BVHP COMMUNITY CONVENER MEETING # 51
Thursday, February 21, 2012 1:00pm - 3:00pm PST
Southeast Community Facility Building, Alex Pitcher Room
1800 Oakdale Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94124
# / Name / Organization / Phone / E-Mail Address1 / Ashley Cheng / Community Ambassador / (925) 963-0625 /
2 / Darrell Davis / 3rd Street Youth Center
3 / Mike Yoshioka / City Of Dreams / (415) 706-5799 /
4 / Britnee Gaugthier / College Track SF / (415) 206-9995 x 100
5 / Teresa Nauer / CHALK / (415) 370-2481 /
6 / Brian Cuadra / ICA Cristo Rey / (415) 215-3171 /
7 / Neva Walker / Coleman Advocates / (415) 239-0161 /
8 / Jo Kreiter / Zaccho / (415) 672-4111
9 / LaMonte Bishop / Senator Leno’s Office /
10 / Tino Ratliff / UCSF NGHC / (415) 514-1578 /
11 / Raphael Rockwell / SFPD / (415) 558-5532 /
12 / Megan Hamilton / Supervisor Cohen’s Office / (415) 554-7670 /
13 / Bruce Marcus / Third Sector Solutions /
14 / Nyasha Vincent / Community Ambassador / (925) 523-1060 /
15 / Amrita Daing / Edgewood/Parent U / (415) 971-8006 /
16 / Arlene Hale / BAYCAT / (415) 701-8228 x 200 /
17 / Katie Cruz / BAYCAT / (415) 701-8228 /
18 / Cheryl Davis / HEAL Zone / (415) 581-2456 /
19 / Jeaneane Young / BMAGIC Community Outreach Coordinator / (415) 558-2487 /
20 / Lyslynn Lacoste / BMAGIC Director / (415) 558-2428 /
21 / Fernando Enciso-Marquez / BMAGIC Research/
Program Coordinator / (415) 558-2488 /
22 / Rebecca Gallegos / Bayview Opera House / (415) 824-0386 /
23 / Vanessa Banks / Do U/Community Involvement / (415) 574-1082 /
24 / Stevon Cook / Ed Fund / (415) 749-7300 x 3022 /
25 / Shawn Siolo / Girls and Boys Against Gang Violence (GBAGV) / (415) 240-2963 /
26 / Ricardo Holguin / GBAGV / (415) 286-4694 /
27 / Ramon Garcia / GBAGV / (415) 724-4453 /
28 / Saane Siolo / GBAGV / (415) 240-2141 /
29 / Vanessa Jackson / GBAGV / (510) 681-7093 /
30 / Tanicee Dillard / GBAGV /
31 / Venus Jackson / GBAGV /
32 / Emily Wade-Thompson / SFUSD / (415) 920-5014 /
33 / Linda Knox / Habitat for Humanity
34 / Alex Aja / Jumpstart / (415) 536-5867 x 120 /
35 / Daisha Spires / Coleman Advocates / (415) 902-9949 /
36 / Mario Cabrera Jr. / GBAGV / (415) 571-7198 /
37 / Gaynorann Siataga / GBAGV / (415) 724-9193 /
38 / Jamie Poole / GBAGV / (415) 724-9193 /
MEETING SUMMARY
DECISIONS AND ACTION ITEMS
Introduction
Lyslynn Lacoste opened up the meeting by presenting the format of today’s agenda, and previewing the Spotlight organization and some other announcements that would be made towards the end. We began the meeting with a round of introductions from service providers and staff, as well as some new faces that joined our meeting.
PRESENTATIONS
-SFPD Teen/Young Adult Forum- SFPD, Officer Rockwell
Officer Rockwell shared with BMAGIC the SFPD’s efforts in relationship communication between the Department and youth and various youth-serving organizations. He has been working closely with Mo’ MAGIC to repair relationships with youth and teens, as they have been affected by the SFPD through a variety of interactions and incidents. It is the broader intention of the Department to create mentoring programs and summer camps, with officers tutoring students afterschool. By supporting neighborhood projects, entrepreneur business models, and the Salvation Army’s clothes giveaway, the intention is to align the Department’s vision in serving communities effectively by also showing support to ongoing community events. Officer Rockwell also encouraged community feedback from both youth and the community at large in regards to improving these relationships, as all suggestions go to the Chief. The SFPD Youth Teen Forum is designed specifically to carry out positive development and growth opportunities for youth, while including youth from all neighborhoods in the city, in order to break barriers and include comprehensive youth representation from all areas of our city. The Teen Forum will be held Wednesday March 7th from 5pm-6pm @ 850 Bryant, Rm 551. Please contact Officer Rockwell for further details.
-BVHP CBO Spotlight-Bayview Superintendent Zone, Emily Wade Thompson
Ms. Thompson shared with the collaborative an unfortunate kidnapping attempt of a 3rd grade student at George Washington Carver last week: the young student confronted the perpetrator to which drew attention from nearby staff, and the incident was reported to the SFUSD and Dr. Patricia Gray’s office. A therapist was notified, in addition to Principal Flint-Moore contacting the Captain at the Bayview Police Station. Neighborhood and city safety organizations, including SAFE, have been notified over attempt, as to provide extra precaution and safety measures during this fearful time for parents, students, and school staff. Parent safety workshops and groups are available through the local schools for community residents and student caregivers. With budgetary cuts being made to local schoolbus routes, walking guardian/chaperone groups to be organized will be helpful in escorting kids to school with an adult presence. Please attend the Bayview Superintendent Zone Update Meeting on March 1st, 10am at 1195 Hudson, Room 118, or contact Ms. Wade-Thompson for more details.
COMMUNITY BUILDING
Collaborative Proposal-Addressing Safety/Community Concerns at Mendell Plaza-Group Activity/Discussion
With the flood of ongoing illicit activity as well as recent homicides in the Mendell Plaza area, a call-to-action has been proposed by the collaborative to address the safety concerns surrounding BVHP’s central gathering place. Rebecca from the Opera House reminded us of the 5 year old girl that got shot several months ago, causing neighborhood schools to discontinue their attendance to the Dare to Dream program over safety concerns for young participants attending programming near the Mendell Plaza. Fulton Mitchell of the Joe Lee Rec Center was recently breaking up an altercation at the gym, which led to him being assaulted and had a gun drawn to him on his site. This unfortunate incident has led to entrance modifications allowed for visitors to the site for added safety measures. Vanessa Banks stated that one of the central problems in our neighborhood stems from non-profits and agencies designed and funded to serve violence prevention initiatives are not carrying out their intended mission statement, and in some instances, even participating in illicit activities themselves. In addition, these organizations do not visibly make themselves available to the community, nor are they present at meetings such as this one, she added. Megan Hamilton of Supervisor Malia Cohen’s office stated that the City is unaware of unethical behavior by City-funded organizations, and that community feedback and reporting of unacceptable actions by these orgs needs to be brought to the attention of Supervisor Cohen and the City in order to make proper adjustments leading to new budgetary funding cycle periods.
With regards to immediate changes to the Mendell Plaza, DPW has closed the electrical outlets in the palm trees in order to reduce loitering in the area by people charging their phones and other electronics in the plugs. The vacant building owned by the Bishop family was recently hit by a bus and may be torn down pending a possible settlement. Some have suggested the SFPD place a decoy cop car in the area surrounding the Plaza to be present on-site to possibly reduce crime and serve as a deterrent mechanism. Metro PCS store is leaving the Plaza and Radio Africa restaurant is scheduled to open late February, which may attract new clientele and change the scenery of the Plaza. A community proposal for a City-issued 60 day moratorium on the Plaza could curb some of the violence, but others are concerned that the same issues will arise once the closure is lifted, which will resurface the ongoing issues. Community organizations may be interested in “adopting” the Plaza and host some programming around dance and physical activity to begin to transform the culture of the Plaza by making it a place welcoming to youth, families, and residents. Vanessa Banks suggested neighborhood organizations reach out directly to those involved in crime and illicit activity to survey their needs and invite them to community meetings about the actions they are leading in order to get their thoughts on how their respective actions affect the community as a whole. She stated that if service providers are not aware of the direct internal needs of the population that is leading these activities, there is no way to gauge the effectiveness of the delivery of the services designed to prevent further crime. Ashley Cheng of the Community Ambassadors stated that a Community Survey was carried out a year and a half ago; please contact her for the details of that project.
Lyslynn asked for the collaborative’s immediate suggestions to improve the plaza, asking to identify community safety organizations. Organizations like the SFPD, the CRN, Community Ambassadors, MTAP, Brothers Against Guns, and GBAGV, in addition to others were identified.
Public or community programming by these organizations should be a priority, perhaps using the Mendell plaza as a site to run these offerings to engage local residents and extending the invitation to utilize their respective services. Mike of City of Dreams stated that neighborhood beautification projects like Quesada Gardens create local ownership by residents over projects they lead to improve the scenery; he also suggested mural and art projects the residents can be proud of as they make their contributions to the neighborhood. Stevon Cook encouraged community organizations to bring workshops to gathering places in the neighborhood, such as barbershops and salons, as organization site locations may be a bit inaccessible to residents, and this would make improved convenience for local residents to benefit from CBO offerings. The overall support of more CBO outreach efforts to generate an increase in program participants is needed as a general improvement from all service providers in the neighborhood. Bruce Marcus stated that process-outcome method be implemented with these suggestions, to which Lyslynn clarified that a proposal will be drafted to be presented at the Community stakeholders meeting at the Opera House this Thursday.
PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT
2012 Professional Development Trainings/Workshops-Update
Foundation Center
Lyslynn also informed of the Foundation Center’s “Intro To Finding Funders” training for service providers to strengthen our respective programs and generate more financial resources for our organizations. From the Foundation Center: "This session provides an introduction to the Foundation Center's comprehensive online database, Foundation Directory Online Professional. Learn how to create customized searches to develop targeted lists of foundations that will match your organization's funding needs. We will spend time exploring Power Search, which allows you to search across nine Foundation Center databases - grantmakers, grants, companies, 990s, news, jobs, RFPs, nonprofit literature, and PubHub reports. Meeting starts promptly at 10:00am sharp. " The Foundation Center is committed to maintaining unique databases of information on the nearly 100,000 foundations, corporate donors, and grantmaking public charities in the U.S. and 2.1 million of their recent grants.
The training will be held on Wednesday, March 14th, 10am-12 noon, 312 Sutter Street, Suite 606; please contact BMAGIC to reserve your spot.
Omega Boys Club “Alive and Free” Violence Prevention Training
Fernando shared the opportunity to participate in a 3-day workshop centered around freeing youth from the culture of violence and imprisonment through Dr. Joseph Marshall’s Alive and Free training. At the heart of the Alive & Free Prescription is the notion that violence is a social disease with an explicit treatment process. The disease is transmitted by the germs of bad information, bad instruction, bad advice, and bad example that to young people appear to be good. Youth are exposed to these germs via their families, peers and neighborhoods; and through music, television, video games, and movies. The disease appears as techniques for survival when, in fact, the opposite is true. Infected youth do not survive, they only learn how to die or go to prison. The Alive & Free Prescription works to change beliefs, attitudes, values and actions that promote violence (from www.street-soliders.org). Please contact Fernando at 415-558-2488 if you’d like to participate. Please note: Omega Boys Club will only host the event if at least 15 people can commit to the 3 day training.
2012 BVHP Resource Guide-Update
Please contact Jeaneane at 415-558-2487 or at to request copies of the updated 2012 Resource Guide; printing should be completed by early February.
Save the Date: Back to School Celebration: Back Pack Giveaway (Saturday, August 18th)
PLEASE SEE THE BMAGIC COMMUNITY CALENDAR FOR ANNOUNCEMENTS THAT WERE MADE DURING THE MEETING.
Meeting Minutes taken by BMAGIC Program/Research Coordinator Fernando Enciso-Marquez. For correction and additions please e-mail .