Michelle & That Damn Bridges Program

A good 50% of the reason I’ve disappeared is in great gratitude to the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and the Japanese Community Youth Council. After volunteering a few hours with San Francisco YouthWorks, 10-hour weeks of casual employment, bumped up to 15-hours demonstrated not only my desperation for employment, but also the talents that would come to serve 186 at-risk youth throughout San Francisco.

It came as an honor, really, when the directors of San Francisco Youth Works and the Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program came to me with the scariest of endeavors. Understanding my fear and inexperience of direct service (to inner-city youth, yikes) and my knack for talking my way into anything I wanted, they paired me with a fellow JCYC youth program alumnus to design our very own youth employment program for the summer - San Francisco Bridges To Success!

Now it may not be common knowledge that the San Francisco Unified School District and City College of San Francisco were unable to provide summer school. That means that millions of youth were left to wander the streets (an exaggeration) against the common belief that summer should be utilized to “get ahead.” But SOMEHOW, money came to JCYC, experts in youth employment, in every direction to fund the Summer Work Experience Program, the Summer Youth Employment Program (for 17-21 year old), and our own SFBTS (16-18 years old.)

Here I learn, first-hand, the bittersweet Workforce Investment Act, which provided this great opportunity, comes with the expense of hours wasted monitoring, reporting, and auditing. I don’t mean to knock the program, but there were many times where things were asked of me that I regrettably saw as time that could have been spent assisting youth and ensuring actual programmatic accountability – rather than chasing down documentation of it. I suppose that is why I served as the project manager and not any sort of direct service or case management staff, initially at least. But we carry on.

The program operated through 4 (briefly 5) subcontracted community-based organizations. On our side, my partner and I were ensure our program met the contract’s requirements: 50% academic enrichment and 50% work experience revolved around Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This meant developing STEM-related curriculum for a 6-week program for the CBO’s to conduct, provide pre-job readiness training and a placement for them to work as temporary subsidized workers.

A teams of us was 100% behind worksite development meeting the challenge of there just not being enough workplaces in San Francisco willing to accept temporary assistance from a high school youth because it meant training the skill-less while tolerating unreliable and, often-times, poor work ethic for not much reward. Not to mention there were several programs looking to put youth to work – must of had over a thousand youth came from JCYC’s programs alone! Not to mention that a good chunk, about 40 participants spoke little or no English and needed a supervisor that could accommodate them.

Our second challenge was designing curriculum that would re-engage a young person who has already suffered disappointment and lack of goals/motivation from our low-budget public school system. Under the ambiguous guidance of MYEEP’s director, we provided activities aimed at real world application of STEM concepts: the science of the human body and engineering of a bridge through building miniature models, technology through basic computer skills, and math through understanding budgets, saving, investing and credit. The 48 hours we wrote up sounded like a fun and educational summer – the bureaucratic delays complicated their execution.

What was supposed to be mid-way through the program, many youth still without worksites attended academic enrichment workshops 100% of the time, upset because they had signed up for a summer job – not what it felt like to them: summer school. I finally stepped out of what we called “The War Room” and into the Bridges battlefield, observing youth workshops and visiting youth worksites. Worksite development continued even past program end dates, when another program ended the supervisors were offered interns from our program as replacements. At the programs proposed end date, August 13, youth continued to enroll and sub-contractor contracts extended. We eventually met our numbers and my boss alleviated my concerns with, “we succeeded - kids were working.”

From the standpoint of the community’s mission, the youth were receiving a beneficial service that they would not otherwise have – learning English for those that couldn’t, positive adult interaction for those that lacked it, and making money to support their newborn children or impoverished parents. I, a stranger to the environment, was there to ask what other support I could provide them around their career and education goals, which I soon became the sole source of which they would receive them.

The summer was over, my team dispersed into new full-time opportunities, my partner shifted programs, my new partner moved to New York. As our sub-contractors checked out of their responsibilities, I checked into direct service. I used the brainstorming sessions I held during workshops to design post-program events that I had a bit more quality control over.

The number one concern, as Bridges was ending, was if there were more jobs available. As an expert job searcher (ask anyone!) I looked religiously for opportunities suitable for them - an email came to my inbox from a little organization called MatchBridge. Another city funded program (DCYF), MatchBridge, with my best explainer hat, does not guarantee jobs but rather has connections to employers give its members, young people that pass screening requirements, to have an advantage in their job search. Speaking to two young ladies and at their request for job search assistance, I provided one-on-one coaching to assist them in joining MatchBridge and access their wide array of holiday retail opportunities. Following the successful one-on-one pow-wows, I strengthened ties with the MatchBridge staff and direct all my impressionable youth to join and take advantage of their services! The beauty of this particular service - they aren’t youth programs, they are real jobs and connection to real employers.

After hearing them announce their career interests: Real estate! Cooking! Music recording! Cosmetology! Nursing! I began planning our first event that would bring them all together – the Career Exploration Speaker Series. Determined to give them exactly what they asked for, I gathered panelist and youth program representatives from six industries: 1) Visual Performing Arts and Multimedia, 2) Culinary Arts and Hospitality, 3) Health Care, 4) Health Care, 5) Architecture and Construction, and 6) Law and Law Enforcement, and wrapped up the week with an overview of College options. With over 50% of the contact information I had being out-of-date and little/no leverage to convince them to attend, the event drained every bit of passion I had for helping people who just did not want it. It took the one-week holiday from the office to really recollect and remember why I was doing this, and I can really attribute my revival to one young woman from the program.

Back up to Mid-December, SF YouthWorks released their application recruiting new interns which allowed me to dangle a new piece of bait to youth to allow me to assist them – I had jobs! One by one they requested one-on-one assistance to complete their SF YouthWorks applications, which generated more interest in joining MatchBridge as well. I met with several youth, and some of their friends too, and learned about where they came from and where they hope to be one day.

One young woman expressed interest in law and becoming a Public Defender. I, exploring law myself, casually mentioned my hope to observe the courts the following week to learn a bit about the experience. The night before my intended visit, I received a text from her around 11pm, “When are we going to court.” I let her know that my plans had been cancelled since my friend couldn’t make it anymore – but we decided to go and figure it out ourselves.

We spent the morning at 850 Bryant, in-and-out of court rooms, chasing down an attorney to ask her questions, talking to a young couple on their sentencing day - you know, the way I like to spend my days off work. She kept saying they were there for the paycheck and didn’t understand they had someone’s life in their hand; I point out the stack of files and that a Public Defender could potentially have hundreds of clients that weren’t cooperative, switching all the time. We sat in on a good one too, almost like a television show, but my familial obligations restricted my time. I was honest with her, when she said Public Defenders didn’t bring their A-game when it came to their clients about how countless disappointment killed the energy I once had. The opportunity to chat with her definitely brought it back.

That brings me to now, where the past two weeks have been focused entirely on one-on-one job search assistance for several participants (and sometimes their friends) and sometimes on the weekend. This month, AACE Talent Search advisors had generously volunteered their time to provide Financial Aid workshops for my group – with very little interest in this assistance we only offered this once.

I know that I must keep bringing my A-game for the youth that have no other source of this kind of assistance and I’m very happy with the connections I’ve made with some of them. I’ve just got to handle it - one step at a time.

I'm not a bastard anymore!

This was a summer of many changes! My parents and my sister combined forces, or savings rather, to become first-time home-owners, and Daly City-zens! It took months of debate, really: In the city? Brand new condo? HOA dues? In-law unit? Rec room? Fitness center? Parking? Muni? Bart? Budget!?!

Ultimately, my dad fell in love with this little pink corner house nearby Daly City’s Westlake plaza, sold by the family of a recently deceased elderly woman who lived alone. Barred windows, musty pink carpet, and an odd half-story lay out – my dad and his army of helpers worked tirelessly to turn this one bathroom into two, refinish the foundation of beautiful wood flooring, achieve a millions coats of flawless assortment of off-white paints and install a brand new beige carpet. With a brand new kitchen in the planning stages and my parents making a slow move, we will soon be good to go!

Our new mission, however, is furnishing the place! We have a supremely Chinese dining room with the Auntie Hazel’s dark cherry China Cabinet with matching dining table, Uncle Henry’s house warming gift from the Philippines (12 Inch statues of the Chinese Gods - Fook Look So,) and Uncle Toby’s donation of a set of four shell carvings into floral artworks. My dad, first and foremost, purchased a television stand for his flat screen - which he has since decided is 1) not big enough and 2) should be mounted above the fireplace instead. We all concurred.

I lied. My dad, first and foremost, picked up a bed frame he saw while driving his SF Muni bus, the 31-Balboa, and quickly called for reinforcements to collect from the curb. My dad, second of all, hung his old lady curtains with vignettes with little rope ties to hold them aside. My mother finicky-ly selected brand new pieces for her dark cherry themed bedroom. Finally, my sister’s temporary residency filled the empty home with a sofa, shelf and other handy things.

I will take an interior design class, eventually to jazz up the place. My only contribution to our new home, thus far, has been removing the four feral kittens born in our backyard! But soon enough a washer dryer, new sofa, or massage chair will join the family.

Back pedaling to July, the paperwork of a new house lead to conversations around my parent’s legitimizing their relations – at least in the eyes of the state. We closed escrow and my sister turned 30 – my dad drunkenly announced that he has “Finally agreed to let [my mother] marry him.” Of course my mother’s gang of sisters forced him to one knee for a proper proposal and my diamond diva aunt assisted him with selecting a most beautiful diamond ring.

Now, wedding plans were a hot mess and we pretty much spent our every dime on the house. Since I was expecting a 23rd birthday in the monstrous Las Vegas – I invited my parents to join the cheap festivities and to get hitched in an Elvis style shot-gun wedding (that they really should have had 23 years ago…) The wedding plans grew, of course, from 30 guests to a whopping 70, so we naturally had to provide a Las Vegas style show! As a bridesmaid, I got dressed like Princess Peach while the rest of the gang looked like cotton candy (the color of it after being licked wet.) So many of us flew to Las Vegas to witness the 15-minute ceremony in which my dad was unable to avow his faithfulness – it was great. We receptioned on the 50th floor in a 900-square-foot Wynn suite to Costco snacks and a cute two-layered wedding cake and the gang ate their hearts out at the Rio Seafood Buffet.

My absence was excused but really I enjoyed a stroll down the strip in my tooth fairy Halloween costume arm in arm with the love of my life. We sneakily devised a plan to ensure entry to Las Vegas’ Hot Spot – XS Nightclub in the Wynn. The fellas caught an earlier free ride from my aunt and uncle, passing around a Jack and Coke in a Supersized McDonalds cup to get drunk, quickly. On the flip side, the ladies randomly caught the hummer limo after hanging back for a photo shoot in our tiaras that contradicted with our Halloween costumes.

Memorable mentions of the weekend – my beloved guardian is 1) back! And 2) came out for 5 hours of fun before returning to LA and work the next morning, my big sis (Tau) we wheel chaired out of the night club to be inspected by a medic, and the rest of us hung out with UNCLE TOBY!!! Yikes!

Turning 23, of course, was not a huge bit to celebrate. Honestly, I’ve been lying and saying I’m 23 for months before just to not be 22 anymore. 22 was the worst! I’m in a much better place in my life and excited for whatever changes this year may bring – which I hope and pray are aplenty!

Opportunities & Resource Fair

The Office of Economic and Workforce Development is inviting local businesses, educational institutions and community based organizations to attend an opportunities and resources fair we will be hosting for our youth ages 16 - 24 who have just graduated from our 6 week employment program and are looking towards next steps in their career path. It's a great opportunity for you to market your business, recruit new hires, and support your community.

For more information, please contact (415) 202-7944 or Michelle Wong at mwong@jcyc.org.

You can register for the event by clicking here.

Summer Youth Employment Program, Michelle speaking...

check it. call 415 202 7944, that's what you'll get. Following my gasp of excitement, crossing of my fingers and contracting of my cheek muscles for the huge smile because someone, anyone, might be returning our phone call with some good news: "We would love to have interns!"

I haven't blogged in ages but I forget that I should be using this portal to assist our rigorous outreach efforts. Now I will, accordingly:

Thanks to the Workforce Investment Act and Federal Recovery grant money, The Office of Economic and Workforce Development has the funding to provide several hundred youth with jobs this summer. The initiative, San Francisco Bridges to Success, will serve 16-18 year old youth with up to 80 hours of paid work experience for the remainder of the summer (concluding August 13) to explore careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. We invite workplaces that fall under those career fields to take advantage of the temporary subsidized workers by becoming a worksite!

These interns are of no cost to you because they will be employed and paid through our office. It's basically a way to lend you an extra hand for entry level or easily teachable projects around the office in exchange for valuable job experience that will increase the employability of San Francisco youth.

Interested in becoming a worksite? Call 415 202 7944, for sheezy. hiresfyouth@jcyc.org

Wisdom Teeth Extraction

They really make it seem as though it’s a mandatory procedure, inescapably necessary! Not like they’re making 2.5k from this less than an hour-long procedure. That’s not their motivation, not at all.

So it goes, my dentist has told me several a times that this needed to be done, the pressure on my teeth were ruining my alignment, why didn’t I do it yet, excuse me, you must do it RIGHT NOW! I would typically believe them, like the time they told me to get braces (thought I never did go through with that,) however, I read Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner’s Freakonomics this past summer and impressionably grew skeptical of those that defend our teeth! You see, extrapolating from the authors’ theories about expert knowledge, I believe that the dentist refers me to the oral surgeon, who, even if I don’t need the procedure, will say I do because if they say I don’t, then the hurts the dentists credibility. If the oral surgeon turns them away, why would the dentist continue to send the oral surgeon his clients? In exchange, the dentist gets the good will of the oral surgeon, and therefore a recommendation in their network.

Who stands to lose? After all, we pay for the insurance to do these sorts of things. The receptionist encourages, “Your under your dads insurance right?, So you get an alottment of $2500 for dental work that expires and renews in July… If you don’t use it, you’ll lose the money anyway.” From this argument alone, I ponder whether I suffer tonsilolith and if I should use the $2500 towards this ear-throat-nose procedure.

So I’m nearing July and of course I want to take advantage of this money. During my consultation, which costs a whopping $200 already, I felt pressured to accept general anesthesia (of course it costs $400 compared to the $170 laughing gas local anesthesia.) I resist with the argument, “But you told my cousin that most people don’t like it because it makes people gag as they sleepily swallow the blood?” He’s pushy, and soon enough I’m walking out the door with a $2500 invoice, a hand full of drugs, $225 co-pay, and a plan to biopsy the mole on my lip!

On February 11th, I’m on the first flight back to San Francisco, early BART & Muni home, 30 minutes of shut-eye and on the way to my 10:30 AM oral surgery! The doctor and assistants quickly hassle me down to the seat, strap me to the IV and I’m out in time to wake up! I can’t move my entire mouth, tongue or lips, and the nurse is strapping ice packs to my cheeks. They instruct my dad the prescription and the take my credit card.

The very next day: I’m off to my meeting with Braelan from the Greenlining Institute and then to my first day at my internship at Center for Asian American Media. I know, I know, I’m a trooper… But it was NOT cute.

Healed and well two months later, I receive a phone call regarding my bill. My insurance did not go through and I may have to pay through the nose, please provide more information regarding my dad’s insurance. Blasphemy! I would not have carried out the procedure were I not insured! After upsetting my father with the news, following his Muni lay off, I called the office back with a piece of my mind – just kidding – those pieces of information they requested. The woman on the phone – yes, she did not know what I was talking about. My insurance remains pending.

Furthermore, I receive a bill from Rand Laboratories (or something like that). I call, “What in the world is this for?” Apparently, a hidden cost to my oral-surgeon-pressured cosmetic surgery procedure: they sent a sample of the said mole to a lab, unbeknownst to me, and are charging me for something, I was NEVER aware of. I haven’t responded to their notices, though perhaps I should soon.

That’s my story. I do not advise.

Active Voice & Agent Orange

Back in Los Angeles, I received a call from the team at Active Voice, an organization who’s presence in my life predates this blog, asking for a bit of research assistance for their latest endeavor… a social media campaign for awareness of agent orange and its resonating aftermath in Vietnam. Agent Orange is the name of the dioxin used by American efforts during the Vietnam War. It continues to harm our veterans as well as their civilians by causing deformations and cancers in war civilians and their offspring. My mission was to research five successful social media campaigns - what they did and how they did it, from production to budget to distribution.

The digging was an enjoyable learning experience that I’d like to share here. The social media campaigns in question, and my description of them, were:

UNICEF’s believing in zero campaign – Accordingly, 24,000 children die of preventable disease or poor living conditions and UNICEF uses celebrities in their broadcasted PSA and blogs to encourage donations and petition support, asking Congress to provide more funding to UNICEF to fulfill their mission of turning that 24,000 deaths into zero. I’ve seen this ad on TV, which didn’t strike a nerve as much as this research did. Though the petition has passed, and they’ve posted about considerable reduction results, the awareness mission doesn’t stop there.



Nike’s Girl Effect - Nike, despite sweatshop controversy, uses simple text to explain that by investing in just one girl (they use cases in Ethiopia and Bangladesh), by giving her a cow or an education, she will be able to improve the overall condition of her community, city, state, country, and the world. This refers to girls in developing countries that don’t have access to education because of prearranged marriages or fear of rape on the far off commute. It’s funny because some lamizoid comments something along the lines of “girls and guys have equal opportunity in this world, why are girls always asking for hand outs.” He got a mouthful of responses, as deserved. Anyway, the video made me really value my time at the YGC girls unit and I hope that I can inspire a girl to better her community and influence others likewise.

Charity Water – I must say this project is so impressive. A couple years ago, founder Scott Harrison cancels his birthday and asks that all monetary gifts and his birthday party fund go to building a well to provide clean water to those who don’t have access to it. Their PSA stars Jennifer Garner in New York, a mother taking an empty gasoline tank to get her water supply from the pond in central park. She then serves the murky water to her children. That is the reality to a lot of developing communities but a hundred times worse. I watched many of the videos on the Charity Water website that show how far they must travel just to get that water and what the water looks like. Charity Water’s mission is to get you (and me) to follow suit – cancel our birthday and build a well instead on the basis that 20 dollars gives one person water for life. The most beautiful part is that your donation in full goes toward building the water well and the organizations expenses are funded by grants and sponsorships.

Invisible Children – This campaign is the most familiar to me because of its overwhelming support and presences at UCLA. The story goes, three aspiring filmmakers travel to Uganda and discover the children running from the army recruitment (which sounds awful in those terms) because it is the driving force for the countries evil leader! It reminds me a lot of the Blood Diamond story, where the kids are kidnapped and brainwashed to kill, and are treated as disposable in return. This project has been going on for so many years so that now the saved kids that can now be called “visible grownups” are coming to the US to promote the campaign and demonstrate its successes. Its great! Now a nonprofit, Invisible Children draws its strength from staging large scale publicity events that call for volunteers to stay overnight in their city’s downtown district, much like the Ugandan children, and demand political leaders and celebrities rescue them.

Enough Project’s Come Clean for Congo – I don’t know how much attention this garnered because I’ve never heard of it, but apparently the Enough Project, serving as a project of the Center for American Progress, got enough support from Citizen Tube and audiences to ask Obama how he intends to increase pressure on the Sudanese regime to end the violence over conflict minerals (tin, tuxton, and tantalon) in the Congo. The videos make it clear that they don’t expect us to stop using our cell phones, where the conflict minerals are commonly used, rather they’d like us to use our conflict mineral machines to pressure congress and the US Government and United Nations to facilitate peace in Sudan.

Watch and enjoy, they’ll change your life!

Home away from home – Los Angeles & Las Vegas

It was a personal trip, of course. The only thing there is really to say about my professional growth is my lunch with Daniela because it was there that I discovered that my entire website will need to be redone, again! Apparently, it is best practice to work in divs and not in tables, which explains why my website loads so blockily. Unfortunately, the redesign is a project I do not have time to learn right now, but it will need to be done.

The trip to Las Vegas was also one of pleasure, in celebration of the Chiu Family February birthdays and the surprise engagement of my big cousin Kristina to the tall dark and handsome Brian Keates! Look out for my new project will be to produce a website and other materials for this event. Though Brian thinks it is a silly thing that their wedding would ever need marketing; of course people will be lining up around the block to see this lovely couple pronounce their love. Our successful girls night out crossed paths with the flava of love, himself! I also enjoyed the operatic Phantom, Las Vegas experience in the beautiful Venetian theater!