San Francisco Youth Commission
Youth Justice
Minutes – Special Meeting
Tuesday October 20, 2015
5:00-7:00 PM
City Hall, Room 278
1. Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Pl.
San Francisco, CA 94102

There will be public comment on each item.

Members: Grace Pating, Hatim Mansori, Cecilia Galeano, Jessica Calderon

1. Call to Order and Roll Call

The meeting was called to order at 5:07 pm. Commissioners present: Grace Pating, Cecilia Galeano, Jessica Calderon. Commissioner Mansori was absent. There was quorum.

Staff present: Adele Failes-Carpenter and Monica Guzman.

There was no public comment.

2. Approval of Agenda (Action Item)

Commissioner Pating, seconded by Commissioner Galeano, moved to approve the agenda. There was no public comment. The motion was approved by acclamation.

3. Approval of Minutes (Action Item)

A. September 28, 2015
(Document A)

Commissioner Galeano, seconded by Commissioner Pating, moved to approve the agenda. There was no public comment. The motion was approved by acclamation.

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

There was no public comment.

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

A. Introductions and Icebreaker

The Youth Commission had a joint meeting with youth and staff from Project WHAT. They began the meeting by introducing themselves. Some of the youth present were: Daniel, Montana, Ariela, Demetrius, Arvan and Luna. The staff present for Project WHAT were Zoe Willmott and Jamie Gerber.

B. Project WHAT and Youth Justice Committee Updates

Both Project WHAT and Youth Commission gave updates on the work they are currently and have been doing.

Project WHAT:

• Alcatraz event and art exhibit
• Research report
• Launch similar campaign in Oakland

Youth Commission:

• Hearing on CIP
• DGO 7.04
• Lowering visiting age at county jails

C. Review Past PW and YJC Work

Youth Commission reviewed some of the past work that they have done together.

D. Project WHAT Policy Platform Presentation and Discussion and Next Steps

Some priorities Project WHAT could work on this upcoming year include:

• Implementing the visiting age policy at county jails
• Re-entry support services
• Collaboration with SFUSD
• Collaboration with One Family
• Transportation for children to visit parents
• Support FCC – reducing CA phone call rates for incarcerated people
• Implementing DGO 7.04 (one suggestion was working with SFPD to put a box on their intake form that asks if they are arresting a parent)

The youth also brainstormed outreach strategies for bringing more awareness to the lowered visiting age at county jails. Some of their ideas were:

• Have an info session w/ an on-site enrollment portion
• Have a one page document that gives information on the changes and how to enroll; have flier for youth to distribute with networks; give document to other city departments that work with youth to distribute
• Project WHAT could work with One Family
• Promote on social media
• Promote at Youth Advocacy Day


Some next steps are:

• Ask DCYF to include CIP count in the 2016 CNA so that we have more accurate count; ask how they came up with the 18K figure last time
• Follow up on any support needed in advocating for welcome back visits
• Confirm hearing dates for DGO 7.04 (will ask in November) and visiting policy
• Outreach strategy for pamphlet, once developed.
• YC will also reach out the Sherriff’s office and to One Family for presentations

E. Review Draft SFUSD Resolution
(Document B)

Project WHAT and the Youth Commission read and discussed the draft SFUSD resolution. They were all supportive of this resolution and glad to work with SFUSD on issues affecting CIP. Some of the suggestions they made were as follows:

• Youth have concerns about asking questions re: CIP status in student surveys. Is it anonymous? Youth feel afraid to answer the questions sometimes
• More explicit goals around expanding programming for CIP beyond the Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Could issue directive to lift ban on lower limit of students who have to be enrolled in a campus group in order to remain a group so that students can create peer support spaces
• For curriculum, would be good to get feedback from CIP before releasing or pilot in a safe setting. Students could experience as either triggering or empowering. Would also make sure curriculum is for all grade levels and age appropriate
• One explicit thing SFUSD can help with is asking counselors to help outreach for the 16 and 17 year old visiting program and to help with enrollment
• In general, SFUSD can help by providing CIP students with copies of their birth cert or other documentation needed in order to verify age and relationship to parent for visiting purposes (One things we could ask: can SFUSD put birthdates onto student ID’s? This would be one way to have an additional piece of “ID” for visiting and it would be helpful for lots of other policy issues concerning teen ID, ie free muni)
• SFUSD can send academic files to jail, including reading assignments and visiting information to parents
• Is there space in format to use quotes from youth or parents?
• Maybe include reference to Empire with Sesame Street

They will be giving this feedback to SFUSD.

6. Executive Committee Report

There was none.

7. Staff Report

There was none.

8. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 7:02 PM.