About. And implementing the task force this force this year, we have recommendations that we are not only working to implement, but we are going to see hopefully real results as a result of the amazing work that the task force has done. We know that in San Francisco we have a serious problem with meth use. In 2018, over 126 people died of a meth overdose and the number of Overdose Deaths from meth rose over 500 in the last 10 years. Meth use is a Public Health and a Public Safety issue in our city. We know that meth is not only providing Substance Use challenges in San Francisco, but we need to make sure that we have a citywide approach to address the combined challenges of Substance Use, Mental Illness , and homelessness in particular. And that is why, along with the department of department health, we announced a comprehensive plan for those who are most in need of Mental Healthcare and Substance Use treatment entitled urgent care s. F. With this, we include building a new system of care coordination, outreach, and lower Barrier Services, and Harm Reduction designed to meet the specific needs of the 4,000 people who we know our dual diagnosed. Several of the Meth Task Force recommendations are prioritized and urgent care s. F. In february this year, we combined this task force under the leadership of supervisor mandelman with three goals in mind. To decrease health risks for people under the influence of meth, to identify best practices for treatment and service options, and to reduce the negative medical and social impacts of matthews for all san franciscans. Over the past six months, the task force has met to understand the specific challenges that meth presents for our city and to develop recommendations that would help address this issue. And the report issued today details the findings as well as 17 recommendations. Several of the recommendations go handinhand with our goals around urgent care s. F. , which include creating a meth Sobering Center, strengthening our Mental Health and Substance Use crisis response, increasing the availability of safe indoor spaces such as dropin centers, shelters, and Navigation Centers , expanding Case Management and Wraparound Services, and expanding availability of treatment beds at multiple levels. Some of these recommendations, its meth Sobering Centers, are new efforts and we are working to implement those well several build upon the work that is already underway. By creating a trauma informed sobering sight for people who are under the influence of meth, we will have a place where people can go or can be taken td where staff will be responsibly trained to help them. In addition to creating a safe place for people to sober up, the center will be a place where we can connect those individuals to services. The department of Public Health is currently exploring locations for the center and our plan is to have at least one of these centers open within the next three to six months. We have already taken action on a few of the recommendations that were mentioned are earlier. In september we announced a partnership with Tipping Point community to open up another 14 hummingbird psychiatric west respite beds. We also announced a plan to expand the hours of the Behavioral Health access center, to increase the availability of safe indoor spaces and help those who need it get connected to care. We are also making progress on adding another 1,000 beds to our Behavioral Health treatment system. We have already funded 212 beds in the last year across the continuum of Harm Reduction treatment and recovery services. The issue of meth use also connects with our efforts on expanding conservatorship in San Francisco because the new conservatorship allows us to extend the benefit of care to treatment, to people with Mental Illness and Substance Use disorder. We know that among people with at least psychiatric hold halls, nearly nine in the 10 are users of meth. And as we work to implement a successful conservatorship program, it is important we understand the overlap between matthews and eligibility for conservatorship. We are making progress and we know that progress is not moving fast enough, but we need to be responsible in how we coordinate the right systems so it actually delivers the results we need to have an impact on what we see out on the streets every single day. It is one of the reasons why i hired the first ever Mental Health reform director this year to really analyse the system, to find out what the challenges are , and to work on solutions. Theres not one solution that is going to get us to a place where we need, but we see the problem, we understand the challenges, we understand the data. The data is going to help to inform the decisions that we make so that we can get real results. We are making progress and one of the recommendations of the task force was to strengthen our Mental Health and Substance Use crisis response. Under urgent care s. F. , we will add more Behavioral Health resources to accompany police oncall through our 311 system so that our Police Department is working handinhand with one of our Street Medicine Team workers so we can again provide people with care and get them into one of our Sobering Centers if necessary. We will take action on the recommendations to expand Case Management and Wraparound Services, specifically by reducing the patient to provide a ratio so that we can really get the kinds of results that we need, adding staff to handle the additional cases is also critical, and our next steps include taking action on these recommendations. My office will carefully review the other recommendations included in the report and determine which one will move forward and which ones will be incorporated into the work we are already doing with urgent care s. F. I want to thank the members of the task force for dedicating so many hours to this work, this very critical work. The report and set of recommendations will be extremely helpful as we move forward to address meth use that is hurting so many people in this city. I now have the pleasure to introduce the person who has really been leading on this charge, supervisor mandelman is the person who came to me about this issue early on to talk about the challenges that existed. He knows that i care about opening Safe Injection Sites and that has been a focus of my administration and i am really optimistic that we are closer than ever before to getting there, but he really highlighted the fact that we are seeing the number of folks who are dying on our streets with methamphetamine increasing significantly, and so he has been the leader on shining the light on this issue and i am hopeful that because of his leadership in this work, we can take these recommendations to the next level so we can see a difference and we can help save lives. Ladies and gentlemen, supervisor raphael mandelman. [applause] thank you, madame mayor. Thank you for your commitment and persistence in making the changes in the city that everyone agrees need to be made, and for your fortitude and making those changes that are necessary, but not everyone agrees need to be made. San francisco has a meth problem i think we all know it. We all see it on our streets, in our hospital emergency rooms, in our jails and too often in the growing list of san franciscans dying from overdoses. Among homeless san franciscans who have died on our streets, methamphetamine was the most commonly present substance showing up in 47 of deaths. Now this is not the first time San Francisco has engaged on the issue of meth and its impacts in our communities. It was nearly 15 years ago that then then mayor newsom and supervisor dusty convened the citys first Meth Task Force focused on its impacts in the queer community. I know there are some veterans of that effort here in the room, some of them were part of the task force. The task force, that task force didnt important work and helped lead innovations and modelled the response that our task force has studied and i think its really appropriate that we are here in this aids foundation building. Thank you for your work and thank you for giving us or a thomas and make, where is make . There he is. Laura is back there. Okay. They made such important contributions to the task force but have been doing amazing work on drug policy and helping folks out for many decades, a couple decades. I will stop before i get in any more trouble. [laughter] this task force and the report we released today is not really the beginning of a conversation, and its not certainly the end of the conversation. It cant be. I believe we have made important contributions to that conversation. Today, meth addiction is still very much a queer issue in San Francisco, but as me know, and as the report documents, it is also a Public Health crisis that threatens the safety and wellbeing of vulnerable residents across the city, in every community, and threatens those communities. The report contains 17 recommendations and we cant go into each and every one of them here. I want to highlight a couple of them in particular. The first recommendation is to create a trauma informed sobering sight with integrated Harm Reduction services for people who are under the influence of methamphetamine. Drug Sobering Centers were the task forces top recommendation. Across a spectrum of participants, whether Law Enforcement, service providers, people with lived experience, everyone agreed that we need places that are not psychiatric emergency services, that are not emergency rooms, and that are not jails for people who are meth intoxicated or in a meth induced psychosis. Safe space for them to be and it leaves the communities from which they came safer. This is something we must do and i am so grateful to our mayor, her team, and dr. Colfax for their commitment to making this happen on an expedited timeline. The second recommendation of the task force, which also, i believe it was the secondhighest recommended recommendation, was to strengthen the citys interdisciplinary Behavioral Health crisis response. I hear almost every day from constituents who are seeing folks in distress, folks in psychosis pretty much every day and they have no idea what to do , who to call, how to get a response. They call 311, it doesnt work. They feel nervous about calling the police, and so what the mayor recognizes and what has worked its way into urgent care s. F. And what will be moving forward are other responses so that san franciscans who are seeing neighbors and distress have a number they can call, and app they can dial, and they can get, in realtime, an appropriate response it isnt necessarily the police. If you need a police officer, the police need to be there, but ideally, it is not the police. So that is something that i think will change lives, both for folks who are in crisis, and for the communities in which those folks are living. Theres a third recommendation that is buried way down there. It is item number 17. It is actually really important and it is strength collaboration strengthen communities communication and collaboration among city agencies and providers. I want to highlight this because it is the reason that dr. Bland exists. I want to thank mayor breed for creating this position, for recognizing the need to look across city agencies, to look to our nonprofit partners, to bring folks together to get out of the silos and to have us working together towards common destinations and towards getting care to the people who need it. We can do this. I dont want to steal dr. Colfax s thunder because i think he may say some similar things and i will i will say again. We know we can do this because we have done it before. The San Francisco model of h. I. V. Care was innovated by a city that had been abandoned by the federal government to deal with really challenging Public Health crises here at the local level and although we were angry , and many of the folks here protested the federal governments inaction in the department of Public Health, and other city agencies, and in our nonprofit partners, we innovated and we created a San Francisco model of care that has now resulted in new h. I. V. Infections dropping below 200 for the first time. That is amazing. We will get to zero, but the fact we were able to do it there gives me hope we can do it here with our Behavioral Health services. And dr. Bland will get us there. Thank you, again, mayor breed for all of your work and all of these Behavioral Health issues. It cant be done in a day, but you have not rested a day since you have started. I am grateful for that. I want to thank my cochair, i want to thank the d. P. H. Staff who work so hard on running these all of the members to do such extraordinary work in your work lives and to go above and beyond every day but who gave us the wisdom, the expertise, the experience to come up with the report that i think really does make a useful contribution to the conversation. I am excited. Thank you. [applause] i also want to take the opportunity to thank and recognize a commander who is joining us from the Police Department, as well as Brent Andrews from p. R. C. Some Amazing Community partners. We have two more speakers and at this time, i would like to ask dr. Grant colfax, the director of the department of Public Health, to say a few words. Thank you. I think before i started, you announced i was going to be cochairing the task force. [laughter] i am really pleased. It is great to be here with so many colleagues and friends and having worked on this issue for several decades, i think this is an amazing day as we move forward with recommendations. The health department, with so many did was only partners in the room, we do big things. This is one of the next big things that we are going to do. I want to thank mayor breed for her leadership in this and my cochair supervisor mandelman, and all the members of the task force, and the Public Health team that really helped move this forward. And i think very importantly, the people who are living or in recovery with meth addiction because i think that their voices in the room, the courage they show to coming forward, ensuring what needs to be done in helping us come up with solutions is really, really key to us moving forward. Im committed to ensuring that the recommendations of this report are implemented. We did that with h. I. V. And we will do it with this. We can get this done. I also think it is important that while we think of meth as a substance addiction and having very concerning Health Consequences as a result of that , including overdose, we also have to frame this in the broader context of health and wellness. That has had effects on strokes, it has effects on cardiovascular health. We know the documentation on the h. I. V. So providing a broader contextualized approach to how we address people who are using meth, meet their needs, and people who are at risk is really key. This is an evident evidencebased community informed report that will save lives. I think sometimes when we issue these reports it is really important to remind ourselves of that. It will save lives as we implement. It will also improve the quality of life for all san franciscans where we are all affected by the meth epidemic and today were coming together to do something about it. I think i want one of the key things that stood out in the task force is that San Francisco is a city of compassion and we are driven by the conviction that all individuals deserve an opportunity to achieve their health and wellness goals. We courageously demonstrated leadership on so many friends. I said we would do big things from our approach h. I. V. To implementing healthy San Francisco, to implementing the Affordable Care act, our approach to hepatitis c, we can do this going forward. We know that lives are being lost to meth today and the People Struggle with this destructive substance half of them come voluntarily seeking help. They begin to provide summary and will free up valuable space and resources to treat more people in our citys emergency rooms. We can make changes to the system that will make a difference. We have operated a Sobering Center. We will build and what we have learned from that to implement this Sobering Center and others. We have heard stories of hope, learned about promising treatment and dug into the data that talks about the problem. We will continue to do the work. We need the community and all of you to improve San Francisco and take on this danger to our families, friends and neighbors. Together, we can and will make a difference. Thank you. Now a few words from mike from the San Francisco aids foundation. Thank you. Thank you very much. Im a little bit nervous. I will read my statement here. I want to comment. I agree San Francisco has been courageous. Im very passionate about the work we do at this project and we have been working with meth users for over 15 years. I am a member of the task force and i was a member of the last task force years ago and the director of the foundation. It was funded in 1997 by Michael Seaver and served by gay and trans men who have sex by men and some trans women who have Substance Use concerns, including challenges with the use of crystal meth. It was founded as one of the first programs and as a result of one of the first treatment on demand recommendations over 20 years ago. Our Program Allows participants to enter at all levels of Substance Use, misuse, and or dependence. For a first 10 years, the projects focused our work specifically on Substance Use services and treatment solely within the intersection of meth matthews and h. I. V. Transmission and infection. At its conception, we were seen as radically different than the care offered at most Substance Use counseling and treatment programs due to our Harm Reduction approach. Thanks in large part of the funding of the San Francisco department of health and the San Francisco aids foundation, many donors and other funders, we remain strong and have expanded our Substance UseServices Including our low barrier and free Harm ReductionServices Offered through our innovative Harm Reduction center on sixth street and in San Franciscos does San Francisco soma district and other locations in the castro. We recently started our program to offer our evidencebased continued seat management that serves meth users beyond services for gay, by, and trans populations to nongay identified meth and other stimulant users. As it is called out in the task force recommendations, the San Francisco aids foundation has been working to expand all easy Access Services. We have been expanding our program in partnership with our other Behavioral Health efforts and other treatment in support and support providers throughout the city. We offer low barrier Overdose Prevention and Substance Use counseling and support injection and noninjection drug users in the streets and other dropin services. I am proud of these recommendations. It they recognize what our vision has known all along. At the aids foundation, the Substance Use programs expect all methods to get help with meth concerns and other Substance Use concerns. We will continue to dig deep and innovate along with the city and other departments to effectively offer the type of low barrier and other support and Treatment Services and outreach recommended for enhancement and expansion at the task force recommendations. At the aids foundation, i applaud mayor breed and for their support to support a task force. It was charged in larp large part to recommend ways to improve our system of care or Substance Use on our streets. The San Francisco aids foundation and our c. E. O. Look forward to partnering with the city to realize the vision of the task force recommendations. I believe when we accept drug users without stigma, and in a state and in all states of health, Mental Health, and Substance Use and misuse, we have nothing to gain but vast improvements in serving all residents with Substance Use concerns to improve health and functioning. Low Barrier Services like those recommended today offer particular improvements for Community Members not ready for more intensive or traditional Treatment Options for easy Access Service options, support, dropin centers, Case Management , more accessible substance treatment and supportive policy on all levels of healthcare delivery. Thank you and please join with us to support the recommendations put forth today. [applause] chair peskin thank you. And another great partner in this effort he will say a few words is what andrews with p. R. C. [applause] it is wonderful to be here. I am just looking down the line here. Thank you for allowing me to be part of the analysis and the processes. You are my mayor and i support you fiercely. We have known each other for years. Thank you for leadership. You and i has have to find a new place for dinner. When the man was speaking, i all i could think is dont say that dont say that because that is in my speech. He will just hear that one more time. [laughter] i want to thank the mayor and the supervisors for understanding the importance of convening the Methamphetamine Task force. As we seek to address the Critical Issues of the day, homelessness, Mental Health, and Substance Use issues, we could not have achieved that successfully if we didnt fully address the growing crisis of meth and its effects that it is having on our community. Over the past eight months, the task force came together with a shared goal of seeking to decrease health risks, identify best practices and reduce the negative social impacts that they are having on San Francisco under the 17 recommendations, the creation of the Sobering Center is key among them. Rather than being an opportunity to take someone to the psychiatric emergency services, the Sobering Center would provide an appropriate alternative, giving them access to Outpatient Services and other communitybased Mental Health and Substance UseTreatment Services. It understands the value of an effective program, as many of you know, in partnership with the city, thank you, mayor, we are in partnership with the city on hummingbird place. It is a low threshold barrier removal Navigation Center located on the campus of zuckerberg general. This innovative General Program addresses the crosssection of Substance Use, Mental Health, and homelessness. With many people transitioning into one of our nine residential treatment sites. Sometimes they have been there only for their very first time. They have been on the street this long. They have made the decision for themselves. This homelike environment when someone is off the streets and feeling safe, and supported with three meals a day and shower facilities, and a homelike environment and a beautiful i call it nature therapy. When you are able to be off the street and out of duress and finally make that decision for yourself, that you want to show up for yourself and live a life of dignity. I know we can do that. One out of every four individuals that comes through comes into treatment. These programs are effective. It is clear that when we come together with our shared values leading the way, there is nothing that we cannot achieve. Im pleased to be part of the process and look forward to partnering with the city and the limitation of many of these implementations from the task force. I want to thank the mayor, supervisor mandelman, dr. Grant colfax. I am looking forward to partnering you. I want to acknowledge the many nonprofits who are in the room and across the community. It is across it is reason why we are able to apply this system of care. Thank you. Thank you. Last but not least, i would like to say this is not a new challenge for our city. When we think about even going back as far as 1960s, the heroin epidemic, into the 70s and the 80s with a crack at get epidemic all of the drugs sadly that have really destroyed lives and destroyed communities and destroyed families, we know that we cant just turn a blind eye. We have to think about ways in which we can make sure that providing help, providing support integrated into what we do in our medical system. It has to be something that is accessible to all people and not just those who couldnt afford treatment. I have been out in the community on a regular basis. When i talked about Safe Injection Sites, it is interesting that whether it is a wealthy neighborhood, and in between or poor neighborhood, i always have someone who walks up to me and tells me about their child, about their friends, about their family member, struggling with an addiction. None of us is immune to the struggle. It could be anyone of us. It could be any one of our family members or friends. I do think it is important that we have better access to treatment on demand. That we have better access to supportive Wraparound Services and they may not accept it on the first, second, or third time , but we have to make sure that regardless, it is available , it is accessible, it is easy to get to. And that is why we need to start looking at how we provide services for those struggling with Substance Use, for those who sadly are struggling with Mental Illness. We need to look at a new way of doing things so it is naturally integrated into our medical system in a more comprehensive, responsible way that has a tremendous impact on peoples lives. That is the goal of what we are trying to accomplish. Using data, using medical experts, using nonprofit organizations, working together with the city to provide something that will effectively deliver so that we can see a difference and we can save lives that is the ultimate goal and i want to thank each and everyone of you for your work on the task force and all that you do to help us advance the goals of what we need to do to make San Francisco a better city for each and every one of us. Thank you all so much. We spoke with people regardless of what they are. That is when you see change. That is a lead vannin advantage. So Law Enforcement assistance diversion to work with individuals with nonviolent related of offenses to offer an alternative to an arrest and the county jail. We are seeing reduction in drugrelated crimes in the pilot area. They have done the program for quite a while. They are successful in reducing the going to the county jail. This was a state grant that we applied for. The department is the main administrator. It requires we work with multiple agencies. We have a community that includes the da, Rapid Transit police and San FranciscoSheriffs Department and Law Enforcement agencies, Public Defenders Office and adult probation to Work Together to look at the population that ends up in criminal justice and how they will not end up in jail. Having partners in the nonprofit world and the public defender are critical to the success. We are beginning to succeed because we have that cooperation. Agencies with very little connection are brought together at the same table. Collaboration is good for the department. It gets us all working in the same direction. These are complex issues we are dealing with. When you have systems as complicated as police and health and proation and jails and nonprofits it requires people to come to Work Together so everybody has to put their egos at the door. We have done it very, very well. The model of care where police, district attorney, public defenders are communitybased organizations are all involved to worked towards the common goal. Nobody wants to see drug users in jail. They want them to get the correct treatment they need. We are piloting lead in San Francisco. Close to civic center along market street, union plaza, powell street and in the mission, 16th and mission. Our goal in San Francisco and in seattle is to work with individuals who are cycling in and out of criminal justice and are falling through the cracks and using this as intervention to address that population and the Racial Disparity we see. We want to focus on the mission in tender loan district. It goes to the partners that hired case managers to deal directly with the clients. Case managers with referrals from the police or city agencies connect with the person to determine what their needs are and how we can best meet those needs. I have nobody, no friends, no resources, i am flatout on my own. I witnessed women getting beat, men getting beat. Transgenders getting beat up. I saw people shot, stabbed. These are people that have had many visits to the county jail in San Francisco or other institutions. We are trying to connect them with the resources they need in the community to break out of that cycle. All of the referrals are coming from the Law Enforcement agency. Officers observe an offense. Say you are using. It is found out you are in possession of drugs, that constituted a lead eligible defense. The officer would talk to the individual about participating in the program instead of being booked into the county jail. Are you ever heard of the leads program. Yes. Are you part of the leads program . Do you have a case worker . Yes, i have a case manager. When they have a contact with a possible lead referral, they give us a call. Ideally we can meet them at the scene where the ticket is being issued. Primarily what you are talking to are people under the influence of drugs but they will all be nonviolent. If they were violent they wouldnt qualify for lead. You think i am going to get arrested or maybe i will go to jail for something i just did because of the Substance Abuse issues i am dealing with. They would contact with the outreach worker. Then glide shows up, you are not going to jail. We can take you. Lets meet you where you are without telling you exactly what that is going to look like, let us help you and help you help yourself. Bring them to the Community Assessment and Services Center run by adult probation to have assessment with the department of Public Health staff to assess the treatment needs. It provides meals, groups, there are things happening that make it an open space they can access. They go through detailed assessment about their needs and how we can meet those needs. Someone who would have entered the jail system or would have been arrested and book order the charge is diverted to social services. Then from there instead of them going through that system, which hasnt shown itself to be an effective way to deal with people suffering from suable stance abuse issues they can be connected with Case Management. They can offer Services Based on their needs as individuals. One of the key things is our approach is client centered. Hall reduction is based around helping the client and meeting them where they are at in terms of what steps are you ready to take . We are not asking individuals to do anything specific at any point in time. It is a Program Based on whatever it takes and wherever it takes. We are going to them and working with them where they feel most comfortable in the community. It opens doors and they get access they wouldnt have had otherwise. Supports them on their goals. We are not assigning goals working to come up with a plan what success looks like to them. Because i have been in the field a lot i can offer different choices and let them decide which one they want to go down and help them on that path. It is all on you. We are here to guide you. We are not trying to force you to do what you want to do or change your mind. It is you telling us how you want us to help you. It means a lot to the clients to know there is someone creative in the way we can assist them. They pick up the phone. It was a blessing to have them when i was on the streets. No matter what situation, what pay phone, cell phone, somebody elses phone by calling them they always answered. In officebased setting somebody at the reception desk and the clinician will not work for this population of drug users on the street. This has been helpful to see the outcome. We will pick you up, take you to the appointment, get you food on the way and make sure your needs are taken care of so you are not out in the cold. First to push me so i will not be afraid to ask for help with the lead team. Can we get you to use less and less so you can function and have a normal life, job, place to stay, be a functioning part of the community. It is all part of the home reduction model. You are using less and you are allowed to be a viable member of the society. This is an important question where lead will go from here. Looking at the data so far and seeing the successes and we can build on that and as the department based on that where the investments need to go. If it is for five months. Hopefully as final we will come up with a model that may help with all of the communities in the california. I want to go back to school to start my ged and go to community clean. It can be somebody scaled out. That is the hope anyway. Is a huge need in the city. Depending on the need and the data we are getting we can definitely see an expansion. We all hope, obviously, the program is successful and we can implement it city wide. I think it will save the county millions of dollars in emergency services, police services, prosecuting services. More importantly, it will save lives. I went through a lot of struggles in my life, and i am blessed to be part of this. I am familiar with what people are going through to relate and empathy and compassion to their struggle so they can see i came out of the struggle, it gives them hope to come up and do something positive. I am a community ambassador. We work a lot with homeless, visitors, a lot of people in the area. What i like doing is posting up at hotspots to let people see visibility. They ask you questions, ask you directions, they might have a question about what services are available. Checking in, you guys. Wellness check. We walk by to see any individual, you know may be sitting on the sidewalk, we make sure they are okay, alive. You never know. Somebody might walk by and they are laying there for hours. You never know if they are alive. We let them know we are in the area and we are here to promote safety, and if they have somebody that is, you know, hanging around that they dont want to call the police on, they dont have to call the police. They can call us. We can direct them to the services they might need. We do the three one one to keep the city neighborhoods clean. There are people dumping, waste on the ground and needles on the ground. It is unsafe for children and adults to commute through the streets. When we see them we take a picture dispatch to 311. They give us a tracking number and they come later on to pick it up. We take pride. When we come back later in the day and we see the loose trash or debris is picked up it makes you feel good about what you are doing. It makes you feel did about escorting kids and having them feel safe walking to the play area and back. The stuff we do as ambassadors makes us feel proud to help keep the city clean, helping the residents. You can see the community ambassadors. I used to be on the streets. I didnt think i could become a community ambassador. It was too far out there for me to grab, you know. Doing this job makes me feel good. Because i came from where a lot of them are, homeless and on the street, i feel like i can give them hope because i was once there. I am not afraid to tell them i used to be here. I used to be like this, you know. I have compassion for people that are on the streets like the homeless and people that are caught up with their addiction because now, i feel like i can give them hope. It reminds you every day of where i used to be and where i am at now. Working with kids, they keep you young. They keep you on your tones on your toes. Teaching them, at the same time, us learning from them, everything is fulfilling. Ready . Go. [ ] we really wanted to find a way to support Women Entrepreneurs in particular in San Francisco. It was very important for the mayor, as well as the Safety Support the dreams that people want to realize, and provide them with an opportunity to receive funding to support improvements for their business so they could grow and thrive in their neighborhoods and in their industry. Three, two, one because i am one of the consultants for two nonprofits here for entrepreneurship, i knew about the grand through the renaissance entrepreneur center, and through the Small Business development center. I thought they were going to be perfect candidate because of their strong values in the community. They really give back to the neighborhood. They are from this neighborhood, and they care about the kids in the community here. When molly molly first told us about the grant because she works with Small Businesses. She has been a tremendous help for us here. She brought us to the attention of the grand just because a lot of things here were outdated, and need to be uptodate and redone totally. Hands in front. Recite the creed. My oldest is jt, he is seven, and my youngest is ryan, he is almost six. It instills discipline and the boys, but they show a lot of care. We think it is great. The moves are fantastic. The women both are great teachers. What is the next one . My son goes to fd k. He has been attending for about two years now. They also have a summer program, and last summer was our first year participating in it. They took the kids everywhere around San Francisco. This year, owner talking about placing them in summer camps, all he wanted to do was spend the entire summer with them. He has strong women in his life, so he really appreciates it. I think that carries through and i appreciate the fact that there are more strong women in the world like that. I met dandrea 25 years ago, and we met through our interest in karate. Our professor started on cortland years ago, so we grew up here at this location, we out he outgrew the space and he moved ten years later. He decided to reopen this location after he moved. Initially, i came back to say, hey, because it might have been 15 years since i even put on a uniform. My Business Partner was here basically by herself, and the person she was supposed to run the studio with said great, you are here, i started new Nursing School so you can take over. And she said wait, that is not what i am here for i was by myself before for a month before she came through. She was technically here as a secretary, but we insisted, just put on the uniform, and help her teach. I was struggling a little bit. And she has been here. One thing led to another and now we are coowners. You think a lot more about safety after having children and i wanted to not live in fear so much, and so i just took advantage of the opportunity, and i found it very powerful to hit something, to get some relief, but also having the knowledge one you might be in a situation of how to take care of yourself. The selfdefence class is a new thing that we are doing. We started with a group of women last year as a trial run to see how it felt. Theres a difference between selfdefence and doing a karate class. We didnt want them to do an actual karate class. We wanted to learn the fundamentals of how to defend yourself versus, you know, going through all the forms and techniques that we teaching a karate class and how to break that down. Then i was approached by my old high school. One once a semester, the kids get to pick an extra curricular activity to take outside of the school walls. My old biology teacher is now the principle. She approached us into doing a selfdefence class. The girls have been really proactive and really sweet. They step out of of the comfort zone, but they have been willing to step out and that hasnt been any pushback. It is really great. It is respect. You have to learn it. When we first came in, they knew us as those girls. They didnt know who we were. Finally, we came enough for them to realize, okay, they are in the business now. It took a while for us to gain that respect from our peers, our male peers. Since receiving the grant, it has ignited us even more, and put a fire underneath our butts even more. We were doing our summer camp and we are in a movie theatre, and we just finished watching a film and she stepped out to receive a phone call. She came in and she screamed, hey, we got the grant. And i said what . Martial arts is a passion for us. It is passion driven. There are days where we are dead tired and the kids come and they have the biggest smiles on their faces and it is contagious. We have been operating this program for a little over a year all Women Entrepreneurs. It is an extraordinary benefit for us. We have had the Mayors Office investing in our program so we can continue doing this work. It has been so impactful across a diversity of communities throughout the city. We hope that we are making some type of impact in these kids lives outside of just learning karate. Having selfconfidence, having discipline, learning to know when its okay to stand up for yourself versus you just being a bully in school. These are the values we want the kids to take away from this. Not just, i learned how to kick and i learned how to punch. We want the kids to have more values when they walk outside of these doors. [ ] San Francisco recreation and Parks Department offers classes for the whole family. Rec and parks has a class for everyone. Discover what is available now and get ready to get out and play. Henri matisse. Frida kahlo. Andy warhol. Discover the next great artist. Get out and play and get inspired with toddler classes. Experience art where making a mess is part of the process. Classes and the size the artistic process rather than the product. Children have the freedom to explore materials at their own pace and in their own way. Talks love art, especially when they died into the Creative Process dive into the Creative Process. At the end of the classes, they have cleaned and washup. Of. Com great way to get out and play. For more information, visit sfrecpark. Org. That out and play and get into the groove. Rec and parks offers dance classes for seniors. Firsttime beginners or lifetime enthusiasts all are welcome. Enjoy all types of music. Latins also, country and western. It is a great way to exercise while having lots of fun. Seniors learn basic moves and practice a variety of routines. Improve your posture, balance, and flexibility. It is easy. Get up on your feet and step to the beat. Senior dance class is from sf rec and park. A great way to get out and play. For more information, the commission will come to order. I will take roll call. [roll call] i would like to take the opportunity to introduce a guest and our audience and we will have a longstanding working relationship. She is the new the mayors new Health Policy director. Shelley . [applause] do you want to say hello to us or are you good where you are . [indiscernible] i,