permanent residents to encourage them to get to the citizenship, enjoy all those benefits. those benefits are numerous. you re going to be able to situate yourself in better jobs. you re going to get qualified for training programs that are only offered sometimes to citizenships. you re going to always obviously we want to improve your language capabilities so that you re able to navigate these employment training programs and all the other engaging programs that we have. san francisco is the innovation capital of the world and in that way all of the different ethnicities that arrive in san francisco of all different backgrounds need to be part of this innovation, because innovation is not about just one particular group of people. it s about everybody participating. and you should hear some of the tech kids that are in the city who want to hear from the chinese american community, the southeast asian american haunted, the african immigrant community, the latino immigrant com
like mayor lee and the supervisor, i m a proud daughter of american immigrants. they came to this country with odds stacked against them to build a better future for my siblings and my cousins. my father served in the army, but more important to him was that he served at every polling station in every election from the time he was legally able to do so. and at breakfast before every election was a very, very, very engaged, vivid, enlightened conversation about how my mother should vote, even though she didn t always agree with him, and that really it was our responsibility to comment on the things that mayor lee referenced. what kind of health care should we have? what should be the caliber of our schools? what kind of open space should we have? how should we use land? these are all very critical parts of our democracy and our voice, and i m very, very proud on behalf of the san francisco foundation to partner with the city, adrian and her staff, our philanthropic partners, b
well, good morning, everybody. thank you, adrian. i want to appreciate you, mayor lee, supervisor chiu, and really all of our philanthropic partners that are launching this extraordinary pathway to citizenship in san francisco. the san francisco foundation for over 60 years has held very central to its core mission the notion that we need to engage every citizen, every resident in order to make our democracy better. and all of the philanthropic organizations that are part of this pathway initiative likewise believe that our democracy is better when everybody is included in it. the san francisco foundation is proud to be a leader and investor in this necessary work, bringing together the deep commitment of all of our immigrant communities, their partners, to assure economic mobility, education, health care access, and, of course, that they are civickly engaged. as the mayor and supervisor chiu said, we are a nation ~ and a city of immigrants. we are a testament to america s
advantage of the naturalization services which will be offered that day at number 1 south van ness. no appointments needed and free of charge. on behalf of all of our collaborative partners and our clientsv i want to thank mayor lee, president chiu, dr. hernandez, and all of our philanthropic funders. thank you so much for your generous support and your continued support through the san francisco pathway to citizenship will be a great success. we will give you our 200% effort. thank you very much. (applause) there is nothing more exciting and challenging as going through the process of naturalization in the united states. we re now going to hear from three individuals who are sharing their first person stories and have been very courageous and open about sharing these stories with us. first we will hear from claudia rodriguez and then mrs. su fong gau and then mr. gregory takakun. please come up, ms. rodriguez. good morning, everybody. i m gloria rodriguez. [speaker not u
thank you, mayor lee. we would not get all these things done in san francisco without the leadership and support of the san francisco board of supervisors. and supervisor david chiu is a former criminal prosecutor, civil rights, and immigration attorney, technology, entrepreneur, senate judiciary aid, and democratic council. he s done a lot of things in his life. he s also talented and highly effective leader of the san francisco board of supervisors where he has served as president since 2009. president chiu. (applause) thank you, and good morning, everyone. first of all, i want to join the mayor in thanking all the folk behind me who represent the funding community that has so wonderfully stepped up. thank you, dr. sandra hernandez and your colleagues. i of course want to thank all the amazing nonprofit social service providers and immigrant rights organizations that have been part of the fabric of why i m so proud of san francisco as a city that welcomes and protects o