff. so it was just more like chose a side as a kid. as a kid, i chose a side. and it was like to where i was from. but when you, if i can take it all back again, be honest with you. my message to the kids, it's okay to be the kid that get along with everybody. yeah. that's right. like, you know, it's okay to be that kid to be different and you can get along with everybody without choosing a side that's real. yeah. hey, i just want to add this right. and it's based on a true story. brandon, when i first met him, didn't really want to be a part of anything but what he was doing. and he was caught up in that negative cycle right of the turf life, that death life, that money back and murder life. it

was arrested development. but growing up now, you know his mindset has changed. he really wanted to get with our organization. when he was at bal, i used to try to get at him, but he was hardheaded, you know what i mean? he'd be in the gym shooting three pointers for money, you know what i mean? he was gambling and that's how i would get with him. i'll stand over there with him and chop it up because i come from the same cloth. yeah, but he was one of them youngsters, man. if he would not get involved in something, he'd have been dead or in prison. yeah, with that elbow. yeah. and look at him now. yeah. look what you mean. helping out the kids from neighborhoods that he had rivals from? yeah, on my mama and she in heaven. so, you know his his his mindset has changed. and, you know, i'm really proud of all three of them. what they stand for and what they do for the people. yeah. is it because up is very relatable like rudy as opposed to other teen groups? you want to explain? yes. you know, you don't see too many people who look like you, who

you know, talk like you, maybe dressed like you that are like walking a positive path. right? sometimes a lot of people are just like, you know, like, who can i look up to? right? and you know, kids, we embrace, encourage kids to take pride in their individuality. right. and sometimes kids are just lost and they don't know. they don't have any guidance. they don't have that guidance at home. i was fortunate enough to have two parents, you know what i mean? but not a lot of kids, you know, in this world have that, you know, or they do have two parents. one is just don't have the time or attention to give their kids and so i feel like we fill that void for them. you know what i mean? is it because the community is i mean, it's the parents are too busy workin, so sometimes they kind of not around their children sometimes. so they don't have like, that kind of loving upbringing at times because they're so on that grind and hustle. yeah. my parents were on that grind and hustle. i felt like there was

some gaps that i felt like they didn't feel for me. but then growing up, i also understood what they were like hustling for. that's right. and so and so like i've accepted that as i've grown older, but with some kids, you know, some kids, they have parents who, you know, who are like, you know, who are on drugs. you know what i mean? who are absent, who are not there. you know, some people are raised off love and some people are raised off survival. right? and so really, they're, you know, it's just kids trying to navigate their own lives. and sometimes they don't have that with their parents or their guardians or, you know. yeah. and that's where you, sharp girl stay sharp. big facts. yeah. and that's where up comes in. you guys bring it out. you guys are the bridge that brings the families together. and you guys are kind of. well, you look at the name we're uniting players, right? and all players is people who are coming together who are doing something positive, productive for their people in

the hood. right. you got united players and you got united haters. some people don't want to connect and get together and that's cool too. that's a part of life. yeah. but we choose man to live. we'd rather live than die. see, our whole thing is based on making it fashionable, making peace fashionable. right. and as vanessa was speaking, you know, most of us filipinos, we grow up right. i'm first generation, our parents, the way they show us, they love us is they out there grinding? most of them don't tell us they love us. they just do it. and you don't understand that. you know what i mean? till, like you said, you get older, then you realize why they was doing what they was doing. because my mom and dad, you know, they grow up. they ain't never told me to this day. and they both of them, you know, passed away. they didn't say it out loud. right. and so you won't love if you ain't hearing it. you going to find it somewhere. yeah. so i was not i was even on the sidewalk on the porch. i was on the street at an early age. but all that time they was showing it by their actions. and now that they're gone, i understood. and now i know what they love was the way

they was giving it to me. that's all filipino people was raised. that's true. my parents, my parents were like that too. but you said it very well, though, and that's why i felt you. that's real talk. thank you. yeah. with that said, how has this program evolved over the years since you started? i'm going to let them answer that. sure. so how has it evolved since you were evolved since you were a student and now you're a teacher? it's evolved a lot. like when i was younger, i wasn't, like emotionally, like prepared or like, knew what to do in situations where like, i was like lost or going through some things. i feel like now in the program, like we have us having training with the trauma based intervention or trauma based relational intervention. yes. and a lot of letters on yeah, it's tbri basically in other words, what is that? can you explain like it's like a

trauma based where like you, you're like repairing the bond that you have and like learning to like navigate through those emotions instead of like suppressing them or acting out against them. and i just feel like that is very helpful in today's like, age with the kids that we do have. and it's like a life skill that we're teaching them to take along the way. so they're not like acting up, acting out anywhere in the world. they can at least do it here with us in a safe space where we know how to, like, help them and give them like resources. and i think that's like the major change that i've seen so far. and, and the community outreach that we do, we i mean, we did community outreach when i was in middle school, but i feel like we've, we've do we've done more now. yeah. and like even during like the pandemic, we were serving

like the seniors. we were serving like the senior graduates, like when they couldn't walk the stage. we did a drive by. i think it's changed a lot in like a positive way. yeah. do you want to talk about the mental health part of it? to me, the key of our mission is to help them identify emotions and feelings, because if you can't identify emotions and feelings, if you can't identify it, it's like, how could you control something you can't identify? yeah. you know, and the key is that if you can get the kids to identify it, the younger they are, the better off they will be in the future. you know, it's kind of hard when you get when you get a high schooler and try to restore morals, identity, self-respect and stuff of that nature. you know, like it's kind of harder. so to me, what i identify doing this work is if we can get installed in them at an early age, the better off they will be when they become adults. say that, then say that then. and can you explain, like the changes you've seen in the kids you got in the beginning to

how they became later adults? yeah. so i just want to go off on what rhia was saying about trust based relational intervention. so that is a trauma informed approach to vulnerable youth that we serve who experience adversity and trauma in their lives. right. and so that consists of three main principles. that's empowering. connecting and connecting. so with that, that's our investment into our youth is taking delving in deeper into their lives. right. trying to trying to identify like why they moved, the way they move, why they talk, the way they talk, why, you know, learning about their upbringing. right. and then identifying those factors, like brandon was saying and then being able to nurture those, nurture them where it's needed, you know, meeting them where they're at. and then you know,

being able to transform their lives to where they can be better people, you know, into the world. and so i feel like when we instill those factors like risk, respect, you know, integrity and all that, when we see that translate into our kids and they're showing that and they're ending up teaching their siblings and, and showing you know, you see, you see something that you teach someone and they're actually, you know, putting it into action that's that's rewarding. like, you know, that you're doing the right thing and you know that you're staring them in the right path like beautiful. and man, i love my staff. i love y'all, you know what i mean? they are frontline soldiers, boots to the ground. and they deal with this every day. yeah, right. you guys articulated it so well. and what y'all just said. you imagine us when we all grow up. we was taught not to cry. we was taught not to express how we feel. right. and when you grow up, you got to express what you feel.

and you say, right. and if you do right, you get your ass whooped. you better not cry right. and so if you really think about it, man, our people, our black people, our brown people, way back in the days, we was the ones who cultivated all this, but it was kidnaped from us. and now, you know, you have people who are putting it into letters. but this is something our people always been doing from day one. it just got kidnaped. and so this is really natural for us to give out love and to give it back. yeah. and love ain't no soft word, you know what i mean? it's really spelled no. right. and so the things that we're that that we're learning, i'm still learning it and that they're learning, we're learning from getting trained to teach these young kids who are growing up in a world full of hate. yeah. we winning. and you. right. that is what we have to do. install those values again because we ain't got them. and this is raising our kids. that's true.

you dig what i'm saying? and whatever they scrolling through and they seeing. right. it's the soundbites. yeah. right. what do they call that when you go through there and it keeps coming back. the ads the algorithm. algorithm. no, the algorithm algorithm. right. if you're watching fights all the time and i like fights, but i know it's entertaining to me. i'm asking the little kid who's getting and he's seen it. that's all he's thinking, right? and as in brandon in your head, it's true. it's true. and so it's important that these letters that were taught that's already in our dna from way back in the days in the philippines or in africa, right, or whatever country you come from, or people been having this installed in them. that's why we're receptive to it, you know what i mean? and so when we're learning, we teach this. it's our duty. it takes the hood to say the hood. it takes us to teach our people the truth, right? with the spirit of everything that our people, where we come from, for us to get by. because this world, man is toe up every day. it gets worse and worse. turn on the news. you see it. you know it's full of hate. and so man, i love

what y'all do. y'all frontline soldiers. hearing them speak like this, i ain't used to seeing them speak like this. you know what i mean? yeah. now spitting game like that. that's why i talk about making peace fashionable. right? yeah. we making. we really making it happen in real life. and so man. and that's what makes us so, like, genuine and pure. because even us, we're still dealing with our own trauma, still trying to heal from it. and, you know, but at the same time, you know, we're helping others. we'll help. we're helping you deal with their own traumas and also helping them heal. and so i feel like that that feeds off of each other. and so, like, you know, heal people, heal people who say that, then what? heal people, heal people, man. healers need healing. man. my brand is coming out soon, y'all. y'all go cop that i ain't lying. you know the crazy part is, yeah, the kids feel like they need us, but they don't know we need them more than they need us. ooh, beautiful. yeah. that's fire right there. true. i'm gonna explain. it's just like we can be having a bad day. but when we come to work, the kids

uplift us. the kids, like, you know, take us out of a certain mode and put us in a higher spirit. yeah, spiritually, it don't matter if we play with them, if we laugh with them. play a pick up game of basketball or just crack jokes with them. it's just the interaction you feel me can take our mind off something we have going on outside of work, you know? and then it just put us at a peaceful place. yeah, yeah. kids is medicine true? true. we got we got cats who are coming home out of these penitentiaries who've been going 25, 35, even 45 years straight. right. and they're coming back and giving to our community. but what they fail to realize is what brandon just said. the kids is actually bringing life to them. their medicines to these cats. right. and so, yeah, man, you know, shouts out to all them young kids out there, do you want to talk about big kid? do you want to talk about that program you do with visiting the juvie juvenile juvie? and you can speak on that. oh, so, so what's big for us is we have a reentry program, right? and right now we

have we connected with the justice department at at juvenile, and we got two we got two caseworkers and both the caseworkers are lifers that came home from doing a lot of time in jail based off of making a rational decision, not being able to control their emotions and their feelings. so i think it's kind of big. when we got lifers coming home to connect with the kids in juvenile, and they don't just connect with the kids in juvenile, they come to the they show up at the middle school, they show up at the elementary school. they go to high schools and talk. they go to city college and talk. and it's just like, you got to kill the pipeline, man. the elementary to the penitentiary pipeline has to be killed. and the only way to kill it is people that actually been through it. because the people that been through it know how to kill it, know how to attack it. it's like a tree. you look at the branches and you think, those are the problems? no, it's the root. what is the root of the problem? and that goes back to tbri being able to help people identify and control their feelings and emotions. yeah. so how did you guys start that program where you go this partnership with like the different jails to be able to

talk to the inmates and change their lives and stuff like that. how do we start that? yeah. how do you start that was locked up in there with them. right. and so you know, that's our people. you know what i mean. and accountability is very important. you cross that line. and like beretta said back in the days you do the crime, you do the time. i come from that school. and so a lot of guys who are stand up cats who come home that we know who we've been incarcerated with, right, or we go back in there and we talk to them. they know about what we do because, you know, the streets is really inside them penitentiaries. so they know what's happening out here on the ground and they see all their people. right. who's out here putting in work? that's why i always take pictures, you know what i mean? with all the homies, when they come together and we're talking about cats. when brandon was mentioning the two dudes, you're talking about a adamu and a kiwi. them dudes, man. when enemies. wow, right. and they're not even from out here. they're from southern california. and so we get all these guys together, north and the southerners, others, right.

blacks, whites come together and they take pictures and it spreads everywhere. and so people want to be a part of something that's working. that's winning. yeah. they want to be a part of this player stuff. you know, it's that medicine man. yeah. yep. it's free to shoot. you pay for that. no it's free. come on man, how it's going to be on a shelf in a minute. diversify your portfolio man. that's what 40 taught me. how big is up at this point. shoot. tell them about it. how big is up at this point. how big is you p0i mean we have a headquarters here. i mean what do you mean how big. like it's worldwide, right. like you have philippines. you have other places. yeah. one in new york, one in the philippines. am i missing any we in africa? yeah. you know what i mean. hawaii, baltimore. south. south bronx. yeah, yeah. how does that make you? good? god is good. god is good. how does that make you

feel to see it? like, start from balboa to 30 years later? yeah, man, it feels really good to know that, you know, what started from the people, from the youth has blossomed and blew up, man, to go everywhere around this world and to touch people. yeah, yeah, it's amazing. that is amazing. and you're doing god's work and like. but why do you or why do youth join gangs anyways. i mean it's different now than it was back then, but it's almost the same. like, why do they join like, gangs? i mean, to be accepted. yeah. to be loved. it's more about acceptance and love. i mean, i can't speak for like as a whole. i can ask you, i can tell you why i did it. it was because i didn't feel loved at home. yeah, my daddy did. 16 in the state. my mama raised four kids by herself, and i had the type of mom that go to work, bust her butt, come home, pay the bills, and it's like, have my house clean. but it wasn't like helping me go over my homework. it wasn't like the nurturing, the nurturing part didn't didn't

come. you know, i love her to death, but the nurturing part didn't come. you know? so i ran to the streets and didn't get it there either. yeah, truth be told, didn't get it there. but that's what i was looking for. yeah. acceptance and love. you feel me? yeah. and i think a lot of kids just. it comes from making rational decisions. like, it's like, man, i don't feel the love inside the home. so let me go try to get it out here. and the whole time when you're out there, you're getting manipulated. you know, it's like manipulation is heartache. it's losing friends. it's bullet holes. it's doing stupid stuff. it's jail. it's like, you know. yeah. but to piggyback off what you said, i think it's just acceptance and love. when it comes down to it, you want to be a part of something? yeah. no matter if it's positive or negative. just wanting to be a part of something. yeah, yeah, yeah, they definitely just want to have, like a sense of belonging and like feeling like they have some purpose. like if you ask the kids right now, like, you know, where do you see yourself or you know, what's your future like? all of them

just want to, like, get money and like, you know and have and like have a good life, good, stable life. they just want a good job, you know, have a house, whatever they had, have food on their table. really. that's all what they really wan. and so we try to strive to, you know, push them to their highest level. you know, some kids will say like, you know, i'm only going to make it to high school. but with us being here, like, you can go to college. yeah. you know what i mean? like, you can be bigger than that, but but it's just the simple things that they want, really, is to just be able to, you know, have a good life. yeah. that's true. and how do you explain to the parents or tell them what the signs could be, if that these kids want to join gangs or anything? i've never been in a situation where a student would want to join a gang, but if it ever had to come down to that, it would just be a simple. it would be like a check in and like, show them like that. the actions that they're taking where it could possibly lead. and you know, and like the

resolutions that we could do to prevent that type of stuff going down that road is very is very dangerous. you you never know what's at the end of that road. and, and your life could be cut short when you, when you do those type of things. and i definitely think it's just, just that extra support and the extra, like love and showing that there's a positive side instead of having to join like a gang for just a sense of belonging or, you know, i think they also probably joined for like protection or like, like he said, like no love there. and they find it out there, but it's really not real love. it's just for that moment. yeah. and i think that's the best way we could do it. just set up a plan and maybe take them out and see a different world. other than, you know, the street life. yeah. what other effective strategies do you guys have for to help the

youth stay out of trouble? like, maybe it's not gang. maybe it's not gang life. maybe it's like, yeah, go ahead. just helping them identify their self. a lot of kids like when you when you're in middle school, high school like you lost. like you're trying to find your own identity, you know, and to interact with them. it's like it's more it's just having a conversation. it's one you being a mentor or you being older. you open up to them and get them to open up. it don't matter if it's like just a quick check in. if it's a i'm coming up to your school bringing you lunch, or if it's after school and we're running a boys group, or we run a boys group at at school during school hours, it's just as far as just checking in, helping them identify their self, you know, and letting them know like you're not alone and you're not the first person that's going to deal with this issue, nor will you be the last to deal with this issue. so when it come up, we help them deal with it. so when they come up and you become in high school and you see a peer dealing with it, you can

help them and walk them through the process. yeah. is it and it's not like it's like kind of like a 24 hour job, right? oh yeah. we get calls at night too. when we're at home i get i get calls, i get like for therapy, like i'm gonna get real for therapy. a lot of kids, y'all gonna laugh, but they call me at nine, 10:00. tell me. jump on the game. let's play madden. let's play twok. like that's therapy. yeah, yeah. you know, like that's really therapy. that's the fact that they feel comfortable even calling you after hours and telling you, come on, let's jump on a game. let's play. yeah. you know that. to me that's a form of therapy. you know, it's like. or if they just calling it can be calling like, man, i'm dealing with the issue. it's 10:00 and i'm dealing with an issue. or could you uber me here? i'm stuck. i'm stuck outside. could you uber me here or. i'm at home. i ain't got no food. could you. could you uber eats me some food, like all that is therapy, bro. and it's comfortability. i want the kids to be comfortable to call me because we're humans. we just don't deal with a 9 to 5. a 9 to 5, okay? it intensify after 9 to 5. i learned that from big dog because after 9 to 5, when the sun go down, that's what it's lights, camera action. yeah. real talk. that's community. big

facts. community. right. 24 seven 365 baby. yeah. so speaking of community, like how have you worked with like, the city, were you working directly with the city to help keep up alive or working within that partnership with the city to help you guys with your program? so what i learned doing this work is it's important in anything you build is relationships. yeah. right. and so having a city relationships is important. they can get you in places and doors where you can't get right. i used to hate the police and i had a reason why. but now some of the police, i hold them accountable. when we work together because they work for us. just like, you know, our whole thing is about safety and prevention. of course you're going to need them. it's diplomatic to have them at the table with you. right. and some of them dudes who i met now were officers became cool. you know, some of my best friends. the chief is my partner. yeah. yeah, you know what i mean? and so i

learned about relationships and having to build in order for us to get what we need to get, especially in the neighborhood and area we're in. it's important to have those relationships. yeah. you know, i'm trying to build bridges, not walls. yeah. you know, and at the same time, if there's city departments or people who are funders who are not with the mission or our movement, they're not going to miss them altogether. man. like the hiv virus, bro. yeah. you know what i mean? yeah. i'm for real about what we do. we are not no sellouts, you know what i mean? we are for real. we are here. our boots are on the ground. you know, we make sure. i make sure as an ed, no matter if it's the mayor, the supervisor, whoever everybody's being held accountable because we are the people we elect them to work for us. you understand what i'm saying? and so i want to make it real clear, you know what the city departments and all them who's in action, they're all part of that chess board that that's on the table that we all

need each other to make things work. yeah, i mean, they collab with you. they do. they collab with you when you do the gun buyback program, you want to talk about the gun buyback program? sure. i mean, the gun buyback was started 2012, i believe, when sandy hook happened. right. and so y'all know sandy hook or anyway, from that point, there was people who wanted to figure out how to get rid of guns without having to go into all the red tape. and so the first monday that i had was able to get didn't even come from the city. it came from dispensaries in the neighborhood and district six. we got the most dispensaries, and they was willing to put their money up. and so we got that. but when it started working, we had to build relationships with certain organizations to make it happen. i can't just get a gun. you pull up and give me a pistol and you know, i'm an ex-felon. i can't i can't even own a gun. and so i had to get the right, proper people to do that. who was there? it was the gun range people from sfpd. so they jumped on board. i got the mamas who lost their kids to gun violence. right? i got ex-felons who did

life sentences. we got the youth. we got all the pieces on the table to make it work. and now we've been getting over thousands of guns off the streets and destroying them. yeah, the number one killer right now in america for 19 years and younger are gun violence, suicide. right. domestic violence, black on black crime. brown on brown crime. a lot of people don't even know, man. how y'all was talking about the regulate their emotions and their feelings. right. first thing they do is go pick up a gun. they don't even know how to have a conversation with a woman when they argue and they just knock down, you know, and the number one rate of people growing, you know what culture is demographic is asians. is it. yeah. because, you know, a lot of asians are getting robbed. that's true. they getting beat up. so they going to buy guns to protect themselves. get a gun. get a gu. protect yourself. they get the gun. but no. nobody tell them man. you got to put it in a safe lock. or when you get mad how you regulate your emotion, your feelings and guess what? when they get mad, they go right over

and get their pistol man, go kill their wife, or they go to work and kill everybody at their job. yeah. so the high rate man of asians then rose up from gun violence, even though you're buying the gun to protect you and your family, you actually destroying your whole family and your community. wow. you know, so that's where the mental health comes in. like y'all doing the social emotional learning how to regulate everybody. we're all humans. we going to feel something. but how you going to deal with your feelings and your emotions when somebody makes you mad? yeah. you know how to go man. you know girl get you mad. your wife get you mad or your kid get you mad. you mad. you didn't worked all day. you upset and you, man, i'm going to go get my pistol. look at road rage, man. people going crazy, man. they follow you all the way home. you know what i mean? and so? so it's a real high of mental health going on right now. that's true. do you want to talk about how how violence has evolved from. i feel like it was what was different because we're almost

the same age, like physical and still physical, maybe. but now i feel like it's more mental. you want to talk about that? yeah. so yeah, i mean, you know, mental health is it's different because before you would just fight it out. so i don't think they do that no more. i feel like just it's like more mental. you make fun of each other, then everyone will gang up on that one person. it just messes up the bullying. the difference, the difference between the two is back in our day, right? like it's bullying, but it's only like 4 or 5 people. so if we fight only three, four people, this before the phones and stuff. yeah, yeah. only three, four people. then it's word of mouth. yeah. it intensified due to cyberbullying is i can be picking on vanessa, but now 50 to 100 people seen it. yeah. you feel me? then word of mouth spread and then a video. go viral, you know, and then it's like, okay, now back, just go back to the tbe trying to identify emotional feelings. so now, i mean i'm more embarrassed because now you post a video of me up, now everybody can see a post of just one high school seeing it, and it's spreading through one high school. now,

all the high schools in the city can see it because it's a video posted. right? so then that intensified the hurt, the anger. and then it's more like, man, how could i go get even how could i, how could i go get my lick back, you know, opposed to back in our era? it was just hard. we fight, we squabble. word of mouth. who won? he can say he won. i can say i won, but it's no. and it's just. all right. it gets swept under the rug. and then. and then you got a gun. you got access to guns where they're everywhere. you can make them off the computer. now. you got ghost guns, right? yeah. and you got war weapons. now you ain't got just regular the 38, you know what i mean? with the five bullets in them. you got something, man? with a clip in it and a switch, and you pop that thing, man. you gonna knock everybody down in this room with one squeeze of the trigger, right? but i want to be real clear, though, jeremy. i am not against the second amendment. you got the right man to bear your arms. if somebody man runs up in your crib or harms your family, you got the right to protect you and your family. by all means. i'm not trying to say i'm getting rid of all guns. if i had a wand around

this world and could do it all at one time because america got more guns here twice or triple times than we got people, i'd do that. but the reality is there's guns everywhere. that's true. you might be sitting on one. yeah, i might be. yeah, i feel i feel something. so for y'all like how has the experience of working. like what will you take with you for the rest of your lives working here and being a participant? would i take with me for the rest of my life, your life long lessons? i mean a lot a lot. you know, standing on your principles. you know, being true to yourself, you know, not selling your soul. you know, just being standing on your toes. you know, standing on your ten toes, spreading love. just moving with the spirit of love. always like not operating off your ego and your pride and, you know, just spreading awareness and just being mindful. yeah.

how about you? you. i'm a firm. i'm a firm believer of you're a product of the environment you choose. so by me coming over here, it was more of the family environment. i enhanced. i embraced it because i didn't have it growing up. you know, to a certain extent, i didn't have it growing up. so it's more of like the family atmosphere of it. the, the, the it takes a village to save it, to save a child like, you know, to raise a child like that's real. like, you know, because it's like when you're out there, you you can, like, get cold hearted because you're living in survival mode, not off love. you know, when i came here back in 2012, it was more like, damn, this is a nurturing environment. this is love. like this is love. this is where people going to hold you accountable. people going to call you on your stuff, people going, people want what's best for you and people going to push you to do what's best for you. the key to it is pushing you to do what's best for you as a staff. if y'all pushing each other to do what's best for you,

it ain't no doubt in my brain that we're doing the same thing for these kids. yeah. you know, and at the end of the day, those who control the kids mind control the future. it ain't no doubt in that hell. it ain't no doubt in that those who can control the kids mind control the future. rap songs and stuff that they listen to at times they control the kids brains and you see what the kids do. gang culture, pick up guns, shoot guns, ride around in groups, you know, and do that type of stuff. so i just feel like as far as here, what this has done to me, family atmosphere helped me stand on principles. morals helped me gain confidence in myself. not just in the kids, but confidence in myself and actually pushed me to actually want better for myself. my kids come to the program with me. it was beautiful, like, you know, like beautiful. my kids come here with me. of course, if i, i would, i would always want my kids to be a part of something positive. you know? and due to the fact i made the wrong decision by not in high school, by not choosing it ain't no way

in hell i'm going to let my kids do the same thing and make the same mistake i made. fax. that's beautiful. big facts about yourself. i think they all had such amazing points and i agree with that. i, i definitely also want to say like empathy and compassion. i feel like like everyone goes through some things and like, and that's oka. and just continuing to move with the spirit of love through everything. and, and that's, that's really it. and speaking of the spirit of love, how does religion play a part in if any? and you guys rule? i feel like that religion and believing in something within this kind of like community always is very strong. i feel like it don't matter if you pray to allah. it don't matter if you prays to god. it don't matter what god you prays to because to each his own. but it is a god. you feel

me? it is a god. and god woke us up this morning. god put us all on the same page and god bring us together collectively every wednesday to have staff meeting here based off for the kids. it all comes down to for the kids, you know, and spiritually. spiritually, you can feel the vibe. you can tell when somebody's vibe off based off body language, based off being able to read the room based off, oh, he acting different today. now let me go reach out to him. yeah. hey. how you doing today? you need help. you need a hug. you straight? how can i help you? i can tell your vibe off. and when you do a staff member like that, or even with the kids like that, that just let you know you're loved. yeah. feel me? so when you pay spiritually, it's just about being loved, you know? and that's going back to what we talked about before. everybody want to be loved. people make decisions based off of wanting to be accepted and who don't want to be accepted by love. yeah, i'll speak on that. like difficult times. and how does religion like it seems like

people go through really difficult times become really closer to god. yeah. so to me, religion is a terminology and word that i feel is something i can't relate with because i've been through a lot of different religions, whether it was raised as a catholic or went to the kingdom halls, or even studied with the noi. right? i believe it's about a relationship with a higher power. like you said, there is a god. jesus christ is my lord and savior, straight up 100 million. that's who i accep. and to each his own. like be said, you know what i mean. some people serve man, you know, the moon or the sun or the devil as my savior, jesus christ, i believe man that's. and i know for a fact that's what put me in a position where i'm at now with my purpose on this planet. and i'm very honored. i'm very honored that i'm very that i'm

in a position i know where my purpose in my life is because you got to have direction. yeah. and it gave me life. it gave me direct. this is my life. saved my job no more. yeah. this is my life. all day, every day. you know what i mean? yeah. 365 24 seven. i live it, i breathe it, but i thank god every morning when i wake up and at night before i go to sleep. and many times in the middle, you know what i'm saying? and thank him and honor him when it's good and when it's bad. yeah. and so from the beginning, when all this transpired, you'll be surprised what i have seen god done to evolve the evolution of what up is now, you know, i'm a cat from the south of market who come from the trenches, who now has an organization. i used to. i used to be the leader of my gang in this neighborhood. we had a little gang, man. we were colored like this burgundy with skulls on the back. little kids all coming up. but i was the leader and i always ran. i always led with passion, you

know what i mean? and i always led man with that spirit. yeah. and to this day, even when we started back october in 2000, i mean, 1994, we always prayed with all the thugs. that's who jesus was with. he was with the thugs. he was with the killers, the robbers, the steelers, the prostitutes. that's what the whole bible, the story is. bible basic instructions before leaving earth. that's the manual of life. and that's what he did, man. he gave the spirit to the thugs and all them. and they wrote that book the best selling book that's out that is free, that most people don't even open. see, we all guarantee one thing in life with two, pay your taxes. and guess what else to die? because while death, life has no meaning. and if you do not have that spiritual food because you got people walking all around there, you see it. they alive, right? but they're not living. you have to have some spiritual food in your life because man can't live on bread

alone. man, y'all got me sound like a preacher up in this camp. you know what i mean? but all the way from the beginning, jeremy, we praying in. and to this day. what do we do when we have our wednesday meetings? we pray in and we pray out. come on, man, it's always been god, god, god, the biggest gangster on this planet. because what's his name? start with b jesus christ g. god. yeah. that's why we're. that's why you're so blessed, rudy. and you're so blessed to have you. not a place i'm blessed, you know. and prayer really works. god is real. i've. you know, i've prayed. i don't go to church, but my relationship with god is what's important to me. my relationship with my ancestors is more important to me. but like i've seen my prayers manifest into real life, and so just having that faith in god just keeps me going and keeps me blessed. amen, amen. you ain't sitting on a gun. you sitting on a bible because this is actually

what we have. our service in this room. yeah, i can feel it on my mama. she in heaven. and speaking of that, like so, uncle rudy, how much has uncle rudy made an impact in your lives? i ain't uncle hold up, man, i ain't that old yet. hold on. i still outrun everybody in this room. i hear people call you uncle rudy. so i'm. yeah, i ain't gonna. i'm gonna say he touched more lives than you can imagine. more lives than you can imagine. and mine based off just being there for me, giving me opportunity. give me a second chance, you know, to work with kids, you know? and me working with kids helped me regrow my heart. so i don't even like adults. i'm a kid. i don't like adults. adults are manipulative. adults are conniving, and adults can can be very misleading. as far as kids, i feel like the kids can't do no harm for me.

the kids can be corrected and i feel like it's a blessing. he gave me opportunity and i took it and ran with it, took it and ran with it. i'm forever blessed and, you know, just just having a positive person in your life, you know, you can be feeling down and you can go have a conversation with him. you're gonna leave out that room with high spirits. you feel me with high spirits? yeah. he's just based off the message he give you. yeah, he helped me a lot. he helped me a lot. and i'm very grateful. it's beautiful. far from appreciative. far from unappreciative. yeah. it's beautiful. yeah. yeah. uncle rudy, he's always be speaking life into me, into everybody. and i feel like, you know that that really does take me to a higher place when i feel really down and stuff. and i feel like, you know, you give everybody an opportunity to, like, reinvent themselves and to be able to,

you know, be a brand new person every day. and that, like you, you don't even like, look at the past of, like, who you used to be or who they used to be. you just see the greater good into people. and i feel like, you know, everybody's here for a reason. and you see exactly why. and like, yeah, like you've just been there. you be there when i'm down and out when i'm up and happy. even my mama call you sometimes, you know, you know it's all love all the time. you got the flip phone flip i want that call. yeah, yeah, i like that. thank you. thank you for your kind words. awesome. beautiful. so, i mean, what would that said? like seeing how many lives you change. what are your what is your hopes for the future of united players? and do you have any other upcoming like works coming in like more partnerships with like what do you what's your hopes for the for up 30 more years to eternity

for life by more buildings, by more buildings, maybe have our own recreational center one day so we can have our own creator up high school. oh yeah. you know how to play high, higher. that'd be cool. take a more global. that's right. yeah. wherever god takes us, that's where we're going and keep leading. so what i've learned from this, this conversation is that there is a definitely there's a definite future for the youth with you guys as the leaders and the of our community, especially soma. and you're in good hands with rudy. i wish they had this when i was young. they didn't have that when i was growing up in in the east bay, like near richmond, vallejo, hercules. i mean, we had a lot of gang violence, and i had a lot of friends that were also, like affected by gangs and didn't make it out of their their teenage years. so it would have been beautiful to have that. so i'm so thankful that

just for our community and for just for life, that we have something like up, because we didn't have that growing up. and to know that there's an organization like this that's going global, it's being recognized by everybody. yeah. and you're saving lives. i mean, there's still people that are going to fall through the cracks, but you guys are doing your very best to catch them. and so i'm very thankful to have learned from each of your stories here from everybody. definitely feel the love and just thankful. next time we do this, we'll have like a lechon and lumpia. we'll do a dinuguan. thank you for having us. yeah. thank you, thank you, thank you for letting our voice be heard. yes. let me phrase it that way. yeah, well, thank you for being a voice for the community. it's beautiful. so. yeah. thanks again. for.

[♪♪♪] >> i really believe that art should be available to people for free, and it should be part of our world, you shouldn't just be something in museums, and i love that the people can just go there and it is there for everyone. [♪♪♪]

>> i would say i am a multidimensional artist. i came out of painting, but have also really enjoyed tactile properties of artwork and tile work. i always have an interest in public art. i really believe that art should be available to people for free, and it should be part of our world. you shouldn't just be something in museums. i love that people can just go there, and it is there for everyone. public art is art with a job to do. it is a place where the architecture meets the public. where the artist takes the meaning of the site, and gives a voice to its. we commission culture, murals, mosaics, black pieces, cut to mental, different types of

material. it is not just downtown, or the big sculptures you see, we are in the neighborhood. those are some of the most beloved kinds of projects that really give our libraries and recreation centers a sense of uniqueness, and being specific to that neighborhood. colette test on a number of those projects for its. one of my favorites is the oceanview library, as well as several parks, and the steps. >> mosaics are created with tile that is either broken or cut in some way, and rearranged to make a pattern. you need to use a tool, nippers,

as they are called, to actually shape the tiles of it so you can get them to fit incorrectly. i glued them to mash, and then they are taken, now usually installed by someone who is not to me, and they put cement on the wall, and they pick up the mash with the tiles attached to it, and they stick it to the wall, and then they groped it afterwards. [♪♪♪] >> we had never really seen artwork done on a stairway of the kinds that we were thinking of because our idea was very just barely pictorial, and to have a picture broken up like that, we were not sure if it would visually work. so we just took paper that size and drew what our idea was, and cut it into strips, and took it down there and taped it to the steps, and stepped back and looked around, and walked up and down and figured out how it would really work visually.

[♪♪♪] >> my theme was chinese heights because i find them very beautiful. and also because mosaic is such a heavy, dens, static medium, and i always like to try and incorporate movement into its, and i work with the theme of water a lot, with wind, with clouds, just because i like movements and lightness, so i liked the contrast of making kites out of very heavy, hard material. so one side is a dragon kite, and then there are several different kites in the sky with the clouds, and a little girl below flying it. [♪♪♪]

>> there are pieces that are particularly meaningful to me. during the time that we were working on it, my son was a disaffected, unhappy high school student. there was a day where i was on the way to take them to school, and he was looking glum, as usual, and so halfway to school, i turned around and said, how about if i tell the school you are sick and you come make tiles with us, so there is a tile that he made to. it is a little bird. the relationship with a work of art is something that develops over time, and if you have memories connected with a place from when you are a child, and you come back and you see it again with the eyes of an adult, it is a different thing, and is

just part of what makes the city an exciting place. [♪♪♪] is meeting to order. that evening. this is a meeting of the san francisco commission on the environment. the date is tuesday february 4th. the time is 5:03 p.m.. >> please note that the ringing and use of cell phones, pagers and similar devices is prohibited. please be advised that the chair may order the removal from the meeting room of anyone using a phone or similar device. public comment will be available for each item on the agenda. for comment on matters that are not on the agenda the