Led the creation of the historic Dream Keeper Initiative.
Inspired by Langston Hughes’s poetry and born out of the tragic murder of George Floyd, the Initiative is a first-of-its-kind citywide effort to reinvest $120 million over the next two years into San Francisco’s Black and African-American community.
“What happens to a dream deferred?”
Langston Hughes
The goal of the Initiative is to improve outcomes and to break the cycle of poverty and involvement in the criminal justice system for Black and African American youth and their families. I worked closely with Mayor London Breed’s office to engage Black residents, community leaders, and stakeholders, to ultimately ensure that the investments from the Initiative will be targeted to support San Francisco’s Black families who are most in need. This is just the first step to overturning years of disinvestment and righting the wrongs of history— and will help our City make great strides in improving outcomes for our kids and generations to come. Priority investments include expanding youth development and education programs, supporting Black-led and Black-serving arts organizations build capacity, connecting children and families to case management and support services, funding workforce training and development, promoting homeownership and provide housing stabilization, and supporting community health and wellbeing through food security and culturally-competent mental health services.
Expanded San Francisco’s Language Access Ordinance to increase language accessible services to monolingual or limited English speaking residents.
I worked with our communities and City departments to improve the City’s Language Access Ordinance, which sets expectations for accessible translation and interpretation services in all of San Francisco’s departments. I have committed to holding the City departments accountable in complying with the ordinance to ensure that all San Franciscans are able to access all City services without being hindered by a language barrier.
Created the first African American Reparations Advisory Committee.
I am proud to have led the creation of this historic task force to study financial compensation, community programs, and other innovative ideas and create a reparations plan for Black folks. With the appointment of the 15 leaders in May of 2021, San Francisco became the largest city nationwide to take such a concrete step to explore what reparations could tangibly look like. We sponsored the creation of this committee to take a long-needed look at how slavery, segregation, redlining, predatory financial practices, and other segregationist policies contributed to the racial wealth gap— and importantly, craft recommendations for policies and programs that can radically improve the lives of Black San Franciscans.
