Good evening. Welcome to the December 1st,

2025 Sacramento Youth Commission Business Meeting.

The meeting is now called to order.

Will the clerk please call Rolf to establish a quorum?

Thank you, Chair. Members, please unmute your microphones.

Member Sista.

Present.

Member Rowland is absent.

Member Caraveo.

Member Bernardo is absent.

Member Maganoi.

Member Corliss.

Member Chan.

Member De Leon.

Member Turk.

Member Avila.

Member Avila.

Vice Chair Longmire.

member Rupri member Gounder is absent member Sahota and chair Rios present thank you we have

quorum I would like to remind members of the public in chambers that if you would like to

speak on an agenda item please turn in a speaker slip when the item begins you will have two minutes

to speak once you are called on after the first speaker we will no longer accept speaker slips

We will now proceed with today's agenda.

Please rise for the land acknowledgement and Pledge of Allegiance.

To the original people of this land, the Nisanon people, Southern Maidu, Valley and Plains Miwok, Putwin-Wintoon 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 to gather 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 pledge of allegiance

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 for all.

And I know you're going to welcome right now.

Do you want me to call that?

Sure.

Thank you, Chair.

We do have a new member with us today, Commissioner Amrit Sohota.

At this time, you may, if you'd like to say a few words about yourself, or members may welcome you to the commission here.

I did previously meet you guys at the business training.

However, I look forward to hearing what you guys have to say throughout this meeting.

And if you guys want to contact me, you guys know where to reach me.

But overall, I'm just really happy to be here.

Thank you.

We're really excited to have you here on the commission and continue working with you through this year and through our different agenda items.

Thank you.

Moving on, our first business today is the approval of the consent calendar that includes last month's meeting minutes as well as the follow-up log.

Clerk, are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this item?

Thank you, Chair.

I have no speaker slips for the consent calendar.

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

Okay, so can I get a motion and a second for the consent calendar?

I motion.

Okay, there's a motion by Vice Chair Longmire and a second by Commissioner DeLeon.

Will the clerk please call roll for the vote?

Thank you, Chair.

Members, please unmute.

Commissioner Sista?

Aye.

Commissioner Rowland is absent.

Commissioner Caravelle?

Aye.

Commissioner Bernardo is absent.

Commissioner Maganoy?

Aye.

Commissioner Corliss?

Aye.

Commissioner Chan?

Aye.

Commissioner DeLeon?

Aye.

Commissioner Turk?

Aye.

Commissioner Avila?

Aye.

Vice Chair Longmire?

Aye.

Commissioner Ruprai?

Aye.

Commissioner Gounder?

Aye.

Commissioner Sahota?

Aye.

And Chair Rios?

Aye.

Thank you.

The motion passes.

We will now proceed to the discussion calendar.

Item number three, Sacramento Children's Fund Implementation Update and Annual Report.

We should have a PowerPoint.

Can we get the PowerPoint put up, please?

We'll check on that.

I did not see one uploaded to the team's channel at the time of this meeting.

Perhaps we can move on to item four while we get that.

Item number four is the Department of Utilities High School Summer Program.

Thank you.

Good evening, members of the commission.

I am Patrick Sanger with the Department of Utilities,

and I appreciate the opportunity to share with you our summer student program.

Department of Utilities delivers water, wastewater, sewer and storm drainage services for the

city. DOU has over 500 employees representing nearly 90 unique job classifications.

The intention of this program is to expose high school students to the unique career

opportunities offered by DOU. Trades professions include jobs like plant

operators, electricians, generator technicians, plumbers, instrument

technicians, blacksmiths, welders, and machinists. As the existing employees

retire or move on to other jobs we have a difficult time filling these positions

with skilled employees. This program is one of the ways to help us fill our

future vacancies by providing students with knowledge of careers that they may

not have otherwise known existed. Every summer, DOU hires 15 to 20 students to

work alongside DOU staff to gain valuable experience in the various skilled

trades positions. These are paid positions funded by the DOU operating

budget with no impact to the city's general fund. Students learn how to

operate and maintain our treatment plants, pump stations, wells, distribution

systems and reservoirs to keep them operating at peak efficiency. Some

students have had the opportunity to make water wise house calls to help with

irrigation issues and household leaks. Others have worked alongside our water

quality lab staff learning how to test water for impurities.

In addition to gaining valuable work experience, students also take tours of the water treatment plants and other facilities.

All students participate in new employee orientation and receive required safety training.

In the past, we've also done a financial planning day with a local credit union where students plan budgets and see how different purchases impact their budget.

I have a couple of testimonials here.

Crystal was in our summer student program in 2014 and joined the city as a full-time employee in 2016.

She promoted to lead worker in 2021.

My name is Crystal. I started out in the summer student program. I'm currently an operations and

maintenance lead worker within the city of Sacramento. The summer student program offered

me a lot of exposure to what happens after you flush, where our water comes from, and where

rainwater goes. After high school, I came on as a permanent employee, and I've been here now for

nearly 10 years. Working for the city provided me with stability and a path to a career,

and also it gave me a lot of tools, and I enjoyed working and still continue to enjoy

giving back to the community in which I came from.

This next one is from one of our students from this past summer.

Hi, my name is Celeste O'Gell.

I was a student intern with the Water Meter Shop.

at the City of Sacramento Water Department.

I worked alongside with them to install AMI

and also install meters anywhere from one inch

to three to five inch meters.

I also worked alongside the first responding unit

where I responded to leaks and all that kind of stuff.

And also I did a little bit of leak detection

at my time there.

The whole job in its whole that I had over the summer

just a course of three months was meaningful in its own. I was a teenager just looking for a job,

applying, and I happened to get in and get lucky and get selected out of the many people that were

there for that. And I left with wonderful connections with the water department and a lot

of professional work experience that I honestly, I would never expect a female at my age to achieve

or have. So shout out to, you know, my wonderful supervisors, Craig Stevens and Ty Wallace,

and also many of my other staff that I worked with there. But yeah, that is basically my wrap

up for the City of Sacramento Water Department.

Our goal for 2026 is to expand student engagement and increase management support and supervisor participation.

We're considering a mid-summer job rotation to give students more exposure to the various jobs in DOU

and to explore different career opportunities that fit their interests.

All of this is often a student's first paying job.

We plan to implement job readiness training to prepare them for employer expectations at DOU and beyond.

Finally, we're planning to increase the number of facility tours to broaden the students' understanding of everything for which DOU is responsible.

That wraps up my presentation for the DOU Summer Student High School Program.

Thank you very much for your time.

Are there any questions?

Thank you so much for your presentation.

Well put together and well said.

We appreciate you so much.

Clerk, 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.

Okay, so we'll start off with Commissioner Turk.

First off, I wanted to say that was a great presentation.

I really like how you give youth a first job, kind of,

so that when they go to apply for something else,

they have something on their resume,

because that's really important right now, I think, for us.

I was just wondering how you appeal to the youth

or advertise this program.

We put out a flyer that goes out to all the council districts

to then get sent out to all their community groups.

In years past, we also went straight to the schools.

We didn't over the last couple of years

because of some changes at the schools.

But that's how we get the word out.

We get in anywhere from 100 to 200 applications for the positions that we have available.

That's amazing.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Commissioner Soto.

All right, perfect.

I think it's wonderful that you guys have taken the initiative to being open to having a variety of people kind of explore the Department of Utilities.

I worked as an intern over in the Department of Public Works.

I worked in fleet administration.

And I think it's really wonderful to have someone be hands-on in that field.

For example, if I had never worked for that department, I would never get to see the city shops.

And so I know you did mention facility tours.

Are these specifically for students that are already admitted into the program?

Are they for any student interested?

How are you guys advertising that?

Those are just for the students that are in the program.

We set up tours.

It would be, we can't open those up to the public through what we do because it's a little too complicated.

So it's just for the students who we've hired for the summer.

Yeah, no, I completely understand that. And then I also, speaking off of what Commissioner Turk mentioned, when you print out those flyers, I know you said you haven't done it in the past. I think it would be a good idea to maybe drop them off in the front offices of these schools, just so that you aren't like being too much in, I feel like a main concern of schools is being too intensive or having people be too intrusive with their process.

So if you were to maybe like drop it off and then tell them to distribute it, it would be a lot easier,

especially because that's something I've noticed in the past with, I guess, local businesses doing in my school.

And so I think that would be something that would be successful as well.

We used to do pretty much that.

And then we got the word from the Unified School District.

They wanted everything to be centralized and go through their main office.

And then that opened up a whole other can of worms.

Yeah, no, I completely understand.

Overall, great presentation.

I really resonated with some of the words said by your testimonials,

and I think it was a great thing to hear.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Maganoy.

Hi.

So I served as, or I was hired for the city

as part of the Youth Parks and City Enrichment Program,

and I find that that kind of first job opportunity is really helpful.

I just wanted to thank you for that.

That's part of the Commissioner Salazar said.

I was wondering if there was a sort of partnership with EPC on that

because it seems kind of similar to what they're trying to do.

And I was wondering if there is any gateway to that.

We haven't in the past had that kind of partnership,

but that's certainly something that we could look into.

Commissioner Sisto.

Hi. Thank you so much for your presentation.

I really love being able to get testimonies from the youth that have worked and completed the program.

It definitely sounds like they gained a lot of valuable skills and a lot of benefits, you know, other than the stipend, learning valuable real-life skills.

My question for you is, do you see a certain strong correlation or pattern within the students that are admitted to the program?

and how or my question is do you see that there are more students in certain

districts that are applying to your program compared to other districts I

have not noticed that okay then I would suggest to maybe take a look at that and

see whether you might need to increase your outreach strategies in certain

districts because I know that for a couple of other youth summer programs

most of the times depending on where the program is located and where the

students need to attend to participate in the program that could also be a

factor to where to how many students from certain districts tend to apply to

the program in the first place so maybe that could be a small factor that could

help in bettermenting the outreach that you guys do.

Just as you were saying that I was thinking it probably wouldn't be very

difficult to adjust their application to include some information like that.

So we could start collecting that data.

Yeah, yeah, of course.

Yeah, thank you.

Do that.

Commissioner DeLeod.

Thank you again for your presentation.

In the issue detail, it says that in 2025, you're only able to hire six students.

In 2026 are you able to anticipate if you're going to be able to expand that number or?

That's certainly our goal.

What happened unfortunately this last year was we had quite a few staffing shortages in the department.

So we just we didn't have the number of supervisors available that we would have liked to have had.

We've been doing a lot of hiring so I'm really hopeful that this next summer we can get back up to that 15 to 20 students number.

Thank you.

Thank you for your presentation.

I agree with Commissioner Turk that it does build a resume, which is extremely important.

I'm a huge fan of a strong supporter of youth employment and ensuring that our youth are

employed because it gives them an income that also helps them with academics and just getting

out of problems that can lead to long-term problems down the road.

But I was wondering if there are any plans to, like, if there is a strategic plan to increase program sizes through the future,

like 2026 has a certain benchmark and 2027 would have even more to get these programs up to just a greater size each year.

Well, because it is so dependent on the number of supervisors that we can bring into the program,

it's kind of hard to

make a long term plan

yeah it just

it makes it tough because every year we have to

survey all of our managers to find out

where they can take some students

for that summer

and that just changes every year

okay thank you

I was wondering how can the youth commission

how can youth commissioners help

with the program

and whether it's just like outreach or...

I would love to be able to share our flyer with this commission

next spring when it comes out

and have you folks do some of that outreach for us.

That would be wonderful.

And have you guys gone to the Youth Employment Fair here at City Hall?

Yeah.

Oh, they have?

No, not with this program.

With this program?

Okay.

Yeah, so I think we have...

Is it every...

What month it is?

Every March.

Yeah, in the spring.

So we have a huge youth employment fair here at City Hall,

which would be great to get more applications in

and reach out to a bunch of youth.

But other than that, thank you so much for your presentation.

Thank you.

Have a good night.

Thank you.

Oh.

So we're good to go to item number three now?

Okay.

So item number three is the Sacramento Children's Fund

implementation update and annual report.

Good evening Sacramento Youth Commission I'm excited to be here tonight and

present you all with an update on the Sacramento Children's Fund. My name is

Andrew and I work alongside as an admin analyst under our program specialist

Julie Guerin and my hope for this evening is to provide you with some clarity since the last

update we gave you guys in May in regards to the Sacramento Children's Fund.

Just a few things I want to cover this evening. The final awards, how they were dispersed from

the 121 applications we had, just a breakdown on how they fulfilled the strategic investment

plan and its goals, the reference to the annual report that it was attached to the agenda that

you have before you, and a couple of lessons we learned alongside doing this process, as you're

all familiar, that this is a program starting from the ground up, and a few updates that we want to

provide on just kind of what our next steps are and our status updates. So the final grant awards

were approved on June 10th, 2025, and that were brought a total of 24 programs covering all five

of the fund goals and covering all eight districts in the city of Sacramento. The final grant awards

included some funding set aside specifically for the small and emerging CBOs. We also were

subject to a 50-50 split alongside the city, public entities, and CBOs, and 50% of the funding

was administered to those who had mental health as a primary goal.

Alongside that primary goal, they might have had secondary goals and a few others,

but mental health was the number one agenda on most of the applications that we funded.

This is just kind of a quick snip of all the different programs and CBOs

and teams that we're working with now moving forward.

we have quite a list here and some of these are also in support not

collaborative regards the primary fund breakdown so just to lay it out we had

12 applications with mental health as their primary goal children zero to five

we had five of those violence prevention three reducing homelessness

through applications and substance abuse with one and they just already

breakdown from the 24 that were mentioned. We had public entities with two, the grassroots emerging

CBOs, five applications that we supported. City of Sacramento have six of those awards and 11 are

community-based organizations. And out of that total, six of those are collaborative applicants

working together. And just a few ways that the strategic investment plan has been referenced

in the way the awards have been given.

70% of the funded programs go across multiple youth priorities.

21% of the awards go to small emerging CBOs

so we can support the up-and-coming organizations

that we're hoping to see them grow over the years,

along with 50% of the program funds awarded

to community-based organizations,

and 91% of those programs serve seed COI-identified neighborhoods

within the city of Sacramento.

And to mention again, the Sacramento Children's Fund annual report is one that will be done

on a yearly basis.

Those are just kind of a few of the things that's covered in that annual report.

And just to set aside, there's going to be more programmatic numbers and outcomes reported

in the future and reports once we have the reporting coming in from all the programmings

that have begun.

A few of the lessons learned in regards to the planning phase.

One was just kind of to have an ad hoc committee for the commission to be able to work at a quicker level

so we didn't have as much stalling going along the process,

including also the commission solicitation process

and prioritized collaboration with the Sacramento Youth Commission.

so we're looking forward to creating that connection as well as stipends for

community participants who engage in the process as you guys are familiar we had

121 applications so people reviewing these applications were very overworked

and burdened so we're hoping that we can provide an incentive for them to give

their all in their best approach in that regard and then also to prioritize

community engagement the strategic planning process we want to hear the

community see what they have to say and help that form our strategic planning as

we go forward. In the implementation phase, the organizational budget was one

that was that was mentioned in raising that to a higher amount for those

needing to provide audited financial statements. We had that at $200,000

yearly organizational budget and we're looking at possibly increasing that for

our next strategic investment plan. Redefine or refine the RFP and

application process you know a little bit more user-friendly anything that

helps people to be encouraged to apply to this grant that we have before us and

providing capacity building and applications to support to small and

emerging CBOs we heard that from many CBOs and we're hoping that we can join

alongside them and help them feel more comfortable and in applying and feeling

supported and they're not in a sense as at a disadvantage when they apply for

these RFPs and also to recruit potential grant advisory review panelists early

That was something that we wanted to have a very diverse panel,

but with that comes a lot of work and a lot of extra processes that we need to go to,

and we're just trying to be a little bit more on top of that

so we don't cause any more delay for money to be into the community

and just kind of streamline all of that.

And then just upgrade the city of Sacramento grants management system.

We already have quite a few things that have been overhauled,

and in continuation they're looking to do even more

for us to have an easier way moving forward

for those reviewing RFPs and those submitting applications.

And then just a quick status update.

The programmatic and financial reporting quarter one

was just collected.

The next quarter will be due in January 2026.

Many programs that have begun starting

and the first 25% of that has,

of their awards have been submitted.

So a lot of programs have begun start begun implementation

and we're very excited to see the reporting for that.

The request for proposal for evaluation services

was released in October 2025.

And that is just the evaluator that we've brought alongside

to evaluate everything that is being done

in this Sacramento Children's Fund

to see how efficient it is to support the CBO.

so it's not a huge burden.

We set aside funds for that so we can have that going forth,

and that should be closing very soon in the WARDY being selected.

And then the guaranteed basic income.

Notice a fund availability will be released in December 2025.

As you recall, we set aside 20% to have guaranteed basic income

for those who are aging out of foster care,

and that should be going out very soon.

and the SDF commission plans to begin discussing potential changes to the strategic investment plan

very soon here in 2026 in different ways, you know, how it always is in the beginning.

There's always different ways you look back you could have done it.

So we're very excited to have this under us and grow and make it even more efficient moving forward.

And with that, I'd like to open up for any questions and comments that you guys may have.

Thank you for your presentation.

Clerk, are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this item?

Thank you, Chair.

I have no speaker slips for this item.

Great.

We'll start off with Commissioner Cotavail.

Hello.

I just wanted to say thank you to you and your team for your hard work.

This is very important to me personally.

I see a lot of the award recipients are from my district in D2,

and I know we personally have a huge problem getting youth civically engaged.

So I really appreciate all the hard work that's gone into this

and bringing us this presentation.

Now, my question for you guys is, in regards to the grant advisory review panelists, has

there been any talks to maybe include some youth in these conversations as to the award

recipients?

In regards to being on the panel, you're saying?

Potentially, or being able to even give some kind of input on the applications, the process.

Do you guys potentially see any room for that in the future?

I know I'm speaking for myself.

I'd love to, you know, potentially see how I can contribute in any way.

Yeah, we have had some of those conversations and we would gladly welcome that input and think it would play a huge factor for this process moving forward.

Thank you.

Thank you for your presentation again.

And just to add on to Commissioner Carabello, I was a grant panelist this last round of grant

reviewing.

And so it definitely was a long process, but it was worth it.

All of the community business organizations that I see on the screen, their work was really

great and I aligned heavily with their plans for the youth of Sacramento.

I was wondering if the grant changes or the strategic investment plan changes will include

Sacramento Youth Commission joint meetings like it did last time.

I believe that is an issue going forward.

Julie, if you have anything additional to that, please.

Yes.

So we're looking forward to calendar for 2026.

It will be the beginning of discussions with the Sacramento Children's Fund.

And we have had the request from that commission to have another joint special meeting with

the Sacramento Youth Commission.

That's something we'll have to plan

with Sacramento Youth Commission staff and the city clerk,

but that has already been brought to our attention.

Great, thank you.

And I was wondering if there was a goal,

like as far as the main goals

that each community business organization

or each goal that a grant was awarded to,

was there a certain percentage that was set by city council

or did it just go by how the grant reviewed?

There was no percentage allocated based on the goals.

I think that is something that they would look forward

for the next strategic investment plan

based on what they've seen other cities do.

But as far as this one, it was just covering the five goals

and scoring was kind of a really divvied up

the way it broke down.

Yeah, thank you.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

Let's see.

This item is review and discuss.

so no vote is required.

We will move on to the next item,

which is item number five,

fall semester at City Hall project briefings.

All right, well, good evening, Chair,

Vice Chair and Commissioners.

My name is Dominique Kerndon and I serve as the Program Coordinator in the Youth Parks

and Community Enrichment Department.

I am here to present to you all the Semester at City Hall Youth Awareness Briefings completed

by the Fall Cohort of the Semester at City Hall Program.

Due to program and commission timeline, this cohort was not able to present but instead

developed and crafted three thoughtful briefings for your review and your consideration.

All right, so just a little bit of background about what is Semester at City Hall.

It's a five-week civic engagement program that engages high school youth in topics centered

around the federal and local government, leadership, activism, advocacy, equity, and more.

Also students participate in their own learning by working together in small

cohorts to complete a research project on a topic that is most important to them

and other youth in their respective community. This is also called Project

City Hall. A new aspect of the program this fall was the addition of two peer

mentors that returned from the spring semester to serve in a leadership role.

They served as guides and mentors for the new participants and I just have to

say they did fantastic you might know one that's sitting on the Commission all

right so some overarching and high-level goals of the program I won't read them

all but I'll just hit on a few so when it comes to resources provide resources

support and connection to effective programs and services that lead to

success in education in addition to the resources provided during the program

it was important for us to also have weekly speakers to also come and provide

additional information, additional resources that young people could take

with them outside of the program. The next one would be is build, build 21st

century skills including leadership, workforce development, life skills, social

and emotional skills. And for many of the young people this semester for the fall

this was like their first civic engagement program so they walked away

with a lot of skill that they'll be able to take with them and build upon in

their journey and then lastly create create a safe environment both physically

and emotionally in all settings honoring culture and community and a consensus

from the program was that participants felt seen they felt safe they felt like

there was a sense of belonging so wanted to make sure to highlight those three

Okay, so what is Project City Hall?

So it is a project-based learning model where students work on a project over the five weeks

of the program, and it engages them in real-world problem solving and allows them to answer

a question, a complex question, about the city of Sacramento.

And then students are able to demonstrate their knowledge and skills by developing a

youth awareness briefing.

For a little bit of clarity and context, a briefing is a short written document to disseminate

concise and essential information to an audience.

Also to inform them about a topic, situation, or task to facilitate their understanding

and support decision making or direct action.

The briefings that I will present on the next slide are in alignment with the definition

that I just read and are more targeted and tailored to bringing awareness to youth related

issues here in the city. So you'll see the cover page of each of the briefings

you also have the briefings in your staff reports. So this semester we had

three teams that developed three youth awareness briefing. First we have you'll

see team mind over matter. They focus their research on youth mental health

and the lack of youth-led hotlines here in the city of Sacramento which they

viewed as a barrier for some youth to reach out to these hotlines and

possibly get help next you'll see team Street Smart they focus their research

on youth public safety and how young people often don't feel safe walking

around in the streets of Sacramento even though it is their main mode of

transportation as a young person lastly you'll see the title page for team the

Foxes which focused the team focused their research on youth homelessness and

child abuse and neglect citing in their briefing that some young people do not

feel safe at home and choose to run away only to face neglect in the child

welfare system okay so a few participants from fall semester have

returned tonight to talk about their briefing and why their team chose their

topic, any challenges that they faced during their research, and why they chose their situation,

I'm sorry, why they chose their solution to that problem, right?

So first, I'll bring up Team Street Smart to share a little bit about their briefing

and their research.

Hello, Sacramento Youth Commission.

My name is Lino Wu, and I live in District 1.

Good evening, Sacramento Youth Commission.

My name is Rohan Iyer, and I live in District 1.

And basically, our team had a really strong connection with this topic,

and it's because a lot of us relate it to our own experience.

I know for me, this was before I started driving,

but it was kind of scary to walk to places after school.

I agree with Luina, and as I'm not old enough to even have my permit yet,

and getting around, or I get around mostly by walking,

and I feel like it's dangerous sometimes to walk around downtown

or other parts of Sacramento at later hours or even during the day sometimes.

And we see these buttons on college campuses.

I just went to UC Berkeley for a tour.

They also had these buttons and also I went to the state capitol.

They also had these buttons.

So it would be really great if we implement this in our city.

I also noticed these when I toward the UC Davis campus and also we have found

from our research that Sacramento State also has at least 200 of them plastered

around their campus. And we're open for questions. Thank you for your

presentation. I agree for the most part. I'll pass it over to Commissioner Sohota

for now. But yeah, I'll give the comments later.

Hi, you guys. I think this is actually a great issue for you guys to speak on. As someone who is often out late at night, especially because of the winter, I find it really unsafe to walk alone by myself because even though I do have a car and even though I drive places, transportation and most often walking is really common for a lot of young people. And I feel like by implementing these kind of like safety or call buttons that I see on college campuses would be really helpful.

However, the thing is, while I do love this idea, there is a question being posed of where would we find the most effective places for these buttons to be placed.

For example, Sacramento is really large.

We're a really diverse city, and that's a great thing.

But at the same time, it makes it difficult to kind of pinpoint what active areas are.

Overall, I think you guys did a great job, and I really love your idea, and I would love to see you guys explore this more in the future.

That's all.

Thank you.

Commissioner Corliss.

Sorry. Yeah, I just want to speak on this because I feel like I connected with this topic,

especially because I've kind of advocated in my neighborhood, at least for bike lanes,

more specifically in the bike lanes rather than the pedestrian walking, although I know in other

neighborhoods besides District 4, Midtown, walking is a bigger problem. But I just want to say it's

something that is it's not easy to do it's not easy to get this but it's it can be done and

the city of sacramento has put in i remember because yeah i advocated in front of my um

my just my neighborhood but then about like six months later they started putting in bike lanes

down in midtown and they've had a lot of success there um and so it's definitely possible and even

though it's in a program, it doesn't mean it's something that can't be done in real

life, too.

So I just want to point that out.

Commissioner Sisto.

Hi.

Thank you so much for your guys' debrief on your briefing.

Is that what it's called?

A short briefing?

It was definitely informational.

And I also do love your guys' solution idea.

I like how you guys took inspiration from what other campuses are doing around us.

I think that's pretty innovative.

And I also do agree with what my fellow commissioners said earlier about despite your solution having some restrictions, it definitely is not impossible.

One of my questions for you is, what was your research process like in concluding your conclusions, if that makes sense?

Well, we conducted a survey, which should be in the briefing.

We had a bunch of responses, and a lot of them said that this implementation would have been positive towards our city's public safety.

Was your survey targeted to each specific district or was it pretty broad kind of you created a survey and kind of sent it out to all your connections that you had?

We targeted towards youth or people in the age group under 18.

And we asked as one of the questions on the forum,

which area of Sacramento or district that this would have been the best

implemented in first.

And I think a lot of the people said district four or downtown.

Okay.

Okay.

I think, okay, that's definitely some good findings.

I think if maybe the commissioners could try and do some work to reach out to our representatives to bring up this concern, especially with your findings about specifically which districts, which I think Commissioner Sohota brought up as one of her concerns, right?

So I think we can definitely try to get somewhere with that.

But thank you for your time.

Thank you.

And now we have the...

We have one more.

One more? Okay.

Good evening. My name is Jermaine Lester, and I'm a part of the Foxes.

Our project focuses on youth homelessness in the city of Sacramento.

We chose this topic because youth homelessness is a serious issue that affects safety and future of many young people.

It's often overlooked and we wanted to bring more attention to the challenges you face when they don't have stable support or housing.

While researching, we learned that finding accurate information was difficult because youth homelessness is widely underreported.

To make sure our data was reliable, we reviewed several credible sources.

Our solution focuses on both immediate safety and long-term support.

This includes safe housing, mental health resources, education help, and job training.

We chose this approach because it helps youth move towards stability and independence.

I would like to thank Ms. Dominique for the opportunity to be in this program, and I will also thank the City of Sacramento for giving me the chance to speak today.

Thank you.

All right, almost finished.

All right, so we do have an ask,

which I heard some of the commissioners already talking about some of the things

that we would like you all to do with these briefings

and the information within the briefing.

So first, of course, our ask is that you please read the briefings,

if you haven't already, all three of them.

And then consider innovative approaches to use the information

and the research and the solutions highlighted within each briefing.

And lastly, share with your networks and other young people

or even your council members or the council staff,

which I heard some of you already said that you will.

So we're in alignment.

All right, and that is all.

If you have any questions, now's the time.

Clerk, are there any members of the public

who wish to speak on this item?

Thank you, Chair.

We have no speaker slips for this item.

Okay, and then we'll move on to Commissioner Soto.

Hi, I think this is a wonderful project and it's wonderful that the city of Sacramento is hosting a space for youth to take the initiative to kind of delve into what are the questions or what are the concerns of living in this city.

And I think it's great that you guys are focusing on things like youth homelessness and what is a safe place for you to hang out.

My main question for you guys or for mainly how the program function was how were surveys conducted?

I know in the briefings there are statistics mentioned.

Was there like a specific method of reaching out to people to have them fill out these surveys?

Was there like an email chain?

Was social media involved?

Was physical media involved?

I'd love to hear more about that process.

Sure.

So each group created their own survey, and they used their own networks to disseminate the survey.

So some may have put it on their social media.

Some may have emailed it to different people.

I know one group was trying to work with their counselor to make sure that it could be disseminated a little bit more widely.

But it was really more so the young people who participated in the program using their social networks to get the responses from their peers.

That's wonderful.

No, I think it's a great initiative taken by the youth.

And seeing that you guys got a solid enough response to elicit some sort of pattern or find some sort of result from this is wonderful.

and I think it's overall great both for youth to develop what they want to do

and what impact they want to make in the community as well.

Thank you.

Commissioner Caraveo.

I just would really like to say that I personally really love the idea of the call buttons.

I think something like that could be really beneficial in parks.

I feel like parks is a huge one, especially as that's where most youth are at,

And I even love the idea of potentially connecting these buttons to the precincts that are the closest.

Like me personally, I live in District 2.

So the Hagenwood Community Center is pretty close to our Marysville police station.

So I instantly drew that connect there.

I know I personally would love to advocate this to my council member.

So thank you for that.

I will definitely be echoing this.

And I especially love that you guys also address youth homelessness.

I feel like that is, I work at a community college right now, so I do work with a population of homeless youth.

And it is really heartbreaking, especially when you're trying to figure out with them resources, where they can go for food, where they can go for the basic everyday needs.

So I just really appreciate you guys for touching on those two really sensitive topics.

Thank you for all the presentations, Dominique included.

The Team Street Smart, it was a great idea.

I agree that it can be scary to walk downtown

or even in suburban areas.

A lot of the youth in Sacramento do live in suburban areas,

but suburban areas are kind of made to be car central,

and a lot of other places are created to surround cars,

whereas you have other places in downtown,

like maybe on our street, that are more surrounded

to pedestrians and more focused on giving pedestrians

the best experience.

And so I think there definitely is a difference

between someone feeling safe walking on our street

and someone feeling safe walking in a crowded suburban

like street.

So I think it's important that we do ensure

that our streets are safe.

And so this is something I definitely will bring up

with my council member.

And teens deserve a place to belong.

I appreciate the research done for that.

You did a great job presenting it by the way.

And so 16% of all homeless people in Sacramento,

I think that was our youth.

So I think that was a really great statistic.

I crunched the numbers in my phone right now

and that's like over a thousand homeless youth,

which is crazy.

That's more than the students that they have at West Campus.

So imagine like your entire high school

was literally just youth that are homeless.

And so that's, it's crazy to think about it that way,

is it not?

So just putting that into perspective

so that we're aware of what's happening,

but also making change for it.

And so definitely something that I will bring up

with my council members, but thank you.

Thank you.

This item is received and discussed on all vote was required.

We'll move on to the next item.

Item number six is City of Sacramento Youth Commission 2025

annual report and 2026 work plan.

Hey, everyone.

I'm going to present from here, if that's okay.

Good evening, commissioners.

I'm Sarah Musser, park superintendent with youth parks and community enrichment.

Tonight, I'm here discussing the focus areas highlighted in the 2025 annual report and the 2026 work plan.

I will be reviewing the work plan focus areas for 2026 as recommended by staff.

after I review you will have a chance to ask questions and or discuss following

that discussion we'll be seeking approval to move forward every year the

Youth Commission must submit an annual report that goes over what they

accomplished the previous year and a work plan that sets up their plan for the

next year coming up for us that's going to be 2026 that work plan gets submitted

to the personnel and public employees committee,

which is made up of a handful, four council members.

Thank you, good, I got that right.

Four council members, they will review and approve

and send it up to the council for final approval

and it will be there for us to follow.

So at the October meeting,

you were briefed on the focus areas for 2026,

had a really robust conversation.

staff listened and reviewed your comments and came up with a draft work plan this has been created

recommending three areas of focus for us in 2026 I'm just going to go over the main topics not

everything in detail as that was included in your staff report and that's available for everyone to

review so starting off with our first focus area of youth mental health commissioners will continue

their efforts to promote mental wellness and increase access to supportive resources for young

people. Building on the progress you all made in 2025, commissioners will develop and implement

a strategic outreach plan to expand the youth to expand the reach of the youth mental health

resource guide. The second focus area is community partnerships. So this will help to support the

mission of the youth commission in advancing youth voices and expanding opportunities for

young people citywide. Commissioners will prioritize building relationships with youth-serving

organizations, neighborhood associations, community centers, nonprofits, and other city departments.

By strengthening existing relationships, like our Aggie Square relationship, but additionally

cultivating our new ones, commissioners can broaden their reach to increase impact and ensure that

youth perspectives are embedded in the initiatives across the city. So we can do what we've been

doing but also kind of explore some new partnerships which Dominique and I heard very clearly as

personalities and people change on this commission we want to allow for growth and for fluid

creation in 2026. Finally wrapping up our focus areas we're proposing to continue with the SAC

Youth Voice by expanding its outreach efforts and strengthening its presence across the city the

commission can ensure that young people have meaningful opportunities to share

their experiences ideas and needs building on your insights gathered

through the youth voice survey you'll continue to identify barriers youth face

and except accessing program services and opportunities all focus areas we

didn't add a timeline for completion we we consider them ongoing as we want to

continue working on these things.

They're broad enough to evolve

with Commissioner's interests and priorities.

So with that,

my presentation is complete.

I'm happy to take any questions you have.

But it's

been great putting this together for you all.

Thank you.

Clerk, are there any members of the public who should speak on this

item? Thank you, Chair.

I have no speaker slips on this item.

So Commissioner Sohoto.

All right, perfect. Thank you

so much for the presentation. I currently

don't have any questions because when I am new however reading everything and

seeing all the efforts being currently made by the Youth Commission and what

you guys have planned for the future is really inspiring and I'm really looking

forward to working on any projects and kind of contributing in any way I can

whether it be brainstorming ideas for how to push forward our mission and what

statements we want to have the community kind of see and observe thank you thank

you we're excited to have your voice on the Commission

I wanted to add to that the idea of including community partnerships is a great idea.

It connected Aggie Square, but also the new partnerships that we're looking to find are

open to accepting and bringing in.

So yeah, that was a great addition.

So thank you for that.

But yeah, I think this item requires a vote.

So we'll need to make a motion in a second to approve.

Are there any commissioners who wish to make a motion?

I move to approve.

We have a motion by Commissioner Caravello.

I second.

A second by Commissioner Turk.

So this is going to forward it to the Public Employee Committee for consideration and approval.

And for the vote, we could do a voice vote if that's right.

Yes, absolutely.

Okay.

So then we'll just basically do like an all in favor say aye.

And then if not, okay.

Okay.

So all in favor say aye.

Everyone unmute their mics first.

please.

Okay.

So all in favor say aye.

Aye.

And then all opposed say nay.

Okay.

So perfect.

So I think that proves it, right?

That does.

I heard a unanimous,

I heard unanimous eyes on the vote with no nays,

no abstentions.

And for the record,

members Roland and Bernardo are absence.

Okay.

The next item is member comments, ideas, questions, and meeting conference report.

We'll do a roll call.

And for our newest commissioner, this is just a time to update the commission about stuff that you have been doing in your community,

if not just a time to check up on yourself with the rest of us.

Member Sista?

All right.

Hi, everyone.

So with the year coming to an end, I've just been pretty busy with school and everything.

College has, it's been going.

It's been going.

I'm just trying to get through these last two weeks of finals and then when I break.

So I'm almost free.

But apart from that, I do have a quick event that I'd like to share with you guys.

So at All Cove, the Youth Mental Health Center, located in upper Oak Park area region, they recently had their soft launch opening.

So they are now open for some services.

I need to confirm on which services.

But their services range from peer support to therapy and other types of youth mental health support.

so if you guys could share that with your local connections that would be great and at the center

we are having a community winter movie night where we will be enjoying a nice movie of the

polar express and that's going to be this friday i think that starts at 5 30 p.m to 7 30 i believe

but i also do have a flyer for the event so if any of you would like that flyer and could maybe

connect again share with your connections that would be great yeah

that's it

member Caraveo hi everyone I know this is our last business meeting of the year

so I just wanted to say it was nice to work with all of you this year I've had

a great first term I really enjoyed the Commission and getting to really see how

concerned everyone really is for the well-being of their community. As for my

report, I hope everybody had a wonderful turkey day or holiday. I know in D2 I

actually worked with a few of my neighbors to actually give out free

meals so we were able to successfully give out a hundred and seventy-five

meals in District 2 this year. So we all walked away feeling really proud. I think

there was only about eight of us. My mom personally made 27 pumpkin pies. So it was a great turnout.

I love being able to see the community come out. Love to even do this with the rest of the

commission potentially next year. Also too, I've been working with my PBID for North Sacramento,

getting updates for them. I know they're focusing on their rebranding of the PBID and what they

call themselves, trying to get more outreach about that.

So, yeah, been getting to know a bit more of our D2 neighborhood associations, working

more with my council office.

Yeah.

Member Perez-Magenoy.

Hi.

So I just want to say that 27, that's really impressive, and that's really cool.

For me, I am just trying to get through the end of the year, considering college applications

just closed, and I think that it's a good step for me for the future.

But as for my work in the district, I recently went to a town hall meeting for District 4

where we heard the different comments that the constituents had,

and I got to go to represent the youth,

and I think I got a good understanding of what different issues can be crossed

to both the youth and the council member,

so hopefully I can get a good board to share with the council member

on the commission's work soon.

Member Corliss?

Not much to share besides that I've been, I've completed like almost all my college

apps and I'm just excited to get past that and starting to do more work on like extracurriculars

like everything that I don't do in school.

I really want to spend more time on and I'm excited to be able to do that now.

Thank you.

Amber Chan.

Hi everyone.

Wow.

Last meeting of the year.

I just wanted to update the mental health focus area.

We currently have completed the editing and adding the final touches, and we are currently trying to distribute it.

And so I'm hoping we get that done as quickly as possible.

And, yeah.

Thank you, everyone.

Member DeLeon.

Hi, everyone.

Mostly I've just been working, and I just finished all my college applications.

and now that that's done I'm happy to start doing more youth mission stuff

especially the Aggie Square focus group which starting again next year and

apart from that everyone has a good rest of your year. Commissioner Turk. I've been working on making a kind of report for my

district member on the Halloween walking off the road that me and Hugo worked on

for Eric Yerra and just showing him what went well and what maybe we should

change for it for next year and if we'd want to do it in other neighborhoods

that are also highly populated

Commissioner Avila personally just trying to stay on top of school right

now with this last finals push and then also she's been really busy with some

work with soul collective and events plannings especially through what those

and things like that but I guess it's just good year with everybody and really

excited for the next year vice chair Longmire I'm not excited for this being

like I'm just excited for like us to close off the year with the positive

I really like this business meeting.

I also hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving holiday,

and also you enjoyed the one that's coming up.

I haven't been working with my council member directly.

I've been doing my own original community work,

but I will be getting in touch with her soon

so I can help with the toy drives for Christmas and all that.

I'm also just trying to hurry up and finish college apps.

I did the CSU's UCs.

Now I need to do private.

So it's pretty much, yeah, it's going good.

Commissioner Rupre.

Hello.

Personally, just getting ready for finals.

A little nervous.

Yeah, that's about it.

Happy holidays.

Hope you all have a good Thanksgiving.

Commissioner Gounder.

For me, we just started this year's first canned food drive at our school,

and it's been fun coordinating it,

but kind of not looking forward to coordinating

all the U-Hauls we're going to have to take back

because a lot of times we have to get parents to help out with that

and we're expected to reach well over a couple thousand cans donated this year.

Other than that, besides finishing semester at City Hall last month,

I've just been focusing on school

and finishing our blood drive, starting the canned food drive.

But overall, I'm just excited to actually dive deeper into the focus areas next year

and, yeah, work with the rest of the commission.

Commissioner Sahota.

Hi, everyone.

I feel like I've had such a busy year.

So for one, I am the director of public relations for the club and events board over at American River College.

I'm also an after-school teacher for Natomas Park Elementary.

I teach computer automated design and we just got our 3D printer today so my kids are really excited about that.

And then I also joined the youth commission this year.

I applied back in June and I feel like everyone here has maybe heard about me applying or something like that.

So I'm really happy to be here.

It's been a long ways coming and I'm really excited to potentially contribute to some projects next year or get to know you all better.

and then as far as, oh yes, I attended I think like six weddings this year. It was really busy

and then what else? Oh, we're planning to. My cousin recently got engaged and then another

cousin is going to get engaged very soon so I hope his Beyonce's not watching this but

yeah, overall I had a really busy year. I had a lot of fun. I made a lot of good memories and I

hope I continue to do so. Thank you. And Chair Rios. I've had a great year on the commission so

far. It's been a great time to work with all of you on every business meeting, during every

capacity building training, learning more and more as we grow. Recently, I finally got employed.

So I got a job at like a, it's like a boba shop near my house. So I can't say I'm unemployed

anymore but now I've just been working really closely with the students at my

school I have a tutor a seventh grade math class and so I've been working

really closely with them seeing them grow their grades have been improving by

a lot so it's just been amazing just to see how much they have learned and then

recently I went to a mixer at Aggie Square we had those every month and so

it's like a networking event this past month it was focused on economic growth

in the city so we were there were people who there were venture capitalists

there there were those that are in AI startups and so there was so much

knowledge there the mixtures are bigger than I even expected there was a

professor there from Berkeley who was born in or he's from Chile and he was

flown in by Berkeley to come to this event just to network about sustainable

agriculture so there's so much knowledge there so many different people to meet

every month is a different topic so this next month is going to be focused on

health and wellness so if you're interested in the medical field or

anything surrounding health and wellness it would be a great chance to go to one

of those mixers but other than that I'm looking forward to continuing my work

with the Commission this next year then I'll pass it to Sarah really quick just

one quick announcement it is great this is the last meeting of the year it's

It's awesome to see all the work you all did.

I just want to make a quick announcement that this is my last meeting.

I'm staying within the city.

No gasping.

It's all fine.

Dominique is your main point of contact.

I'm staying within the city, just moving over to the park maintenance side.

I will not be a stranger.

Trust and believe youth are going to be incorporated into the programs and opportunities that I'm going to have ahead of me.

however in the audience is Chris Wimberly and Sean Swanson who will be

taking over the the leadership portion of it however Dominique is still your

main go-to she's your coordinator she's your person for everything but I just

want to say thank you please introduce yourself to Chris and Sean as you exit

fun fact Chris has done this before so it was just a pit stop with me for about

three years and now I'm tossing it back to her so she's got a lot of experience

knows exactly what SYC is capable of

and is really excited about the opportunity

coming back to her.

So thank you all.

It's been great.

I look forward to seeing all the growth

that you all do in the future.

And I won't forget your names

because I know we'll be hearing from you all.

So thank you.

Appreciate it.

Well, yeah, thank you, Sarah, for all your work.

Let's give her a round of applause.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Our last item is public comments, matters not on the agenda.

Clerk, are there any members of the public who wish to speak?

Thank you, Chair.

We have no speaker slips for matters not on the agenda.

Well, this concludes today's agenda.

Thank you, everyone, for your participation.

This meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.

Good job.

Thank you.