The mission of the Department of Children, Youth & Their Families is to ensure that families with children are a prominent and valued segment of San Francisco’s social fabric by supporting programs and activities in every San Francisco neighborhood.
Goals
The DCYF goals, called the Quality of Life Benchmarks, were adopted by the Board of Supervisors and Mayor and spelled out in the San Francisco city charter in 2001:
In 2006, Mayor Gavin Newsom added an additional goal to the department:
- San Francisco retains and begins to grow its child, youth, and family population
Functions
DCYF takes a multi-faceted approach to accomplishing its mission, including strategic funding, program partnerships, policy innovation, and informing and engaging the public.
Strategic Funding
DCYF allocates over $60 million to a wide range of grants and initiatives that serve children, youth, and their families. The DCYF funding strategy is based on an extensive two year process that includes a Community Needs Assessment and the creation of a Children’s Services Allocation Plan with input from stakeholders throughout the city. The primary areas of DCYF funding are early child care and education, family support, health and wellness, out-of-school time, violence response, youth empowerment, and youth workforce development.
Program Partnerships
A signature of DCYF is the leadership role the department plays in forging partnerships with other city departments, the San Francisco Unified School District, and community organizations. On-going partnerships include Youth workforce programs done in collaboration with the Juvenile Probation Department; Rec-Connect, a collaboration between the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department and Jobs for Youth; and a partnership with the United Way. All of DCYF’s early childhood work is done in collaboration with the First 5 San Francisco Commission and the San Francisco Human Services Agency. Wellness Centers and SF Team, a city-wide literacy program, are typical of partnerships with the San Francisco Unified School District.
Policy Innovation
DCYF is a generator of policy initiatives for San Francisco. The Department provides staffing for the Mayor’s Policy Council on Children, Youth and Families, which presents recommendations on issues impacting the retention of families in the city. Areas of interest include housing, education, cost of living, and transportation.
DCYF convenes a variety of task forces and working groups that develop policy initiatives, such as the Transitional Youth Task Force, the After School for All Planning Council, and the SFUSD/CBO Task Force.
Engaging and Informing the Public
DCYF is the office of city government responsible for providing general information to the public about the availability of resource, services, and programs for children and youth. A variety of strategies facilitate this work, including a parent-to-parent web site set to launch in March 2007, youth outreach workers throughout the community, a parent ambassador outreach program, and numerous guides to services. DCYF also coordinates a series of large, annual public events designed to raise awareness of San Francisco’s abundant resources and attractions for children of all ages and their families.
DCYF also creates opportunities to engage the public in conversation to ensure community input into program and policy decisions:
- The Children’s Fund Citizens Advisory Committee meets monthly in public forums
- A team of youth evaluate DCYF programs and assess community needs
- A Youth Empowerment Fund Advisory Board guides the funding for youth organizing
- DCYF sponsors ongoing community forums and hearings
History
After several decades of community advocacy to have an entity within government specifically designated to coordinate children’s services, the Mayor’s Office for Children, Youth and Their Families was created in 1989 by Mayor Art Agnos. After the 1991 passage of the Children’s Amendment, the MOCYF gained momentum and a substantial budget, and Mayor Willie Brown turned the MOCYF into a full city department.
Over the years the Children’s Fund grew, and public officials began to recognize the need to place various responsibilities related to the city’s children into one place. DCYF became the major city source of funding of youth employment, violence response, early childhood development, and afterschool programming. DCYF also became the major engine of inter-departmental partnerships related to children, youth, and families, as well as partnerships with the SFUSD.
In 2000, the Children’s Amendment was renewed by the voters of San Francisco and a Children’s Fund Citizens Advisory Committee was established. Members of the CAC are appointed by the Mayor, with a charge to advise the Mayor and DCYF regarding the Children’s Fund and another other issues of concern to its members.
Mayor Newsom appointed Maria Su, Psy.D., to lead the Department in 2009.
