Commonwealth Club: What Children Need to Thrive: Why Supporting Families Is Fundamental to Improving Child Outcomes

When families have support, children and youth do better at home, in school and in their communities. Yet many conversations about “student success” focus narrowly on classrooms and test scores, overlooking the pregnancy, early childhood, housing, mental health, special‑needs and basic‑needs supports that shape whether children can show up ready to learn in the first place. This program will explore how family resource centers and other family support services operate in San Francisco, drawing on the experiences of community leaders and parents who know these systems firsthand. Through stories from their work and lives, the panel will highlight how family support helps families navigate complex systems, build stability, and prevent crises before they escalate. The conversation will also consider what we can all do to support cradle‑to‑career supports for families, so that all San Francisco children and youth can thrive. About the Speakers Opening remarks and introductions will be by Kula Koenig, the chief policy officer at Safe & Sound, where she leads policy, advocacy and strategic partnerships to strengthen child abuse prevention through upstream investment, cross-sector collaboration, and systems change that centers families most impacted by inequities. She directly oversees Safe & Sound's role as the backbone organization of the Family Services Alliance, working to make San Francisco a place where all children, youth, and families can thrive. Kula grounds her leadership in the belief that prevention and civic engagement must be inclusive, accessible and healing. She brings more than 15 years of leadership experience at the intersection of public health, early childhood, and racial equity, including senior roles at Public Health Advocates, United Way, and the American Heart Association. She is also the founder and executive director of Social Justice PolitiCorps. Kula holds a B.A. from UCLA and an MBA from The George Washington University. Moderator Brittni Chicuata is the director of economic rights at the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, where she leads policy and programs that aim to eliminate wealth disparities, build economic equity, and uplift economic opportunities to improve quality of life for the most marginalized in San Francisco. Her policy contributions have provided guaranteed income; improved housing protections; developed standards for citywide racial equity and cannabis; supported the local, state, and national reparations movements; and first-in-the-nation campaigns. Her current work includes anti-discrimination enforcement and equitable workforce development, including co-designing the first free, accredited midwifery education program in the country, which will build a pipeline of community-rooted health-care workers to address the crisis-level maternal health disparities in San Francisco. Her past experience includes working as a legislative aide for Supervisor Malia Cohen, serving as campaign manager for Malia Cohen’s historic campaign for California controller, and as government relations director at the American Heart Association, where she successfully led first-in-the-nation campaigns. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in American studies from Macalester College and a Master of Public Policy from the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy.  Gloria Tan has been the executive director of the San Francisco nonprofit Gum Moon since 1986. Gum Moon operates a residence hall in Chinatown for survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking. In addition, Gum Moon has 3 family resource centers in the Chinatown, Richmond and Sunset neighborhoods. The FRC's are all funded through the San Francisco Department of Early Childhood’s Family Resource Center Initiative. Originally from Singapore, Gloria came to the United States for college and earned a Business Administration degree from the University of San Francisco. In 2020, the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco honored her with its Lifetime Achi…