My Dearly Beloved San Francisco: A Love Letter

My Dearly Beloved San Francisco, 

As a little girl when I finally began to understand the true meaning of your beauty, you took my breath away.  The diversity and colors. The joy and the happiness but yet a beautiful struggle. As the years went by I finally began to wonder at what you truly have to offer.

So I began my adventure, high and low. I saw all but great wonders. You are truly beautiful but yet inside you are a disaster. The anger that you hold within yourself it scares me. What secrets do you hold that darken you? I want to know. I want to help you, why have you become so cold?


My love don't let me go.

I want to help you, for I am the change for the future. Trust me my dear, don't lose faith.  You are my strength. You and me will become the great change for unity. I want to help you in any way possible. I don't want to see you struggle.  The people, the youth, you cause them pain. Why is it so expensive to stay?

I told myself no more. My family had to move. Then that's when I knew it was time to help you and there i was, the one sign that gave me a clue, going to YEFAB was on great way to help you.

Love,
Stacy

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Stacy Martinez is a member of the Youth Empowerment Fund Advisory Board (YEFAB). She wrote this as part of a love letter exercise. Each YEFAB member was prompted to write a letter to the city of San Francisco sharing what they love, what they want to change and why they have been called to action. Stacy is a Junior and Student Body Vice President at John O'Connel High School. Read more about Stacy and other YEFAB members here.

Coordinators Corner: Their City, Their Teacher

WE'RE BACK!

After a brief hiatus we're back with more YEF news, tips and resources for all of our readers and community partners. We're starting a new series called "Coordinators Corner" to highlight some best practices our staff has learned and would like to share with youth workers in San Francisco and beyond.

We want to bring you blogs that will help you support your youth plus encourage communication and collaboration among the amazing organizations in SF serving young people. So, leave a comment with a question or a new topic you'd like to see us cover and we'll do our best to share content that will be helpful.

San Francisco Mapping Activity

Living and working in a major city like San Francisco we can get so consumed with the hustle and bustle of routine that we often forget that our lives only cover so much of the 46.9 square miles SF has to offer. Humans are creatures of habit and none more than young people.

Youth in San Francisco--as in any other place-- have their own routines.  They have their favorite hang out spots (T-Pumps high on the list) and their frequented routes from school to home to after school sites and then back home again. While they might see more diversity of culture and class in their daily route than a teen in a small town or suburb, their own experience only tells a part of the story of the city.

YEF Advisory Board (YEFAB) map their lives in SF

Often in youth empowerment programming, we want to highlight and uphold the knowledge-rich experiences of young people. However, it is also important to show them a wider world of diverse experiences outside of their realm of consciousness. The balancing act between providing programming that does both can be exhausting.

Doing a mapping activity that pinpoints where youth spend most of their time, allows them to both share their experience with the group and highlights the places and experiences that they might not see in their daily lives.

Suggested Mapping Activity Steps:

• Print out or create a digital map of San Francisco (or your own city).
• Ask youth use pieces of paper or digital pinpoint to indicate where they live, go to school, work, hang out with friends and shop (create more categories that might reflect the activity goal)
• Have youth share with the group their points.
• As a group look for patterns (where are there a lot of pins, where are there not as many, why?).
• Have youth do research or explore an area they are unfarmiliar with and present back to the group at a later meeting.

*For more info on how to make your own map and other urban civic engagement resources check out the "Make Your PLACE" curriculum made available through Catlin Gabel.

POWER DAY

On April 10, 2013, San Francisco's very own YEFAB (Youth Empowerment Fund Advisory Board), YAC (Youth Advisory Council), YOUTH WARRIORS, and YOUTH COMMISSION were able to gain an opportunity to go to the State Capitol and do some power work for the state of California. There we were able to bring up numerous legislative bills to our State Senators and Assemblymen, and other political aids that concern youth issues. As youth ourselves, we know what is happening in our current community best because we live the life everyday. What better was it than to voice our actual opinion to our state representatives, and not have to hear from a full room of adults that may have the capability to experience youth issues currently.  I am proud to say that our leaders were very pleased with our visit, and we as youth were given the opportunity of a lifetime. I want to thank Nayad and Prishni for bringing us there and the whole YEF for bringing us there as well. We hope to be able to do this again in the near future!

Youth Commission Off-Site Meeting on Education!

  On Monday, May 6th 2013, the San Francisco Youth Commission had an off-site meeting at the Ernest Ingold Boys & Girls Club. This meeting was directed towards Education issues, specifically credit recovery options for the upcoming school year. We discussed & looked at the data on the Class of 2014 & how many students are off-track to graduating. Also how the new A-G requirements come into play with this issue. That's why there are many options for students to make up credits, online & in a classroom. There was also a conversation on the new school meals in SFUSD schools. The Student Nutrition Services came to get some input from the Youth Commission, whether it's an improvement or if there still needs to be changes made. Overall, it was a very informative & productive meeting. It was also nice to have the Youth Commission host a meeting within the community so that the public could come & share their thoughts on what's being discussed. HOORAY FOR YOUTH VOICE & REPRESENTATION! For more information on the San Francisco Youth Commission or information on upcoming meetings, visit their website at www.sfgov.org/yc or their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SFYouthCom.

May Day Rally

May Day

International Workers Day

May 1, 2013

On Wednesday, May 1st, as a form of celebration for all workers worldwide, countless numbers of demonstrators marched from the Mission District to San Francisco’s City Hall, fighting and screaming passionately for better working conditions, fair and adequate wages, health care, and lastly, immigration reform. The crowd consisting of labor activists, immigrants and supporters waved posters, signs and the American flag; banged drums; and chanted in English and Spanish, saying “Stop Deportation” and “Si se puede” (meaning “we can” in Spanish).

 We, Yefab, were able to join this wonderful celebration with numerous other supporters to voice our opinions and join the efforts in fighting for equality and justice for workers around the world. As a local San Franciscan, I have never been to a May Day protest before and this year’s was my first. Witnessing everybody’s burning passion to seek for change and equality is inspirational and invigorating. I was also fortunate to meet a Vietnamese female activist who openly befriended me and even exchanged stories and life lessons with me in seconds. The beauty of advocacy work is not only in fighting for a positive change, but also in the relationships and connections you build along the way. Through this experience, I learned that the diversity, open-mindedness, and compassion in San Francisco are perks that make our city so vibrant and free.

AWESOME SITE-VISIT

         

            On Tuesday, April 23, Christian and I were finally able to meet the wonderful youth leaders of Project WHAT!. That day the youth leaders and their adult ally met at the Main Library to discuss some of the final things needed for their summit. Throughout the meeting, the youth leaders were always on task by contributing their ideas to making the summit even better. Although they were discussing about logistical things, the atmosphere in the room was still very light and happy. There were jokes and laughter throughout the meeting which made the time fly by. I enjoyed seeing how comfortable everyone was with one another as if they are one big, happy family.   

            During this meeting Christian and I were able to see how diligent and passionate the youth leaders of this project really are. Everyone had great input and was really supportive of one another. I am really glad that I was finally able to put faces onto the amazing youth who are behind this project. I still cannot believe their summit is happening in a couple of weeks. All the youth leaders have worked so hard in producing this summit and I am very excited to see their hard work pay off!

GET PUMPED

Project WHAT!’s summit, Beyond Bars: Our Lives, Our Rights, is finally happening on Saturday, May 18^th at the San Francisco Main Library from 10 am – 2:45 pm! At this summit, the knowledgeable and passionate youth leaders of this project will enable the participants to gain a better understanding of how the criminal justice program works and allowing them to see through the eyes of youth with incarcerated parents. The youth leaders will lead a variety of workshops that will further enhance your knowledge about issues concerning youth with incarcerated parents. Here, you will be able to share your story, hear others story, and ultimately come together as a community to stand up for change. Beyond Bars: Our Lives, Our Rights is not only going be a great educational experience, but it will also consist of a lot fun as you will get to meet new people and win many prizes!    

If you are interested, please remember to register at projectwhatsummit2.eventbrite.com by May 10^th. Hope to see you there!