Good evening. Welcome to the March 3rd 2025 Sacramento Youth Commission Business Meeting.

The meeting is now called to order. Will the clerk please call roll to establish a quorum?

Thank you chair. Members please unmute your microphones.

Member Sista.

President.

Member Bellassa.

President.

Member Bernardo.

President.

Member Lin.

President.

Member Liu.

President.

Member Chan.

President.

Member Dalyone.

President.

Member Merrill.

President.

Member Turk.

President.

Member Ngai.

Member Nil personal.

Member Elon Musk.

Member Oriola.

Member Yang.

Member Yuncurụly absent.

Member Longmeyer.

Angst here.

shameful.

Members of the public of the republic in Cheers City in chair.

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boulevard.

You will have two minutes to speak once you are called on.

in honor of Sacramento's indigenous tribes.

To the original people of this land,

the Nissanon people, the Southern Maidu,

Valley and Plains Mewok,

Patwin, Win-Toon peoples,

and the people of the Wilton Rancheria,

Sacramento's only federally recognized tribe.

May we acknowledge and honor the Native people

who came before us and still walk beside us today

on these ancestral lands

by choosing together together today

in the active practice of acknowledgement and appreciation

for Sacramento's indigenous peoples history,

contributions and lives.

Thank you.

Please remain standing for the Presbyliligents.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

and to the Republic for which it stands

one nation under God,

indivisible with liberty and justice.

Moving on, our first business today is approval

of the consent calendar that includes last month's

meeting minutes as well as the follow-up blog.

Clerk, are there any members of the public

who wish to speak on the consent calendar?

Thank you, Chair.

I have no speaker slips on this item.

Thank you.

Are there any commissioners who wish to speak on this item?

Is there a motion in a second for the consent calendar?

Aye motion.

Okay, we have a motion by Vice Chair Long-Mire.

Aye second.

Okay, and a second by Commissioner Turk.

Will the clerk please call roll for the vote.

Thank you, Chair.

Members, please unmute your microphones.

Commissioner Sista.

Aye.

Aye.

Commissioner Bellassa.

Aye.

Commissioner Bernardo.

Aye.

Commissioner Lynn.

Aye.

Commissioner Liu.

Aye.

Commissioner Chan.

Aye.

Commissioner De Leon.

Aye.

Commissioner Merrill.

Aye.

Commissioner Turk.

Aye.

Commissioner Young.

It's currently absence.

And Commissioner Long-Mire.

Aye.

Okay.

Thank you, the motion passes.

We will now proceed with to the discussion calendar.

Item number three is the Sacramento Firefighter Youth Academy.

Is there a staff presentation for this?

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

You guys can go.

You guys hear me?

All right.

It is?

Hello.

All right.

My name is Dominic Martin, Firefighter Per Minute with the Sacramento Fire Department.

Today I am here to talk about the Sacramento Firefighter Youth Academy, which I run.

I also have two cadets with me that are in the program, Firecadette Dumingas and Firecadette Verde.

My goal today is to tell you about what we do by showing you a video, giving you a quick PowerPoint with some more details,

opening it up for questions, and then having the cadets here with me today share some of their experiences of how it's helped them in a positive manner.

All right.

So I'm going to show you a video.

You might want to turn around.

Can you guys see it?

There's a video right there.

Can you guys see it?

All right.

All right.

All right.

All right.

When I grew up, I wanted to be a Firefighter Per Minute.

The Academy definitely solidified that, and I'm excited to learn more and jump into that.

No!

No!

I also wanted to be a Firefighter just because I just love to be moving and being active, and also like to take pride in things that I do.

My biggest year was Heights, and I felt like I wouldn't be able to do what everybody else was doing because we'd be climbing aerial ladders.

We'd be pitching ladders and climbing them up to like five story buildings, and I thought I can't do that.

There's no way I can do that.

But over time...

They go get paid.

They said, once you're back in do it, you can do it, and I did it.

And I never felt more better, but myself for conquering that story.

Right!

Two!

Whoa!

Mentally, physically, it's all kinds of challenges, and they definitely push you.

I think that's my favorite part is the people pushing you, doing better, learning, constantly learning.

And it kind of made me realize that I really do enjoy challenging myself, and there's benefit and outcome when you challenge yourself.

My favorite part about this is the academy, well I would say my peers, they've pushed me a lot, and on top of that, I have the staffs who will especially achieve, five, five, nine, nine, and captain wing.

They all pushed me to the limit, and it makes me want to become like a better person in general.

One of my favorite parts is just the drills and the tasks that we're assigned to, or just like simple activities that we do.

Like we've done crafts, recations, we've done forest plantry, search and rescue, a lot of cool hands-on stuff that I would really like to do and I enjoy.

This is just a great experience to grow more as a person, and for your future, I've just saved it life.

It's time consuming, but anything worthwhile takes time, and takes energy and hard work.

The biggest thing is that through thick and thin, your family is there for you.

And I'm not talking about the family that you have that you're born with. I'm talking about the family bonds that you've formed with the academy.

I love it and it's totally worth it.

I think it's really cool, it's an awesome program.

I recommend this program highly. If you are looking for something to do every Saturday and you want to be dedicated to something.

You feel like you want to, you are missing something in your life, go to this academy. They'll help you find that thing that you're missing in your life that you feel like you need right now.

They'll help you find a deeper meaning to a purpose that you're looking for.

I found my purpose and I've never felt more better about the life I'm living right now, and the life that I'm looking forward to living in the future.

All right. So I'm going to give you a couple more details about exactly what it is.

The Sacramento Firefighter Youth Academy is a nine month program. We start and end up July, and then we go all the way to May, almost the whole school year.

So we intend to start in July of 2025, and then we continue all the way to May of 2026.

We meet every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and we go over basic firefighting skills and basic medical skills.

Our core values are academic achievement, community service, and self discipline.

By coming to the Youth Academy, not only will you learn these skills, but you'll work alongside firefighters, and you'll actually get to go to the stations.

We actually send some of our cadets to the stations to ride along on a engine, on a medic, or on a truck to respond to calls.

Some of the activities that we go over are all the basic firefighting skills from getting the water from the fire hydrant, getting it into the engine, and then squirting water, and then medical skills.

You'll get CPR certified. We'll go over advanced bleeding, FEP pins, all the first aid topics, and we'll actually run scenarios.

We'll also develop life skills, so we'll go over financial responsibility, and some of the things that are just built into it, leadership, communication, team building, and more.

Our Saturday schedule, like I said, we're going to meet at 8 o'clock in the morning, and then we'll go to 2 o'clock.

So we're always going to have our morning routine where we greet each other, talk about our agenda, do a quick energizer, and then we're going to work out.

Physical fitness is a big part of the fire department, so for one hour we work out. And then after that for three hours, we have certain activities that we're going to do for a day.

So an example would be station one would be fire hose, and then fire hydrants, and then a fire engine introduction, and then every Saturday you get fed, you get a meal.

So we'll always supply that for you.

The Youth Academy is a totally free program. Snacks and lunches will be provided in uniform, and everything that you see on the screen you'll get.

All the firefighting gear you'll get, all the uniforms, and all the workout gear.

And so why should you join the Sacramento Firefighter Youth Academy? If you are interested in becoming a firefighter, this is a great way to get some work experience to figure out if this is something that you like.

There's not a lot of internships out there, or work experience with firefighting for people at such a young age, but we offer one of those locally. There's not a lot of them.

One of the benefits of doing the Youth Academy is if you are successful and you want to become a firefighter later, you get service credit.

That's important because if you invest in our program, we're going to invest in you and give you some credit towards your application later on when you're 21 years of age and you want to apply for us.

Our goal is to find local youth from the Sacramento area to get hired with the Sacramento Fire Department. That's why we give that service credit.

So you also get a certificate, CPR certified, a badge, and you'll get a challenge coin, and then we'll offer you a reference letter.

All right, so how do you join? I will fill out if you go to sackfire.org. That's our main website. You'll find there. If you go under youth programs, you'll find the Sac Fire Youth Academy.

Under there, you'll find sign up for notifications and we'll send you a notification of when we're hiring, not hiring, but when we're accepting applications, which we are now.

So you're going to fill out interest form, fill out an application. You'll show up for a mandatory informational meeting with your parent or guardian or whoever that is.

And then you'll be interviewed and then step five is acceptance into the program. One other thing to help people see if they want to join this program because all you see is the video me talking.

We do have an open house coming up on May 3rd on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. where people can show up in a two hour block and actually put the stuff on, touch the meat firefighters, touch the tools and see if this is something that they want to pursue.

So that concludes my brief presentation. I'll open it up for questions.

Thank you for your presentation. Clerk, are there any members of the public who should speak on this item?

Thank you, Chair. I have no speaker slips from the public.

Okay. So are there any commissioners who would speak on this item?

Oh, Commissioner Young.

Thank you for your presentation. I just had one question as to when applications close.

Little June.

Okay. So I think one opportunity to advertise the firefighter youth academy would be at the West Campus High School Career Day.

It is coming up in around April, March April, I believe. And I think it would be a great opportunity for you guys to publicize your program.

It sounds like a really great program. I'm scheduled to be there. I think it's April 11th.

Oh, okay. For real.

I'll give one more little fact about the program. So we've been doing the program since 2019, but I've been doing it since 2021.

Since that time, we've had two people that are in paramedic school right now about to finish.

We've had 10 people other than those two finish their EMT. Six of them are working in the field.

And we have two that are really close to becoming firefighters. So the goal of this program is to find local people that want to be firefighters to work with us in the community in the city that they've been raised in.

Commissioner Turk or Commissioner Merrill.

Yeah. First of all, thank you. I remember you. I don't know if it was you exactly, but I remember you guys coming in and giving a similar presentation at Career Day West Campus last year.

So exciting for you guys to come back. Overall, I think this is a great program. I'm just wondering what outreach are you doing currently to inform high school students about this program that it's free.

Like if you want to experience because feel like you mentioned there isn't a lot of internship opportunities for these types of fields.

And this is a first hand experience where you get hands on experience. I think it's great, but how are you reaching those youth and finding them?

I've called all the Title I schools and talked to counselors and set up appointments for them to either schedule something for me to set up or they have certain classes that they want me to come visit.

And on top of that, there's a. I think there's one in the Thomas Unified School District. There's two events that I'm going for job fairs. There's one for Elk Grove Unified School District that I'm going to.

One of the most southern schools Valley is one of our first in that we go to. So there's job fairs, the 12 schools I call to and some other district events that I've been attending.

And then our website to big one where and social media.

Yeah, great. We recommend people going to schools a lot. So if you guys are already doing that, it's great to hear.

Commissioner Sista.

Hi, thank you so much for your guys this presentation. I just had a quick question on how you support or motivate your youth throughout this program. Right? Because clearly from the presentation in the video, become a firefighter is a lot of work, right? Physically and emotionally. So in what ways are you supporting your youth to keep going?

So I do a pre academy survey and ask what they want to get out of the program and every year it's something a little different and I make sure to address that. And then at the midpoint, I do another survey that kind of ask what else they want to do next and I kind of give them more choice.

So like I literally asked them last Saturday, what do you want to do? And they told me what they wanted to do and to keep them to keep on going.

I think one of the or keep on attending one of the important things is to connect the actual job to the actual like career of them like seeing it.

So I feel getting them into the firehouse is super important. So if you're seeing senior junior or sophomore, depending on how they are, how they're doing in the academy, I send them out to those stations. So that will solidify that they're actually talking to people that do the job and actually see it firsthand.

I know for me personally, that was the thing that put the fire under my butt to actually start doing something about it. Once I saw that, I could do this and there was other people out there that could support me.

Yes, I asked them questions to about their experience. They've been in it. She's been in it for two years.

Commissioner Bolissa.

My question is, or I would like to start with, I think this is an incredible opportunity. I think it sounds super exciting. And I personally have thought about being, I still have no idea what I want to do for my career, but I've thought about being a firefighter or a paramedic.

I don't know too much about the pathway to get there, like how college would look for that or what kind of training it is. I suppose that's one of my questions.

And another one of my questions is, since you guys reach out to youth all over Sacramento, how does transportation look like? Or do you have multiple places where you're able to host this, or how do any student struggle to get there at 8 a.m. every Saturday, or how does that kind of work out?

I'll answer your second question first. So I do a, it's very important that I do a mandatory parent and, you know, a candidate meeting.

And one of the main things I talk about is the commitment of what they're signing up to. Every Saturday, we're showing up there. People have family events, maybe you're doing sports, maybe you're having a job, you have job, maybe you have to take care of your family.

Maybe you're too busy and this won't fit into your life. This isn't a program where you could just show up kind of like whenever you want, every, every skill kind of builds on each other. So I make sure I tell them that.

You need this is not like a simple after school thing. This is a commitment. You know, I'm a lot of money and time is going into schedule these days to get you the skills and knowledge and experience that that we're trying to accomplish.

So with that said, one of the biggest issues in the beginning was rides, you know, young people, some people don't drive. So I had to make sure I give that in that presentation and talk to the parents to convince them to support their, not to convince them, but to explain why it's so important that they support them and wake up early on a Saturday, when it's their day off to bring them down here.

And to address your other question, I don't know if it's the right time to talk to you about how to become a firefighter of paramedic, but I can get your email and I can send you some more information.

That would be super helpful. Thank you.

Commissioner Longmar.

Hi, I also agree that this program is just amazing hearing all the important like aspects that you're giving to the youth.

But you mentioned hearing a testimony from one of your cadets and I was interested in hearing what they had to say what you think will be your biggest support from the program.

And if there's any challenges, how you work through it?

Hello, my name is Madeline Dominguez. I joined this academy my junior year. During my sophomore year, I had no clue what I was going to do as my career.

Firefarm aren't walked into my classroom and he talked this whole speech and I'm like, wait, this is something I can do.

I see a lot of people in the youth that are doing it and it doesn't seem impossible. I'm going to join. I applied. I went through the whole application process and I made it in the first year there.

I was just getting to know everybody. I've built connections. I've networked with a lot of firefighters. And I really fell in love with the medical skills and I really fell in love with all the scenarios that went through.

I enjoyed going through just finding myself within the academy and going through these activities.

And my favorite part was I got to go to ride along and I seen real life things that happened and I've seen firsthand experiences and I'm like, wait, if I really enjoy this, I'm going to like nursing.

Although I'm not taking the career path as a firefighter, I do enjoy nursing and it's really set me and I've solidified that option and I'm going to a school that's all about nursing.

And yeah, now I'm on my second year. I continue to learn more and I continue to fall in love.

The fire fire skills that I learn have improved my own physical and mental health.

I just take a lot of physical during the workouts and you're just like pushing, pushing, pushing and I have the entire academy there to help me and I've just really enjoyed the academy. It's a really great program.

Thanks too, Fire Fire Martin and Captain Wink.

My name is Arlen Verde. I joined the Academy Start of this year, the start of the Academy Year this year.

I joined because I found it online. I found it through the website, the Sacramento Fire website because I was interested in becoming a firefighter.

And it's always been something that I wanted to do. I wanted to do it since I was very young.

And after I found it on the website, I saw that the applications were open. I applied to it and it was a super easy and cohesive process to get in through the orientations, the interviews.

And I managed to get in and while physically it is challenging, it's also extremely rewarding. You always feel super great after the fact.

That's always my motivation for coming back. As I've always enjoyed being physically active and going to the gym and stuff like that, you always just feel great afterwards.

And you get to go and make these relationships through hard work. And I've met a lot of people that mean a lot to me through this academy.

And it's been an amazing experience. And I'm doing it mainly because of my interest in firefighting. But I continue to go back every day because of the relationships that I've created.

And through all the amazing experiences that I get to make through the ride-alongs, you know, ride-alongs gaining real world field experience is a super, super valuable resource because you're not just reading about it on a computer or doing your research on it in a library reading a book.

You're actually going out there seeing firsthand what the career is like and being able to make a difference in your community at the same time by doing all the community service opportunities.

And it's just it's an amazing program that has really helped me in ways physically and mentally.

Thank you. That was very informational and I loved how you guys both had your personal experiences.

Commissioner Young.

I just wanted to give a last thanks to Mr. Martin for your work and just providing almost like a second home for the youth in Sacramento.

And I loved hearing your guys' testimonies and I can't wait to see all the amazing things you guys will do.

Yeah, I definitely want to echo what Commissioner Young just said about creating a safe space, creating a second home for youth.

This program is incredible and like I said, yeah, it's created a safe environment for you to expand the work ethic, communication, and collaboration, leadership, and even confidence skills as we can see today.

You guys are great speakers. You guys, you know, you hold yourself with so much confidence and that's just great.

And I can tell that this program only expands that and it's great to know that lunch is provided to oftentimes we take for granted just having a meal at lunch.

And so having this be provided for everyone is really a basic human right.

And so I'm glad that you guys offer that amazing pathway to employment as you know can be seen here like it's not only firefighting and EMT but like nursing and other pathways where it's just so universal.

And so yeah, I've been excellent experience that is being offered in these programs and youth really value that firsthand experience and so I'm glad that's being offered.

Depending on like further like even further grants, I know the Sacramento children's when we were working on that would have been a great fit because youth are, you know, not being outside to get into violence or being in substance like being a part of substance abuse with this program.

But I think compensation in the future would be great a great addition, you know, for these youth. And so just again, thank you so much for presenting and it's just an easy program. Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Item number four is the 2025 Youth Resource and Employment Fair. Is there a separate patient?

Good evening commissioners. My name is Chris Wemberley. I am a recreation superintendent with the youth parks and community Richmond youth workforce development unit.

And here tonight, I'm excited to bring to you some additional information in regards to the 2025 Youth Resource and Employment Fair.

So we have a short video that is going to highlight activities and some photos from last year's event.

that highlights last year's a 2024 event. I'm excited to say registration is still open. It will remain open for online registration until Thursday.

At that time, registration will shut down. Today we did a count and we have over 700 registered participants for this event.

But don't fret if you don't make it to the online registration, you can actually register the day of registration starts at 915 with doors opening by 930.

Currently, we have 30 plus vendors that are attending this year's event ranging from city partners that we have with CBOs nonprofits, financial industries along with many others.

And we have 14 city department programs and services being provided. Actually, Sacramento Fire Academy will be one of those vendors along with Sacramento Youth Commission will be present.

You guys will also make sure we hope that you will spread the word. You have the flyer in regards to this event. And we would love for you to share it with your network of people because it is important for young people to see that they're our employment opportunities.

We have stipend programs. We also have employment opportunities. Summer hiring for our department for Yipsey is coming up right now.

And we really want to make sure we're sharing the word in regards to youth employment opportunities for those that qualify by age for these programs.

The other thing that I also like to share is we want to thank Sacramento Regional Transit because they are once again one of our sponsors and they are offering free transportation to the two and from the event.

All you have to do is show this flyer either on your phone or you can have a hard copy of it. And you'll be able to get on to a bus or light rail prior to the event and like one hour after the event to make sure you get home.

So this is the first time that we've had them. We also are going to have different locations where there is swag giveaways. Everybody that is registered while supplies last when you register you get a bag that you're going to be able to fill with the materials that you gather during the event.

But also they'll be designated vendors that will have swag giveaways on the second floor. Again this year we will have professional headshots provided. We will have a fashion gallery.

That kind of shows low cost ways to be professional and business casual at the workplace. So we have actually gone to a thrift store and did some purchasing of clothing and put together outfits. And actually wasn't me. It was actually some of our youth days they were general interns that did the purchasing last year.

And we have mannequins that we dress and we're really trying to show that there's a way to have that business casual or professional look. I mean we wanted to bring it to the participants for them to be able to see.

We'll also have an opportunity for you to create a government jobs account which is a required account that you have to have if you're applying for any city job.

Not just for you at when you're starting your pathway into a career with the city. But once you have it it stays with you and you can update it as you move through and apply for different jobs.

So we help people the youth in creating those accounts we have staff available to help and assist with that.

Those are a lot of the activities and as you can see a lot of people come last year we had over 400 on site or participants come that day so we're hoping to top that number.

And we're really excited to make sure that this event is an annual event that we have been doing probably over 10 years now.

So we look forward to if you're able to stop by register we really are excited to have you there.

And if you have any questions I'm more than happy to answer them.

Thank you for your presentation. Clark are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this item.

Thank you chair I have no speaker slips on this item. Are there any commissioners who wish to speak on this item.

Commissioner Meryl?

Yeah for first off thanks for coming today I think I've I know our school offers transportation to this event so I've heard about it.

But just hearing about all the details that I didn't know about it seems like even better than I thought.

Especially the transportation that you provide with just showing the flyer and they get free transportation there and from I think that's a great addition especially the schools that don't offer transportation.

Themselves are people who are maybe just getting out of high school.

Also the first year experience you having tractors and they're not truckers.

And all honesty park maintenance may bring a tractor I'm we're doing a walk through tomorrow so there may be one I'm not exactly.

I don't I don't say tractors but I'm at like like you said.

Moeers and like equipment like that I'm to see like firsthand and get like when you're a child and you like to the city and a fire track.

That's really cool because they get to see and maybe see if they're interested in it also like headshots and the clothing you mentioned.

I think the only question I have is do you have any like metrics or any way of measuring the success of the event like how many people actually follow it up or how many people got a job from it.

So what we will be doing is we provide a follow up evaluation of the event but we also check in with our vendors to see how many youth they may have hired.

So like I said Yipsey is currently starting recruitment for summer programming not just employment for our stipend programs and we do a survey at the end of our programs and we ask those questions where did you hear about it.

And because we do want to know was it successful on how we did our marketing because this has been in a variety of locations we sent it out to many of our school contacts so that probably is how you got it through the school.

But we've also had it through our city news or city express. We've also worked with our council offices asking them to share it out to.

So we really want to make sure that we're hitting every place we can and it's really important that I know I need to share the information and our team has shared this out.

It's sharing it with more than just you may not have somebody in your family that's in the age range of 13 to 24 but that doesn't mean that the person that you share it with doesn't have somebody else that has somebody in that age range.

It's a free event. There's no cost to anybody to participate. The vendors are at no cost to them also so this is a free event for them.

So it's a wonderful opportunity to share city resources beyond just our normal city departments too.

Yeah, thanks again. That's great.

Okay, so what I will say is that I obviously attended this event last year. It was great.

It opens so many occupational opportunities for youth all across the city.

And it gives them firsthand experience all the vendors that I met were very interactive and personalized their message to youth based on getting to know them first and then just like truly in making a connection.

So I really enjoyed that. I'm a big supporter of youth employment. It has proven in the past to reduce youth homelessness, reduce youth violence, substance abuse and promoting health, healthy mental health.

I love going and supporting youth employment fairs.

I think it would be a great addition to research the council members offices to include youth internships for their offices for youth who are interested in just local government in politics and that.

Thank you very much.

This item is receiving file so no vote is required and we will move on to the next item.

Item number five is the semester at City Hall overview. Is there staff presentation for this?

Good evening, chair, Reels, vice chair, Longmeyer and commissioners. My name is Dominic current and I serve as a program coordinator for the youth commission within the youth parking community enrichment department.

I also served as a developer of the semester at City Hall program with the support of Rodney Patterson, our program supervisor, Sarah Muster, our recreation general supervisor and Valentino Gomez, our recreation aid.

I'm here to give a brief overview of the new semester at City Hall program in the civic engagement unit.

Just a little bit of background before we get into the program specific.

So the program semester at City Hall is inspired by the summer at City Hall program which is followed within our civic engagement unit which takes place every July here at City Hall.

During the summer high school students attend program here at City Hall while they are here they engage in civic learning, gone weekly field trips, learn, workforce development skills, participate in internships,

here from various presenters and engage in project based learning to develop research projects that will then be presented to City Council at the end of the program.

In addition to that some additional background is that our civic engagement unit was looking to expand our reach and reach more young people to help them be more civically involved and more civic minded.

So what is semester at City Hall? So semester at City Hall is a five week civic engagement program that is highly participatory and will engage high school youth and topics into the round federal and local government leadership activism advocacy equity and more.

More over participants and students will learn to participate in their own learning by working together in small core horts to complete a research project on topics that are most important to them and youth in their community after they will present their research to the second minute youth commission you all.

So the semester at City Hall program has two main components the first component is civic learning where young people will be engaged and grow their knowledge base when it comes to learning about civics.

The second component is project city hall which is also known as project based learning during project city hall you've developed and built on their communication skills their research skills their presentation skills leadership skills and more.

So here are the goals of semester at City Hall I'll read through them and give only a little bit of information or going to a little bit of them so there are five foundational goals of the semester at City Hall program which also mirror the goals of the summer at City Hall program and they also fall within alignment of the youth development framework.

So here are the goals to provide resources support and connection to effective programs and services that lead to success build 21st century skills including leadership and workforce provide opportunities for young people to become more active and civically engaged create a safe space that we were all talking about earlier and promote equity justice and accountability.

I want to take a little bit of time and spend some time on two goals the goal of create and the goals of opportunities for when it comes to the goal of create it's very important for us that young people feel safe and spaces that are designed for them so that they can be fully engaged and get the most out of the experience when it comes to opportunities it's important for us to bring more awareness and share the pathways that young people can take to get more civically involved for many times young people want to be civically involved they want to be involved.

They want to be in their community but they don't always have those pathways to get there.

And these are the cities youth development plan values I have included them here because these are the same fundamental values for a semester at City Hall program.

We have a high light too we won't go through all of them for you can see them but definitely want to highlight and talk a little bit more about youth voice because it is a main component of the semester at City Hall program for each small group each cohort will develop a research project and then do a presentation that is authentically their experience and their perspective so it's definitely has their voice at the center of the presentation.

We also are also in a highlight the value of courage for it takes courage for young people to go through project City Hall go through all the process and give voice to the problems that they see in their communities and develop a possible solution that may or may not have already been to give possible solutions to something that may or may not already take place before.

So we talk a little bit about what is semester at City Hall but we want to talk a little bit more get down into the components specifically of what is project City Hall so it's a project based learning model students will work on a project over five weeks during semester at City Hall that engages them in real world problems while answering a complex question about the city of Sacramento students will demonstrate that.

They will demonstrate their knowledge and skills by developing a presentation. The result is that participants or students will develop a deep content knowledge as well as critical thinking creativity presentation communication skills as well as the contents of doing an authentic meaningful project.

So for project City Hall young people will select a topic that is important to them and research a possible solution and create action plan.

So we have a lot of attention behind project City Hall that young people gain tangible 21st century skills like communication like collaboration like leadership like creativity critical thinking and more skills that can be taken outside of the program applied maybe in their schooling and their life beyond just these five weeks in the program.

So there are five important steps in the process of completing the project for project City Hall. So step number one is to analyze and identify the problem so each small group will choose one topic that is concerned to them some possible topics that we discussed during orientation that took place with environmental waste youth mental health substance abuse empowering youth voices climate change and recycling which are all things that seem relevant.

So that's not seen relevant to young people right now which we also have presentations here in the commission about step two is define and research the problems that each small group will develop their research question and start research gathering different information different stats different facts step three.

So we examine the research findings each small group review and ensure that they have all the data and information that they need before they move on to action planning which is step four.

Each small group will critically and creatively develop a possible solution to their problem and then step five they will present their research findings to the youth commission.

So our ask is that the Sacramento youth commission participate in being able to hear the actual presentations from each of the small groups during semester at City Hall we ask that you all provide recommendations and feedback for each presentation and we're also asking for you all to think creatively around how could you utilize some of the information some of the data some of the findings from each of the presentations and we're also asking

what you all feel your role could look like being a part of semester at City Hall as well.

That's all I have thank you for your time.

Thank you for your presentation clerk are there any members of the public who wishes to speak on the title thank you chair I have no speaker slips on the side.

Are there any commissioners who wishes to be gone as idle commission room.

Okay first of all I just want to put one clear clear for question this is just like a reworking of summer at City Hall.

Yes okay yeah that's great I know and a lot of people who've done summer at City Hall at my school and then also connecting with them at like Aggie Square development or Aggie Square meetings and other youth meetings so I know a ton of people who've really enjoyed it and yeah so it's great to hear it's continuing in a new way.

I have to like second I'm excited to the U.S. to like us for part how we can participate and asking us to give feedback on presentations I think that's really exciting and something that would be really excited to do and willing to do.

I have two short questions I guess you've already this is already reworking so I was just wondering how you took feedback from the last two years or more.

How you use that annual lead to like reconstruct the program and improve it like is there anything you've changed or anything.

Yeah because the program is a little bit more condensed we tried our best to stay true to the true alignment of summer at City Hall so some of the highlights from summer at City Hall is definitely being able to work with your link crew.

Definitely being able to present and feeling like young people have a sense of pride and a sense of like courage when it comes to being up here to present to City Council so we did was take some of the best aspects of summer at City Hall and made sure that we kept those same components in semester at City Hall.

So making sure that we stayed true to our social and emotional learning that's a big aspect making sure that we stayed true to our civic learning and those different components and aspects.

I can't say that we incorporated anything new because it's only two weeks of program but we did stay true to the components that were most integral and most important to the program and made sure we had those.

Okay great and then just one more.

I don't know though okay how do you provide like a pathway so like if they want to continue their civic work like you could go here like job opportunities I know you've mentioned that but like how do you continue to because I know the network from just seeing them at our events is really strong like people come back to events and come back to City events.

The youth like so how do you keep that network strong after the program and provide opportunities or places to seek opportunities for the youth who want to continue their work but they can't do it in the next year.

I'm not the coordinator for summer at City Hall but I do very closely with Miss Maria is the coordinator for that program so she does stay in touch with past participants I know in the past there's been receptions that take place after to kind of celebrate their work in addition to that if there's ever like opportunities so if you are participate in summer at City Hall you can then apply to become a peer mentor so there's there's still stepping stone and I think they're within our unit recruiting.

Even more stepping stone so you can be a participant one summer you can be a peer mentor you can be a senior peer mentor you can be a rookie like we have currently so he actually did all those different steps he participated he was a peer mentor for a short time he got hired on to work on our team right so I think it's the level of engagement if you stay engaged in Miss Maria Miss Maria will engage with you you'll be able to have a pathway and I think she does her best to make sure that everybody is connected as much as they want to be.

Yeah that's super excited thank you.

Uh huh.

Commissioner Sisto.

I just want to say thank you for your presentation and that I am super excited for this new program.

I really like how it's really similar to summer at City Hall and how you talked about how much of semester at City Hall has the same components and aligns with the same values of summer at City Hall.

And I'm glad that semester at City Hall provides students with the same opportunity to do mostly the same work from summer at City Hall but during the school year right because I know that a lot of students so the summer they go on vacation to all the other

summer not really able to participate in programs like these.

Um so my question regarding the similarities between semester at City Hall and summer at City Hall is because again like I said since semester at City Hall there's the time is more condensed and there's not as many days for the program.

So what are what what key components are different from summer at City Hall and semester at City Hall like our better different so the differences we won't have as many presentations.

And we have usually we have someone from Chris's team come and do some workforce presentation for us we won't have that.

Um, we won't there is a graduation ceremony we won't have a graduation ceremony.

Those are the ones that I can remember off the top of my head.

Are Lin Cruz still going to be a thing? We'll have so each group they won't necessarily call it Lin Cruz but there will be a small group.

All right, thank you. You're welcome. Commissioner Bellasso.

I'd also like to thank you for presenting to us.

I meet and need to both finished our semester or not a semester.

We took summer at City Hall this summer and that introduced us to this opportunity of being youth commissioners.

I'm glad you're I echo what commissioner system said about making more opportunities for students to have to be able to participate this in this even if the summer doesn't work for them.

I had a question about if internships I'm assuming they're probably not going to be part of this.

And then peer mentors do we are there still going to be peer mentors were able to.

They will not be peer mentors part of this semester or semester at City Hall.

Are there any ways that you guys accounted for that a little bit or what what do you see looking forward.

That will be different this time around.

So to account for their not being any so I want to say that I hear you all that Lin Cruz and a peer mentor is very important to the summer at City Hall process because they are that guy that helps you put your project together.

So I do want to say that I hear you and I understand what you're saying.

What we did was expanded the pool of possible participants to people who have participated in summer at City Hall before.

So hoping that they have their experience their experience get help kind of facilitate that experience or help guide the previous part of these new participants so they're not just starting kind of scratch with like no real guidance.

But there is somebody in least we have four small groups so we have three one group that have one but three of the four do so we'll just put our hands and attention a little bit more on that one group that doesn't but the other three does have do have a person who's went through the program before and could serve as like okay I've done this before I have some experience that I can offer to the group.

It also sounds like since there will be less groups that you guys will be able to be more focused on the individual groups and their process.

And then a recommendation I have after taking summer at City Hall just from my own experience I would say something I'd personally like to see more encouraged and I don't know this is like an opinion.

I think that a lot of times with these projects they feel the need to they will identify this problem and they'll feel the need to create a full and encompassing solution to the problem and in many cases the problems they're tackling are just like very widespread and not possible to entirely resolve and not that I would see people coming up with an entire resolution but I would like to see

I would be completely okay and I would enjoy hearing from the youth about aspects of this that they do not know where the next step are or places where their research still is like inconclusive and where they're not to shore about how the problem can be fixed and I'd like to hear just any of their like more like I'd like to hear them think about like the complexities of the problem and I would like to see them.

I would like to see them be the needs of the problem and I wouldn't mind at all to not have them be totally sure about what they come up with because they only have a five week period and it's a small amount of time to research and sometimes they're tackling things which I would definitely encourage some to tackle things they don't know very much about but when they're tackling things they have little background knowledge on it's hard to build up all of that knowledge to be the authority on it and present to us.

And I would absolutely like to hear them just tell us what they know and I'm cool or like I would not mind them not knowing everything.

Thank you for that feedback.

Can I just jump in real quick and I think I really appreciate it not I think I know I really appreciate your feedback and when we debrief summer what you're talking about and we really looked at focusing on advocacy and awareness so that it doesn't require a complete understanding of what we're doing.

That's not what you think it required to require a complete, solution, it's just we need to bring more awareness to this topic.

We need to become more advocates for this type of project and so that's something the staff here's not only from you but we've heard and feedback before that we're going to be touching a lot on his advocacy and and stuff like that which hopefully we'll result in projects that align with a little bit more of what your speaking to and to just say about worst mentors that doesn't

any next time. It's just a pilot program. So peer mentors come back as returning, returning

participants. So just as Dominique said, strategy was great opening it up, but that doesn't

mean the next time we do the program, there won't be peer mentors, because there will be participants

that have already gone through the program. Thank you for your comments though. Appreciate

it.

Commissioner Lee. Thank you so much for your presentation. It was really great hearing

about it. I was planning on joining it, but I could enjoy it because I'm on commission.

But commissioner Sissa said pretty much everything I wanted to say, but I was wondering how does

this semester at City Hall affect the attendance for summer at City Hall? Well, by the time,

so the application process for both programs didn't run at the same time. So semester

at City Hall program applications ran first, and now or soon should be right now. Thank

you there. Right now the applications for summer are opening up, so there won't be any

overlap when it comes to both of the programs.

In the one way thing, I completed a project with my group for summer at City Hall, and I

was wondering, what do you do with the projects after we presented them? Do they go to commissioners

or council members or do they go to other groups? How does the process work after our projects?

I want to pass that over to Sarah. Thank you for the question. So for summer at City

Hall, the council members all receive it because they receive the staff report and everything

that's in it. And typically what happens here on the diocese, they discuss and some projects

are picked up. For instance, two summers ago, council member Lisa Kaplan supported the clothing

exchange, clothing swap, and so they had theirs out at the farmers market. And so that's

part of a little bit why we might be gearing a little bit more towards advocacy and awareness,

because there can be those components that can be picked up by council. I don't want to

say easier, but it's a little bit, I don't know what other words to use, but it might be a

little bit easier for them to pick up something like that and be able to promote it, whereas

we are trying to, previously you're trying to come up with a full-fledged solution, and that

might not be the best case for the situation. So hopefully that answers your question.

Okay. But yeah, I mean, I'm kind of add on to that too. And just say, I guess it wouldn't

hurt to just maybe remind your council member about the project. Kaplan talked to them further

about it if you can schedule even local one-on-one. I've done that obviously not with summer at City

Hall, but with projects in the past. And I think it's just helpful to just add that one-on-one

meeting, whatever. Commissioner Bernardo.

Thank you for sharing this presentation. I agree with Commissioner Sista. This sounds

very exciting. I see there's an opportunity for you to be more civically engaged to develop

their skills and just to build within their communities, which I think is very important.

I did have a question. So how have similar programs, such as this one, been promoted to

youth in the past? And will there be any changes to how it's presented to youth now?

I know that. So I know in the past, we're modeling this after summer. So summer, Miss Maria,

I'm not the coordinator, but I know a little bit. Miss Maria does a lot of outreach. She works

specifically with district liaison, so specifically at school district, she tables at schools. We work

with our marketing department. We blast it out on the website. So it's blasted out through

multiple ways. But I think one of the main components is being able to work with the school district

liaison that we have connections with. And then they being able to pass it out into the different

schools and then doing tabling at different schools, as well as doing marketing on virtually as well.

Because this was a pilot program, we stayed small. So we reached out to some of our district partners

and liaison, some of our community based organizations, some of the people that we work with and

work with and partner with. That's how we shared this opportunity.

Commissioner Sista. I just wanted to echo off of Commissioner Bullock's idea of focusing more

of having the students focus more on awareness rather than creating a full round solution.

And for that, my recommendation is maybe having the students attending semester at City Hall

have a limitation slide on their presentation. So then when it's time for presentations,

they're able to let all the commissioners know the limitations and weaknesses for forming a

complete round solution and the limitations and weaknesses on limitation and weaknesses for them

gathering their research on the topic. So then when it's time for presentations, the presentation

that they provide for all the youth commissioners, it's more well-rounded. Thank you.

Commissioner Bellossa. I had a question about the class size this time around. I kind of

clicked that there was going to be four groups and I think for our year there was around like 12 or more.

Yeah. Will there be a smaller number of teachers as well, I assume?

So there'll be a smaller group of participants. There'll be our target list 20. We have 19.

And then there won't be any teachers that the teacher facilitator will be me.

Yeah, I also, I feel like I should say my friend actually applied for this program and I'm

very excited to see them get their experience with semester at City Hall the way I got my experience

with summer at City Hall. So that was interesting to me and I also want to echo again that I

am a big fan of the program and I had a lot of fun coming over here this summer.

And yeah, I liked Commissioner Ascissus' idea a lot as well.

Commissioner Chan. Hi. Thank you for your presentation. I think this program is great, but for those

who don't know about this or don't know how to apply, how would they apply to this semester?

So there was an application process. So the first thing was spreading the word, spreading the awareness

about we have a new program, a new pilot program. After we spread the word, then there was an

application. So each person had to do their application. After the application process,

each participant went through an interview. After the interview process, we selected them and then

went through an orientation. So they first have to fill out the application and then go through an interview.

Okay, thank you. You're welcome.

Yep, I just wanted to wrap up by saying it's an incredible program. I've had some people that I

know complete it and they have nothing but great things to say about it. I think the semester

option too will only add on to that and provide more opportunities. I had a couple questions about

compensation if it's similar to summarized city hall and not to put you on the spot, but do you

know what type of schools, districts that youth are coming from? I do. So let's talk about compensation.

Each participant will get $250 for their time and then if they want community service hours,

we'll give them those as well. And then we've reached out to all the different districts. So we

have some people from Twin Rivers, not that many. We have some from Natomas. We have some from Staxi

Unified School District. I think those are our main districts that are actually within the city limits.

We have some people from some private institutions that are still within the city limits, but we

have them from all over the city. Long as you live the in the city limits are go to school within

the city limits, then you are eligible to participate. Cool. Thank you.

Thank you.

This item is receiving files. So Nova was required. We will move on to the next item. The next item is member comments, ideas, questions,

and meeting conference report. Are there any commissioners who wish to speak? Well, I think we'll just call roll. I'm going to go down.

All right. So now I'll go down the dius calling folks one by one. Commissioner Sista.

Just to clarify, is this kind of like our comments period? Yeah, just like kind of like what's going on?

Like, you know, it's like, yeah. Okay. Well, there's not nothing, nothing new has happened recently.

I'm now that's finally March. I'm waiting on all my UC application decisions to be released.

I think I think I heard that Santa Cruz is going to release theirs first, but I didn't apply to Santa Cruz.

So I'm kind of like not on that, um, around the nervousness, uh, but I'm just waiting for my UC decisions to come out and yeah, I'm going to miss you.

Commissioner Bellassa. I also, at this moment, can't think of anything. Um, I would say,

um, recently things have been good. Um, we're, I'm coming up on the end of our third quarter. So midterms are coming up this year.

I'm taking a dual enrollment class at American River College. And, um, I have a midterm this week to finish. Um, but yeah, I don't how much to say.

Uh, one of my main extracurriculars ended two weeks ago. So, uh, I don't have that until next year.

Commissioner Bernardo. Um, well, we are planning on a an event at school. It's a multicultural night. A lot of, um, our, the clubs that we have will just be, um,

representing like different, um, countries around the world and then selling food from those countries. Um, and also just, um, teaching others, peers, youth, parents, families about those cultures.

Um, and yeah, we're just planning that and organizing it.

Commissioner, um,

Commissioner Lin.

Um, same with Commissioner Sista. The thing much has happened, but I've gone into UC Riverside, but I don't foresee me going there. I hope I don't go there.

Um,

but I'm just waiting for other decisions such as UC Davis, which I'm really scared for, but I'm just hoping for the best. And recently, I've just been working with Washington Elementary School as a youth ambassador.

And I have a meeting coming up with an officer from Council Member Pluckabond's office. So I'm excited for that.

Commissioner Liu.

Uh, we've, on the district front, not too much to report. I will say that I'm finally been admitted to the cabinet of my district. And so now I'm going to understand the works of the thing within the district.

And these initiatives that we've heard of today, first of all, I want to reiterate what everyone on the youth commission has said about just how wonderful these initiatives are, how you guys have brought them to awareness.

How they really promote youth development and just to thank you guys one more time for bringing them to the panel and allowing us to hear about it and just publicly presenting it here.

Um, I like Commissioner Sista. When I am waiting on UC decisions as well as some of the ever call to that applied for.

But some of those don't come out until like the end of March and April. So we are just going to have to wait and see for anyone who may be watching this or the people on the panel who are seniors waiting for decisions.

I wish you all good luck. You guys have completed the process. You guys have done everything you can. So now we're just at the finish line.

Commissioner Chan.

So let's just say just recently for school field trip. I went to the appeals court, which was super fun. So I got to see or like see three civil cases and currently sick, unfortunately.

And I was trying not to go into the coughing fit this entire meeting. You guys might need to stock those golf drops.

But that's all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Senator Dalyon.

Not much has happened, but I am excited to work on the youth mental health panel. And I'm taking my and say to this weekend. And I also do complete the title 22 training.

Commissioner Merrill.

I'm also waiting on some of my application or decisions. So it's either going to be really sad month or happy one.

Hopefully happy.

But hopefully it's probably going to be a mix. Other than that, this past weekend, we had most of I'm the president of Mates Mesa, which is like math engineering science achievement.

And we had our basic competition, some of them at this weekend. So that was fun to go to and see everybody succeed. We had a time almost 50 people from our club there. So that was pretty impressive. And then we have other competitions tomorrow and Wednesday, which one of our commissioners is competing.

Also last week was RACs week, which I helped organize, which is random act of kindness week. So we had a daily event for each day. And that was.

Good success. We did teacher teacher focused day with the teachers really enjoyed student focused days for the rest of the week, which was fun. We tried different initiatives from previous year. So that was cool.

Other than that, I'm starting planning or second blood drive. And then I've also been volunteering most weekends at Habtafra Humanities. That's been really fun.

Commissioner Turk.

I've been doing a lot of homework lately.

I kind of felt behind for a bit. But I'm also excited for this weekend for the job fair. I'm going to be working the booth for that.

Commissioner Young.

First off, I just wanted to say how honored I feel to be sitting up with all of you. You guys, you guys have such great ideas and I'm very thankful to be up here.

But as for me, there's things are starting to pick up. So one of the reasons why I was late today was because I was at Raleigh Decorating. So as class president, I'm in charge of creating our Raleigh poster, our chant. And that's just like a lot of like three hours after school for two weeks straight of like painting and whatnot. And oftentimes I have to paint until 12 a.m. at my house.

And then softball season is also starting. So I'm also trying to balance that as well. Our first game is next Monday. I'm excited for that. And I also started working on Thursdays at as a student ambassador at Hollywood Parks after school program.

We're starting. We're trying to create a program that will draw youth in and provide job opportunities for high schoolers to work at the Hollywood Park New Hope after school program.

And then also waiting for UC decisions. I got wait listed at the Santa Clara Honors program.

So I'm hoping I get in eventually, but yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited to see what happens. And to all of the seniors on the youth commission, I know wherever you guys end up, you guys will be super successful.

You guys are super hardworking. And yeah, I think no matter what happens, you guys will be great.

Vice chair Longmeyer.

Um, I don't know where to start. I'm always having a lot going on. But recently I applied to be my district student, but remember I've had last year. I didn't get it. So hopefully I get it this year.

And then I just have track going on. Cheers like lucky. I died back some fixing on track. And I'm starting up. Well, I'm still focusing on starting up a program at my school where like it's just like helping students get more involved in the community.

Because like they've been like they've come to me like with interest and all that. So I'm trying to help them just like started out.

And I also I'm also starting. It's not a program, but like it's not a movement. I don't know how to explain it. But it's like this.

Like little thing where we're raising awareness to mental health. And I'm going to be presenting to my to the VP's of the district. And also, I think I am going to be presenting to the district too. And I get to present at my school's open house as well.

And then present. Oh, and I will be going to the the job fair, the job fair and also the district eight community conversations on the 15th and you guys to come to. It's on my union house. My older my two schools. I'm so excited.

Oh, and one or two acres.

My bad.

And Cherrios.

I've just been working with you, Vanna mostly on other events at school. We have multi cultural night like she said. So we're selling.

We got a sign Thailand. So we're selling mega sticky rice. So you. I personally have gone out and tested some.

Just to like make sure I get everything right. So it's been really nice. But other than that. Just been involved with ASB at my school. I'll be attending the youth employment for as well.

I'm not like echo commissioner young say about college applications. So like I really wish you all luck. You guys are all very capable individuals. And it is a pleasure to work with all of you.

And so yeah, I have metrics come midterms coming up. And I just got my permit. So I'm I'm starting my lesson soon. So I'm a little bit scared. But yeah, that's pretty much it.

Well, the last item is public comment matters not on the agenda clerk or any members of the public who wishes to speak on public comments, not matters on the agenda.

Thank you, chair. I have no speaker slips for public comments matters not on the agenda. Sounds good. This concludes concludes today's agenda. Thank you everyone for your participation. This meeting is adjourned.