Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Up dates from the SF Youth Commission

YOUTH VOTE RESULTS RELEASED!

YouthVote works with all public high schools to foster civic engagement Through a partnership between SFUSD and the Youth Commission, with funding from DCYF and support from San Francisco School Alliance. The Initiative is aimed at making elections and San Francisco's local leaders and government relevant and accountable to youth. Through our data collection process we are able to bring youth's voices to City Hall to guide our policy-making decisions. YouthVote's components include:

SFUSD continuation, charter, county, and court high schools participation in general elections using local, state and federal mock voter guides and ballots.

A survey aimed at guiding policy reforms reaching over 8,000 High School students. Coordination of the election process of the Student Advisory Council members who represent students needs to SFUSD.

A city-wide election where one student is elected by their peers to the SF School Board . This year, 8,256 high school students completed The San Francisco Student Survey, which represents 43.3% of the 19,051 high school students enrolled at the time. You can download the complete report at www.sfgov.org/youthvote. There you will find a detailed breakdown of the report by race, school, and neighborhood. Here are some highlights from our Executive Summary:

Educational Environment Strong desire to provide teachers with feedback

Students overwhelmingly agree with having the opportunity to review their teachers, with 70.5 percent voting yes.

This support was across nearly all schools and demographic groups. Students lack close relationships with staff at school

Nearly 40 percent of students have no close adult relationships at schools. This problem is more pronounced amongst younger students, with 56.8 percent of 9th grade students having no such relationships.

Class participation varies by school, race/ethnicity Asian-American and Latino/Hispanic students reported the highest rate of not being called on in class.

Burton, Washington, and Galileo reported the highest rates of students not being called on.

Stress and Homework

Lack of quiet homework space

One in six students (16.2%) do not have a quiet place to do their homework. White and Asian- American students are the most likely to have such a space.

Extra-Curricular Programs Students want after-school programs located at school Over forty percent of students (40.9%) wanted programs located at school, while approximately twenty-one percent of students (21.3%) prefer neighborhood-based programming. These results differed by students' school and neighborhood.

Lack of vocational direction About thirty-six percent of students (36.2%) know which career they will go into. Students at Galileo and Lowell were the least likely to know their future career, while students at Downtown and the County Court schools were most likely to know.

Youth Employment

Skills and job training classes at school are in demand Over eight-four percent of students want some for of skills or job training classes at school, with over three-quarters of students at every school expressing support.

Violence

Violence at schools varies dramatically The amount of violence at schools varies, from only four percent of Lowell students (4.1%) seeing violence at school, compared to over one-third of students at International Studies Academy (I.S.A.) (33.8%).

Transportation

Nearly seventy percent of students (69.3%) use some form of public transportation to get to school. Over forty percent (44.2%) of transit riders and thirty percent (30.6%) of all overall respondents must take more than one train or bus to get to school.

Gatherings for Change is Coming to you!

The San Francisco Youth Commission in partnership with youth and CBO's, are producing a series of events that promote youth-led civic engagement, provide platforms and spaces for policy discussions, and increase networking amongst youth organizations. Both neighborhood-based and citywide events are aimed at increasing youth voices to impact policy making. The source of this funding is the Youth Empowerment Fund, which is administered by the DCYF.

Excelsior Youth Summit- December 20, 2008

Know Justice Conference- February 18, 2009

Ethnic Studies Conference- March 10, 2009

Mission Youth Summit- April 25, 2009

South of Market Youth Summit- TBD

Western Addition Youth Summit- May 19, 2009

Chinatown Youth Summit -May 24, 2009

Bayview Youth Summit - TBD

Youth Fest June 20, 2009 (?)

We invite youth, CBO's, and family to come and help plan the Youth Summit in your neighborhood.

Mission - Planning meetings are on Mondays (HOMEY, PODER, IFR, CHALK)

Western Addition - Planning meetings are on Mondays (Mo Magic)

SOMA - Planning meetings are on Wednesdays (United Playaz)

Chinatown - To begin soon!

Bayview - To begin soon!

Be the Change You Want to See!

This is a great time to network with other youth organizers and make something happen for and by youth!

No comments: