San Francisco Youth Commission
Youth Employment & Immigration Committee
Minutes
Thursday, November 21, 2013
5:00-7:00 PM
City Hall, Room 345
1. Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Pl.
San Francisco, CA 94102

There will be public comment on each item.

Members: Michel Li - Chair, Nicholas Persky, Jina Bae, and Michelle Kong

1. Call to Order and Roll Call

The meeting was called to order at 5:02 pm. Commissioners present: Li, Persky, Bae; Commissioners Absent: Kong; Staff Present: Adele Carpenter

There was quorum.

2. Approval of Agenda (Action Item)

Commissioner Persky, seconded by Commissioner Bae, moved to approve the agenda. This motion was approved by acclamation.

There was no public comment.

3. Approval of Minutes (Action Item)

A. Thursday, November 7th, 2013
(Document A)

Commissioner Bae, seconded by Commissioner Persky, moved to approve the minutes from November 7, 2013. This motion was approved by acclamation. There was no public comment.

4. Public Comment on Items not on Agenda (Discussion Only)

There was none.

5. Business (All Items to Follow Discussion and Possible Action)

A. Presentation on Youth Workforce Programs and Policy Priorities
Presenter: Glenn Eagleson, Senior Planner & Policy Analyst/Citywide lead for TAY Services, Department of Children, Youth, and their Families (DCYF)

Mr. Eagleson reviewed DCYF’s workforce strategies with the committee. He explained that workforce development programs are funded by both local as well as state and federal funds and that they take place in both General Fund and Enterprise departments. Examples of locally funded departments: DCYF, OEWD, RPD; State and federally-funded departments: HSA, OEWD. Enterprise departments: SFO, PUC, DPW.

In sum, there is about 16 million dollars for youth and young adult workforce programs. 25-30 city departments contribute via Youth Works internship sites. There are 80+ employment programs in the City. DCYF and OEWD contract with those programs. All placements in all programs are full, but outreach and placement protocols for the programs could improve to ensure the youth who need it most are placed and in the program which is the best fit. Mr. Eagleson explained that in general, we need to evolve more of a “doorway” system rather than leaving it up to which door a young person ends up walking through.

DCYF has a workforce funding strategy that takes place over three years: 1) Needs Assessment 2) Allocation Plan 3) Request for Proposals. This includes: Career Awareness (shadowing, etc.); MYEEP for 9th and 10th graders aiming to gain first time work experience; Youth Works for 11th and 12th graders; Youth Workforce Development programs focused on youth with traditional barriers to employment; High school partnership and career pathway programs; Programs for justice-system involved youth and young adults through adult probation and JPD; and lastly, Private sector initiatives which focus on 16-21 year olds exiting publicly-funded programs.

Summer jobs plus rang in 6,800 jobs for youth last year. 2/3 were publicly funded and 1/3 were private. 75% were for 14-18 year olds. One challenge with the private initiatives and Summer Jobs Plus is really tracking the number of jobs that were created uniquely because of the initiative. We know City Departments added more positions because they Mayor really put weight behind the initiative and met with departments. DCYF made a survey for city departments.

Commissioners asked questions regarding assessment of the workforce programs. Mr. Eagleson explained that there is currently no system in place for tracking hours at the worksite, only “service” hours, so we do not have a lot of information about how long youth stay enrolled in programs, keep working, etc.

YC staff asked whether DCYF was involved in negotiating community benefit agreements. Mr. Eagleson explained there was still a great deal of room to look at the asks around youth services and paid youth internships in agreements for tax incentives. Right now any hiring agreements are handled by OEWD and DCYF is not involved.

Committee members asked about the ratio of workforce program spaces to youth interest. Mr. Eagleson explained that there are 2 or 3 youth for every program slot, but we do not know if the same youth are applying to multiple programs.

Committee members asked about evaluations regarding the use of doorway organizations for Summer Jobs Plus. Mr. Eagleson explained that one challenge was that so many programs accept applications for summer employment in Winter or Spring. The doorway organizations served about 500 youth last Summer.

YC staff asked whether private sector employers received technical assistance regarding supporting youth employees. Mr. Eagleson explained that some worked with CBOS’s and received assistance on working with youth. Others just had youth referred to them. There is room to make more universal tools to educate employers on supporting youth entering the workforce.

Committee members asked questions regarding the use of workforce funding to employ undocumented youth. Mr. Eagleson explained that while this had been piloted by two organizations, challenges included that right to work documents are required for positions that make over $600 and must be reported to the state; One possibility is paying youth in incentives rather than money; Currently, any agency employing undocumented youth must accept liability, as the City does not. One thing to look at could be how the City could support organizations by taking legal responsibility for including undocumented youth in workforce programs. This would be aligned with the Sanctuary City ordinance, and could open space for worker collaborative for young immigrants. The Mayor openly stated his support for including undocumented youth in summer jobs plus, which is a major accomplishment. Supervisors Campos and Avalos are also interested in exploring the issue.

B. Presentation on Chinese Progressive Association San Francisco’s Youth MOJO program and initiatives related to immigrant youth and families
Presenter: Natalie Gee, Youth MOJO Coordinator

This item was tabled until a future meeting, as the presenter was not able to attend.

C. Debrief presentations and review committee goals

Commissioners discussed actionable items from the presentation from DCYF: 1) working with the City to accept responsibility for including undocumented youth in youth employment programs and relieve responsibility for CBO’s and 2) look at inclusion of youth employment in Community Benefit Agreements.

For next steps on exploring the issue of liability for employing undocumented youth, committee members wanted to speak with organizations that participated in the Summer Jobs + cohort and talk to city departments regarding the reasoning for not including youth in employment programs. How many of these city departments are receiving state or federal funding, versus general funds? For those that receive funding from mixed sources, ie, MYEEP, could there be programs using only unrestricted funds from the City’s general fund? The committee discussed whether DCYF can impose contract guidelines regarding inclusion of undocumented youth. What are other examples of population-specific stipulations in contracts for youth employment programs? What are the concerns with including language regarding undocumented youth in a contract?

For next steps looking at the issue of CBA’s, staff agreed to pull up a past draft resolution regarding community benefit agreements from the 2011-2012 term. This is both a concern neighborhood concern for supervisors who negotiate the agreements and an employment concern that addresses the Mayor’s priority on youth employment. The committee discussed following up with Commissioner Sicairos to learn more and asked staff to look into areas where Community Benefit Agreements are in place.

D. Review Policy Research Handout

There were no questions regarding the Monday, November 18th Policy Research Tutorial.

6. Staff Report

A. Programmatic updates, reviewing upcoming events and capacity building workshops offered to commissioners

Adele Carpenter gave commissioners a copy of the Mission Peace Collaborative’s Violence Prevention Plan, which has several youth employment recommendations. She alerted commissioners to a press article regarding the renegotiation of community benefit agreements in Mid-Market. She discussed upcoming meetings with commissioners: the committee will schedule a special meeting on December 12th to meet with youth from Chinese Progressive Association, and cancel their December 19th meeting. Commissioners were reminded about their special December 3rd committee meeting.

7. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 7:02 pm.

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