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We Collaborate.
We are the County Welfare Directors Association of California. We are a nonprofit association representing the human service directors from each of California’s 58 counties.

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Victims of Elder Abuse Are Being Forced into Homelessness
Home Safe program would help counties step in to protect vulnerable adults

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From Our Partners: Making Ends Meet: How Much Does It Cost to Support a Family in California?
An interactive tool from the California Budget & Policy Center

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Hot topic Home Safe

Home Safe Budget Proposal for Adult Protective Services (APS)
Home Safe would allow APS to intervene at the time of crisis to prevent homelessness for seniors and dependent adults that are victims of abuse and neglect. Home Safe will save lives – because there is no medicine as powerful as housing.

Hot topic Conference

CWDA 2018 Conference
CWDA is pleased to announce our 2018 conference, October 10-12, at the Anaheim Marriott. As many of you know, our conference provides a unique opportunity to meet with human services leaders from all 58 counties in one place.

Hot topic Immigration

Counties Work to Ease Client Concerns
State and federal laws are still in effect that entitle clients to health care coverage and assistance that they are eligible to receive. Find resources for clients from immigrant communities who are seeking further guidance.

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News & Updates

Recent News

Press release

San Diego, Fresno, Sonoma and Yuba Counties Win California Foster Youth FAFSA Challenge, First Statewide Effort Focused on Helping Foster Youth Apply for College Financial Aid
Winners announced at the April 10 Foster Youth Education Summit

John Burton Advocates for Youth

SAN FRANCISCO, April 10 — More California foster youth who are seniors in high school are headed to college, thanks to the first coordinated statewide effort to help them submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and receive financial aid for college.  As part of the inaugural California Foster Youth FAFSA Challenge, led by John Burton Advocates for Youth, four county offices of education were named winners for their efforts and received checks at the Foster Youth Education Summit in Pomona on Tuesday, April 10.

Article Frank J. Mecca Sacramento Bee

A good investment to keep California’s seniors from becoming homeless

By Frank Mecca

We are witnessing an awful reality that as California’s senior population booms, so does the number of elderly and disabled adults who are abused, neglected or exploited.

They often are forced into potentially life-threatening homelessness even after Adult Protective Services is alerted. Unfortunately, when APS was created two decades ago, it wasn’t designed, nor was it ever funded, to deal with complicated housing issues.

Article The Chronicle of Social Change

Three Strategies That Helped San Francisco Increase Foster Home Applications by 300 Percent

January 26, 2018

By Felicia Curcuru

Efforts like Continuum of Care Reform in California are part of the statewide goal to place more foster youth in family settings. However, many county child welfare agencies are struggling to meet these goals due to a shortage of available resource families, a group that includes both foster parents and kinship caregivers.

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Contribute to County Employees Affected by the Wildfires
Many county human services agency employees lost homes as they served their neighbors

CWDA has created a YouCaring fundraising site to collect donations to assist county human services department employees who lost their homes in the recent wildfires.

At this time we know of employees in Napa and Sonoma Counties who lost their homes. We will add additional counties as we become aware of employees affected in other areas.

Please consider donating. All donations will be divided evenly among those we know of who lost their homes in the fire.

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Blog Posts

Blog post Callie Freitag

Victims of Elder Abuse Are Being Forced into Homelessness at an Alarming Rate

Home Safe program would help counties step in to protect vulnerable adults

Alice* weighed only 80 pounds when she was rushed to the hospital last year by ambulance. At 80 years old, with limited mobility, she was terrified to return home to her daughter and adult grandsons. Alice knew the brutal neglect she had suffered would only continue. These family members refused to help Alice get to the kitchen to eat, or to the bathroom to use the toilet. She was often left to soil her bed.

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