Meeting Minutes

1. Roll Call
The Commission President called the meeting to order at 5:51 p.m. Commissioners Arellano, Beijen, Chang, and Woodson were present. Commissioner Wan arrived at 5:55 p.m. and Commissioner Albright was excused.

2. Public Comments.
Greg Suhr, Captain of the Bayview Police Station, welcomed everyone to the station and said that he has been working with Chief Siffermann and JPD on the DMC project. During the summer, Bayview Station has been promoting good choices for kids by trying to find jobs for around 35 kids and get 300-400 kids into various camps and activities.
COMM Woodson asked what specific efforts were made to find youths jobs. Captain Suhr said the application process for city jobs opens in January and closes in February and Bayview station found out what jobs were available for kids and directed 15 kids to apply for themselves.

3. Review and Approval of the Full Commission Meeting Minutes of October 13, 2010 (ACTION ITEM)

Motion to approve the October 13, 2010 Full Commission Meeting Minutes by COMM Chang, second by COMM Beijen, and approved by the rest of the Commission.

4. Presentation on Youth Employment by Goodwill Industries (DISCUSSION ONLY)

Three individuals presented: Joanna Hernandez, Program Manager for Back on Track, which is a first time drug felon offender program funded by the SF District Attorney’s office and is in partnership with Goodwill Industries; Lori Bernstein, Program Manager, RAMP Program, which targets at-risk disconnected youths across the city; and Julia Orellana, RAMP Program Coach. They discussed how juveniles coming out of the juvenile justice system can benefit from RAMP and Goodwill Industries services (see supporting document). RAMP, a collaborative of Goodwill Industries and SF Conservation Corp, completed the second year and are funded by OEWD. They serve 250 at-risk youth per year through a year-long program. The program starts with an intensive six-week job readiness training program. When kids are placed in jobs, they need to be sure that all barriers are addressed. Substance abuse and mental health counseling is available; a stipend is paid during the first six-weeks of job readiness training; and two drug tests are administered. Most kids are not ready for employment at the end of the six weeks and are placed in transitional work programs. When kids finish this training, they come back and are placed in permanent employment. It is a minimum of a year’s worth of services. There are strict attendance policies during the six weeks of JRT and many do not make it the first time. Orientations are held once a week, held at different locations and word-of-mouth gets the students involved. The funding for this program is for 18 to 24 year olds. This helps kids, who are coming off of probation, with job readiness training.
COMM Chang asked what the placement rate was after the end of the year.
Ms. Bernstein said “25%.” One Stop Center and re-entry services are provided with a job readiness program, which serves people from 18 years to seniors.
No public comments.

5. Presentation on Youth Employment by Liz Jackson Simpson, Executive Director,
Youth Guidance Center Improvement Committee (YGCIC) (DISCUSSION ONLY)

Ms. Simpson stated that YGCIC has been around for 27 years and was developed by the Supreme Court judges to help improve educational and vocational outcomes primarily for LCR and has since evolved with all youth involved with the juvenile justice system (see supporting document). The primary programs are: BT Express; New Directions Employment Program; and Early Morning Study Academy. YGCIC is a service “mall” for job, education, and training-seeking youth. They are connected with many services and departments, such as healthcare, supportive, education, HAS, legal, program eligibility, required documentation and stable housing. Most of the youth that participate are between 15 to 19 years old and participants must be at least 17 years old to take the GED. This test is offered two times a month. YGCIC recently merged with Youth for Service and it has a one million dollar endowment with SFSU, which has endowed the money to the downtown college of extended learning. From the interest of the endowment, they are able to provide a $25,000 scholarship every year. They encourage youths to continue their education and mitigate any barriers to support youths. The average length of stay in their education component is around three to four months. They have merged with other organizations and are following the directives from the SF Foundation to get more resources; cut costs; be more efficient; are trying to build up the scholarship pool with SFSU; and the community college is assessing the space in the W Cottages so they can begin doing placement tests to eliminate any barriers. They are always trying to diversify their funds.
COMM Chang commended Ms. Simpson and her team for all of their hard work and asked her to contact him regarding linkages to private sector funding.
Chief Siffermann added that these youths could also be trained as counselors and probation officers and possibly become interns in the department.
No public comments.

6. Report to the Commission

a. Chief’s Report:

· Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) Grant Update by Garry Bieringer
Chief Siffermann thanked Captain Suhr for welcoming the group to Bayview Station and for working on the DMC. Garry Bieringer stated that the DMC grant ($100,000/per year for three years) is preceding along four different avenues. The first is the partnership with the Bayview Police Station: the surveys, discussions, scheduled meetings with officers later this month, and the training component which is scheduled for early next year. Second is the training component for the police and probation officers. The Burns Institute is helping with the development of the training. JPD has discussed doing an employee survey, similar to the one conducted for the Bayview police officers. This will most likely happen after the training. The third component is the data analysis. An analysis of all of the youths that were overridden into detention with a focus on the kids who live in the Bayview district and African American youths. Once completed, it will be shared with Chief Siffermann and the Burns Institute for their analysis. The next analysis will be to look at youths who are detained due to a bench or arrest warrant to see what strategies can be implemented. The last component is risk assessment. This is a tool that JPD uses when police bring youths to JPD. The department needs to determine if the youth needs to be detained or can be released back home to do community services. They are looking at weak areas, analyzing who is detained, what changes can be made, and more training of on-duty staff. The state schedules a site visit in December for all agencies that they fund.
COMM Woodson asked if any of the data or analysis was available for public consumption. Mr. Bieringer stated that a quarterly report is prepared for the state, however, they are still compiling information.
No public comments.
Kansas City JDAI Seminar Update by Chief Siffermann
Chief Siffermann stated that the Annie Casey conference is held every year and focused on detention reform. JPD was only allotted four slots for members to attend, which included himself, Allison Magee, Director of Administrative Services, Commission President Woodson and Patty Lee, Public Defender. The conference has significantly grown in attendance. The JDAI initiative has been introduced in 120 different sites across the country, many involving state initiatives that advance the eight core principals of detention reform. One of the highlights was the presentation by Allison Magee on managing the department’s available resources to continue the principles of JDAI in tough economic times. The conference has now encompassed the way youths are processed in the juvenile justice system and has a lot to do with how they are reducing the numbers of kids that are being detained. This correlates with JPD’s out-of-home placement, as described by the Juvenile Collaborative Re-Entry Team (JCRT), and the collaborative work with the courts, public defender and CBO’s. This also correlates with the work being performed at LCR, where steps have been made for youths emerging from LCR. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) made a significant commitment to this foundation and their model.
COMM Woodson attended Ms. Magee’s presentation regarding strategies on obtaining funds to sustain their programs and thought it was an effective presentation. The last presentation was an opportunity to hear directly from kids who were in the Missouri Model and they gave their experience on how it was to be in that program and how it positively affected their lives. It reminded everyone in the room “why we were there and why we do what we do.” It was the last presentation of the conference and it should have been one of the first, because many of the participants had left or were leaving at that point. It was a worthwhile event.
Ms. Magee added that at the end of the conference, it was gratifying to see peers taking into account their best practices, and learning from each other.
No public comments.

7. Future Agenda Items (ACTION ITEM)

Announcements

· No announcements.
No public comments.

8. Adjournment (ACTION ITEM)

The meeting adjourned at 7:09 p.m.