Community Project Started in San Francisco East Bay Community By Homelees Youth

In the Alameda Times-Star, Tilde Herrera reports that a San Francisco East Bay woman, who traveled to California from New York in 1991 at 11 years old with her drug addicted mother, has started a crusade to help local community groups come together in an effort to bring social services to the neighborhoods that need them most.

The young woman, Venus Rodriguez, now 22, spent her childhood between homeless shelters and foster homes as her mother battled drug addiction and ran from an abusive husband, didn't stop her from being appointed to the Youth Commision by San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and travelling to the White House to represent homeless children.

Venus hopes to bring services like drug rehabilitation, counseling, peer support and like social services to the community, where it is needed, rather than uprooting the affected and while asking them to cope with a difficult situation, also asking them to relocate and reestablish their lives, as happened with her as a child.

Rodriguez represents a new era in community led social services, and when asked by Tilde Herrera of the Alameda Times-Star about a future political career, she responded: "I still like organizing for now, but (eventually), I want to be in a position where I can help the community but be involved in the policy side of it."