San Francisco Youth Commission
Youth Employment & Immigration Committee
Special Meeting
Minutes
Friday, April 11th, 2014
4:30-6:30 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 4:29 PM. Commissioners present: Michel Li, Nicholas Persky, Jina Bae. Commissioner absent: Michelle Kong. Staff present: Phimy Truong. There was quorum.

 

2. Approval of Agenda (Action Item)

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

 

 

3. Approval of Minutes (Action Item)

A. Thursday, March 20, 2014
(Document A)

Commissioner Persky, seconded by Commissioner Bae moved to approve the minutes to the meeting of March 20, 2014. There was no public comment. This motion was approved by acclamation.

 

 

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

There were none.

 

 

5. Legislation Referred from the Board of Supervisors (All Items to Follow Discussion and Possible Action)

A. BOS file no. 140272 Hearing – Summer Jobs Plus Initiative and Recreation and Park Department Summer Programming Updates for Youth and Children
Sponsor: Kim
Presenter: Staff
(Document B)

This item was tabled to the latter half of the meeting.

 

 

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

A. Overview of MO’ MAGIC workforce surveys and discussion on how to collaborate
Presenters: Sheryl Davis, Director of Mo’ MAGIC; and Mo’ MAGIC staff

Sheryl Davis, Joe Calderon, and Kimiah Tucker of the MO’ Magic organization arrived to present on their current youth employment initiatives. Aside from providing a variety of youth employment and workforce training opportunities, MO’ Magic staff are working on connecting with local businesses in Western Addition to better understand employers so as to better develop youth to the needs of and build a better rapport with local businesses. Mr. Calderon and Ms. Tucker then explained the workforce survey which was created to map out all of the small businesses, and assess if employers were currently hiring teens and young adults from the Western Addition community, and if there was a commitment to hiring youth. District 5 Youth Commissioner Jina Bae offered support, and expressed excitement over potential Youth Commission and MO’ Magic collaboration. Ms. Davis welcomed the committee’s support and suggested the following next steps: committee members can draft a letter supporting and explaining the goals of the survey; dedicate a few days to join MO’ Magic youth in distributing the surveys and coming back to help synthesize the results; and helping to plan a presentation based on the report. Commissioners asked clarifying questions.

Ms. Davis explained that they would be in touch, and encouraged commissioners to support as much as they can. Commissioner Li thanked all the presenters, and stated the committee would be more than happy to support and be involved where they are best needed.

There was no public comment.

B. Review committee members meetings with various stakeholders: SFUSD, API Legal Outreach

Commissioner Li then asked for updates from each of the committee member and their individual priority. Commissioner Persky provided the following notes on his recent meeting with staff at API Legal Outreach:

We started the meeting with Ms. Segarra telling us more about API Legal Outreach as an organization. They provide direct legal services in 6 main areas of law:
•Domestic Violence/Family Law
•Housing
•Elder Law
•Immigration Law (Affirmative Filing, Naturalization, Family Petition, etc)
•Public Benefits
•Tax Law (Negotiation with IRS, etc)
In addition to these six areas, APILO has also done a lot of work around DACA. APILO also has a Youth Advocacy Council mainly for API youth that hosts an event every summer about Domestic Violence Prevention. The goal is to educate youth (mainly high school students) to think of relationships in a more healthy way. You can apply and become part of the council.
DACA: One significant challenge that DACA has is that the federal government has long-term access to your information, even though the program may only last for a matter of years. Anyone applying for the program opens themselves to ICE scrutiny, which obviously comes with many risks. Additionally, if applicants are interviewed, and are asked about their immigration story, they also extend potential liability to their parents and other family members if they mention them.
USCIS (which Ms. Segarra referred to as "the nice arm" of the Department of Homeland Security) is where information about DACA is kept. USCIS has an agreement to not share info about DACA applicants with ICE or CBP, but because this is all policy, and not legislation, this could potentially change with a political change in the Presidency.
Employment Questions: After our discussion regarding DACA, Adele and I asked the questions we brainstormed about advice on our resolution asking the city to take liability for employing undocumented youth. Unfortunately, because employment and workforce development is not something that API Legal Outreach does at all, Ms. Segarra said that she wasn't the best person to answer that question. If we want advice on this, she suggested that we find an attorney that does work around employment, or even better the City Attorney's office that would likely be able to answer our questions on this issue.
School District Outreach Programs: Responding to our questions regarding outreach services to undocumented students in SFUSD, Ms. Segarra stated that she was not aware of any school or district-based programs for outreach. There could be downsides to this approach, such as using race as an immigration indicator. It also brings up confidentiality issues, and vulnerability can hinder outreach.

Ms. Segarra stated that the most effective method of outreach in her experience has simply been word of mouth. This is effective because undocumented people are more likely to talk with other undocumented people. In fact, most referrals at APILO come in through word of mouth. Connecting two of our priorities -- employing undocumented youth and assisting SF's undocumented residents -- Adele came up with the idea that we could potentially employ undocumented youth as outreach workers.

Commissioner Bae then provided updates regarding hers and Commissioner Kong’s work on surveying youth involved in the Newcomer Pathways with SFUSD. Ms. Wong had followed up with commissioners via email and informed them of the process with which to survey youth in these courses. Ms. Wong suggested a process, and asked commissioners to work on more of the logistics and timeline in which they would like to begin their survey. Commissioner Bae agreed to set some time to work with Commissioner Kong on this work and come back with a more detailed plan regarding logistics, timeline, process, etc. They will be in touch with Ms. Wong through staff and will report back to the committee later.

There was no public comment.

 

 

5. Legislation Referred from the Board of Supervisors (All Items to Follow Discussion and Possible Action)

A. BOS file no. 140272 Hearing – Summer Jobs Plus Initiative and Recreation and Park Department Summer Programming Updates for Youth and Children
Sponsor: Kim
Presenter: Staff
(Document B)

This item was called out of order. Ms. Truong provided a brief overview of the legislation referred, and shared Commissioner Cardenas’ request that the employment committee provided a referral response. Commissioner Cardenas noted that when commissioners received a presentation from Matchbridge regarding Summer Jobs+, many questions from the youth employment committee members were left unanswered. He felt this would be a great opportunity for committee members to follow up.

Commissioner Li facilitated a discussion on summer jobs initiative. Committee members reviewed the following notes:


• How does Summer Jobs+ plan on employing undocumented youth that aren’t a part of DACA, Dreamers, etc.?
• How is Summer Jobs continuing on doing the undocumented youth employment program with Chalk & Lyric
• Are employers checking in on the wellness of the employees?
• What is the process of recruiting and outreaching to the private sector every year?
• How would you evaluate the effectiveness of the doorway organizations? Youth feed-back and youth evaluations?
• How do the demographics of youth in Summer Jobs+ compare to that of the entire city?
• Why are there so few youth from SOMA and the Tenderloin who were served by the ini-tiative?
• How are you working with schools to make sure that educational experiences are linked with employment? (Specifically for jobs within the private sector)
Commissioner Persky motioned to direct staff to summarize the committee’s follow up questions and comments about summer jobs initiative in a referral response to this item. This motion was seconded by Commissioner Bae. There was no public comment. This motion was approved by acclamation.

Commissioner Persky made a motion to support the hearing. This motion was seconded by Commissioner Li. There was no public comment. This motion was approved by acclamation.

Ms. Truong shared that the hearing would take place at the April 24th Joint Select committee meeting. This hearing will start at the youth friendly time of 3:30 p.m.

 

 

7. Staff Report

Ms. Truong confirmed that Educators 4 Fair Consideration would be providing a workshop to a small group of commissioners on Friday, April 18th from 430-6:00 p.m. The workshop would be open to other youth interested in learning more about E4FC. The workshop would be on supporting and advocating for undocumented youth and higher education. Ms. Truong also shared the committee received an inquiry on its official position on the potential increase in minimum wage and what this would mean for youth workforce program wages. Commissioners reviewed notes from a discussion in January when a youth employment service provider from JCYC provided public comment about what the minimum wage could mean for youth wages in city funded workforce programs. Commissioners haven’t taken an official position on this topic yet, and while leaning towards keeping the number of “slots” or “positions” in a youth workforce program the same or open for as many youth as possible, committee members are interested in hearing from other service providers. Commissioners then discussed the possible impacts of the increase in minimum wage to youth workforce programs. Commissioners Persky and Li both expressed that they were leaning towards preserving or increasing the number of youth slots in workforce programs, and interest in learning more about potential “youth workforce training wage”. Commissioner Kong was not present to provide comment, but has expressed in the past that youth should be paid minimum wage. Commissioners directed staff to follow up with youth employment service providers, and check in with the Mayor’s office.

There was no public comment.

 

 

8. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 6:24 p.m.