Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Youth Services topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Youth Commission presents priorities: summer jobs expansion, transitional‑age housing and Free Muni for youth
Summary
The San Francisco Youth Commission asked the Budget & Finance Committee to sustain and expand summer jobs (target 6,000), accelerate transitional‑age youth housing toward a 400‑unit goal, expand cultural‑competency training and make Free Muni for youth sustainable and broader.
The San Francisco Youth Commission presented its 2013–15 policy and budget priorities to the Budget & Finance Committee on May 22, calling for expanded youth employment, accelerated transitional‑age youth (TAY) housing, implementation of LGBT cultural‑competency training and continued support for a Free Muni pilot.
Mia Shackleford, chair of the commission, framed the presentation as a youth‑driven set of priorities developed through community engagement. Commissioner Christine Wynne (youth employment lead) welcomed the mayor’s increased goal of 6,000 summer jobs and urged robust oversight and prioritization for youth facing the greatest barriers — disconnected youth, transitional‑age youth and undocumented youth — with an eye toward making summer jobs the foundation for a future year‑round program.
The commission also urged the mayor’s Office of Housing and partner departments to fully fund the city’s plan to create 400 new transitional‑age units by 2015 and to adopt evaluation tools and on‑site supportive services (case management, counseling, healthcare) to measure program effectiveness. Commissioner Nicholas Persky urged sustained support and expansion of the Free Muni for Youth pilot: as of the hearing more than 28,000 youth had applied, and commissioners called for making the program permanent with stable funding and expanded eligibility to include transitional‑age youth.
Other priorities included advancing cultural‑competency implementation (chapter 12N) so that city departments collect sexual‑orientation and gender‑identity data where appropriate and train staff; promoting credit‑recovery evaluation and youth input for the San Francisco Unified School District; reforms and training related to juvenile probation practice; and targeted support for City College of San Francisco.
Supervisors praised the commission’s work and asked follow‑up questions about juvenile recreation access and capital needs at juvenile facilities; juvenile probation leadership confirmed ongoing compliance with daily recreation requirements while noting capital improvements (ADA work, water treatment upgrades) remain on the department’s priority list.
The committee accepted the presentation and indicated it would consider the commission’s priorities during the upcoming budget deliberations.
