It also makes it really complicated because you have in any one grant year, 50, 60 different organizations receiving grants but thats the way we do it and i think that kind of patch quilt is a good thing in San Francisco and that covers a whole lot of work in housing for example, there is tenant counseling, theres first time Home Ownership, its done a lot to support the housing programs, the hope sf x the envisioning program, we have Small Business assistance, we have child care services, so its supporting a lot of different organize sashes doing different work and i hear some of the previous speakers, its hard to know whats doing what but i would argue it gets there better when you do it through this model of a dissevered decentralized funding rather than when you put it into centralized agencies. My second point is on the role of the citizens committee, i think a lot of us would see us as more a policy body, were setting Economic Development policy for this city. Its not really a pod
Are bigger yet the federal Government Cut 16 of cdbg this year and 20 of our [inaudible] fund, we had to deal with that fact because some people are not going the get their grants. What we did this last month was to take a compelling argument to the mayor and it will come to you hopefully too to backfill that lost funding, its essential to Keep Community development stable because the other option is to cut those critical grants to the ground. I would say that its a critical time to do that because were seeing widening disparities in wealth and it is a time when the federal government is giving back, we have to add more and this is a critical time to do that. We crafted a letter and it was framed around that, supervisor avalos, in a time of prosperity, the last thing we can do is start cutting critical Community Development grants, so unfortunately in so many ways, it falls to local government. That is whats happening at the federal and state level, its a retrenchment that is dishearte
Turned down. Theyre socially and economically disadvantaged organizations and i would like the see more work witching the nonprofit environment as opposed to working with the Small Business community, theres some private and Nonprofit Organizations, they collect this money under the mckinney veto act and provide transitional housing but theyre only obligated to provide it for 12 years and then they can go private and turn it into a condominium so theyre telling their president s to get on the Public Housing waiting list because they want to convert. Then you have some thats just trying to say they want to get out of the contract before 12 years so they say all the residents are not paying rent so they can get out of the contract before 12 years and its not helping with the homeless crisis. I know a lot of people, ive even been in a shelt e my sons father chasers vase me, i was a property manager, he harassed me simply because he wanted his girlfriend wanted my position as manager or so
Okay. Good. I feel better. I didnt break it. Okay. There we go. All right. As i was mentioning. There was training available in different languages. And computers. Have a range of accessibility features. Built in. As well as most sites of accessible computer. Table. So folks can use them. Regardless of disabilities. And it goes to adult centers. So there is extra help for people learning about applications. And software. For people with vision. And hearing loss. And other kinds of disabilities. Heres a map of where these sites are across the city. These are not the only computer labs. You can go to. The library also has great labs. And computers. As you can see. There are centers. All over the center. Concentrated in the downtown area. Theyre out in the neighbors as well. Now. All of those labs. And training. That went with them. Were one of the five group. Involved in doing training and support on these labs. The other is up on the screen. Its Community Technology are all partners. In
Others. The first goal is hiring people and increase the number of sites. And take our show on the road. To places where seniors. Are. There are seniors. In senior centers. But there are seniors. At churches. And community centers. We want to go on the road a little bit more. So just to get a sense of the training. And what we do. I would like jennifer to talk about her role. As a trainer. In the connect campaign. Good afternoon. Im jennifer walsh. Im a paid community connecter. For the Community Living campaign. I have been a computer tutor and mentor. Since the sf program began. I helped develop the computer for the hospital as well as help with community presentations. Being connected to the community and the world through Tech Technology empowers. All of us. Whether were in the community or in the hospital. Sf connected is to teach basic computer skills. To explore personal interest using computers. To connect with friends and family. To become savvy. In this ever increasing. Techn