San Francisco Youth Commission
Immigration & Employment Committee
Minutes
Thursday, October 16, 2014
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: Luis Avalos, Emily Guo, Michel Li, Joyce Wu, David Zheng

1. Call to Order and Roll Call

Committee Chair Wu called the meeting to order at 5:09 p.m. Commissioners present: Luis Avalos, Emily Guo, Michel Li, Joyce Wu, David Zheng. There was quorum. Staff present: Allen Lu.

2. Approval of Agenda (Action Item)

There was no public comment. Commissioner Li, seconded by Commissioner Guo, moved to approve the agenda. This motion was approved by acclamation.

3. Approval of Minutes (Action Item)

A. October 2, 2014
(Document A)

There was no public comment. Commissioner Zheng, seconded by Commissioner Avalos, moved to approve the minutes of September 18, 2014. The motion was approved by acclamation.

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

There were none.

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

A. Update on DACA Renewal from the Office of Civic Engagement & Immigrant Affairs
Presenters: Richard Whipple, Deputy Director of Programs

Mr. Whipple provided an overview of OCEIA and its 4 Grant Programs: Citizen Initiative, Language Access through Community Based Organizations, Day Labors Programs, and the DREAM SF Initiative. He spoke in depth about the CBO’s OCEIA works with before speaking about DACA. The DREAM SF Initiative offers a grant program to fund legal services for youth seeking DACA and the DREAM SF Fellows program which provides 14 DACA youth employment opportunities.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions about the specific services OCEIA provides when DACA eligible people enter the doors, the end of the funding cycle for the DREAM SF Initiative, and what community based organizations are asking for to help the youth.

Mr Whipple shared that OCEIA helps with application assistance and employment opportunities for youth with DACA. Unfortunately, the DREAM SF Fellowship program is coming to an end this December. He also observed that many of the community based organizations who invested a lot of energy in serving DACA-eligible youth have shifted their focus to support the unaccompanied youth coming in from Central America. They are still providing DACA legal services, but due to the limited amount of resources, are currently providing support for the unaccompanied youth. Mr. Whipple demonstrated his gratefulness for the committee’s work in pushing for DACA Renewal resources.

When asked about DACA outreach and receptivity from the API community, Mr. Whipple talked about BA DACA. He talked about the importance and difficulty of getting the API ethnic media involved, and the difficulty due to the API community not connecting with DACA as a resource and issue in their community.

One area Mr. Whipple highlighted that needed more energy was the education and outreach of these services. Just over 10 percent who are eligible are receiving DACA, and there could be more recipients. He expressed the need for the city to ID who and where these people are and reach out to them. He also expressed that the targeted population and their families could be waiting on Obama to provide expanded relief. In the meantime, service providers and allies could reach out to ESL/ ELL classrooms.

Lastly, the committee and Mr. Whipple discussed other resources for this group of youth: City and State ID cards, loans from the Mission ASSET Fund and the Self Help Federal Credit Union, and grants from Legal Services for Children.

Commissioner Avalos then provided a supplemental presentation that provides an overview of AB540, AB131, DACA, and the fee waiver statement provided by the DACA webpage. Fee waivers are only provided under exceptional circumstances: youth under 18, experiencing homelessness, in foster care, etc.

The committee decided to wait and hear from Richard the feedback from his team on the DRAFT resolution, continue discussions with Supervisors, and eventually bring this up to the Full Youth Commission.

There was no public comment.

B. Young Voters Forum Debrief

Commissioners shared that the event went generally well. They shared some constructive feedback and are eager to do other similar events this year.

There was no public comment.

C. Committee Priority Team Updates


Each team provided an update and next steps.

There was no public comment.

6. Staff Report

A. Programmatic Updates

Staff shared an upcoming Youth Festival event hosted by SGI, who invited the Youth Commission to come out and table. Interested commissioners will follow up with staff.

There was no public comment.

7. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 7:13pm.