2023 Conference Presentations

Overview

2023 CWDA Annual Conference

This year, CWDA welcomed over 1,100 attendees to our annual conference in October. We had phenomenal keynote speakers who are noted below and a wide-array of fantastic breakout sessions.

Below are PDF versions of breakout presentations from those presenters who shared visual presentations with CWDA. 

Keynote speakers:

  • Stephanie Land - Author of Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive

  •  Wesley Hamilton - ADA & DEI Consultant; Inclusive Training Specialist and Founder of Disabled But Not Really

  • Randy Morris - Santa Cruz County Human Services Department Director

  • Cheryl Brown - Chair of the California Commission on Aging (CCOA)

  • Ellen Schmeding – (former Chair of CCOA)

  • Moderator Karol Swartzlander - CCOA Executive Director

Below are the breakout session presentations:

Presentation

Bringing it all together-Braiding Homeless Funding

Funding to address housing and homelessness are provided by an array of state and federal funding sources to a variety of jurisdictional stakeholders. The majority of these funding sources are one-time which makes it incredibly difficult to establish an effective homeless response system. Only by braiding funding sources are jurisdictional stakeholders able to sustain programs to effectively meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness.

Maribel Baron – Program Manager, County of Merced/Continuum of Care

Presentation

Government without Walls – Hybrid Workplace

Remote and hybrid working post-pandemic and the changes made to physical workplaces to allow flexibility in employee work schedules and locations while reducing costs, maintaining or enhancing County service and productivity levels, and reducing the County’s carbon footprint.

Joyce Uy – Human Services Program Manager, San Diego County Aging & Independence Services

Julie Lara – Program Specialist II, San Diego Aging & Independence Services

Presentation

Love and belonging: Keeping California children connected to their families, communities, culture…

The Center for Excellence for Family Finding, Engaging and Support, launched this year to support county efforts in embracing a family-centered, kin-first culture. While we have been creating workforce development products to support this movement, we have also been busy learning from counties about what is already working and what barriers they have faced. The Center for Excellence has partnered with Think of Us to conduct Research Sprints in four California Counties.

Presentation

Regional Strategic Planning to Grow Adult and Aging Services Capacity in the Bay Area

Rapid growth in the number of older people and adults with disabilities seeking county assistance, coupled with increased complexity of service needs, has placed tremendous pressure on county Adult and Aging services to expand capacity. In response, Bay Area county social services agencies, in partnership with local universities, engaged in a year-long research and strategic planning project led by UC Berkeley and the Bay Area Social Services Consortium (BASSC) Adult Services Committee.

Presentation

Transforming Workplace Culture Through Values Based Leadership

Nevada County has instituted a set of core values across the Department of Social Services. We would like to share how we implemented this specifically in Eligibility and Employment and give other counties practical tools and ideas for using this approach to move towards an improved work culture and positive outcomes for programs and the customers we serve.

Tamaran Cook – Program Manager, Nevada County

Kristin Plante – Program Manager, Nevada County