PAST
EVENTS

Meeting the Needs of Older

Adults & Adults with Disabilities

A Forum for the Grantees of the Home Safe, Community Care Expansion, Project Roomkey, and Housing and Disability Advocacy Programs

This virtual forum will showcase effective strategies to address homelessness among older adults and adults with disabilities in California. Attendees will have a platform to discuss challenges, lessons learned, and opportunities with counties and tribes participating in the Home Safe Program, Community Care Expansion (CCE), Project Roomkey (PRK) and Housing and Disability Advocacy Program (HDAP) as well as connect with advocates, researchers, community-based organizations,

and other state agencies dedicated to assisting older

adults facing homelessness across the state.

Through a series of sessions, attendees will have the

chance to hear from expert speakers and practitioners,

ask questions, and gain practical strategies.

Change Well Project 

Learning Lab

Learning Lab is a space for CDSS Program Leaders to gain critical knowledge, skills, and resources focused on helping you effectively manage and scale housing and homelessness programs. During each Learning Lab session, a subject matter expert will dive deeply into a key topic or tool, providing both essential context and practical application tips you can bring immediately to your work.

Budget Workshop:

Navigating the ACWDL Budget Requirement

Join us for an informative and comprehensive budget presentation that will guide you through the intricate process of budgeting for CDSS (California Department of Social Services) programs. Designed to explain the top-level categories of fiscal program planning, this presentation offers a high-level framework that

will help counties navigate the ACWDL (All County Welfare Directors Letter) budget template.

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Whether you're a seasoned budgeting professional

or just starting, this presentation promises to be an invaluable resource, ensuring that your county is

well-prepared to meet the demands to support

your CDSS programs effectively.

Monthly Office Hours for CDSS Program Leaders 

With deep experience addressing the homelessness crisis across the state, the Change Well team understands the challenges of creating and scaling programs. During Office Hours, we will provide you with the targeted information, support, and guidance you need to successfully implement your CDSS programs and meet your community’s unique needs. Please note this session of Office Hours is open to CDSS grantees and community partners, specifically any program managers and analysts responsible for designing and/or administering CDSS programs. This includes work with Bringing Families Home, CalWORKs HSP, HDAP, PRK, and Home Safe. Our team is looking forward to seeing you there!

Understanding Continua of Care: Partnering to Combat Homelessness

Continua of Care play a critical role in coordinating services for those who are experiencing homelessness—and can serve as key partners to counties and tribal communities standing up CDSS-funded housing programs. But the potential of these powerful partnerships can only be realized if we speak the same language, understand each other’s roles and work toward a similar aim. This webinar will provide a brief overview of the Continuum of Care Program and HUD’s requirements for designing and operating a Continuum of Care that acts as the organizing body homeless services locally.

System Leaders Track Session 1: Defining a Homeless Response System

Defining a Homeless Response System is the first session of the 2022-2023 System Leaders Track Series, a five-part series dedicated to helping county leadership transition from program management to system leadership. This series is ideal for County leadership who oversee staff that administer CDSS homeless funding such as HDAP, Bringing Families Home, CalWORKs-HSP, HomeSafe and are responsible for designing their department's homelessness response.

Ask-an-Attorney for HDAP

Benefits Advocates

Join Change Well Project for a monthly opportunity for

HDAP Benefits Advocates to drop in on-line and ask an attorney your questions about Social Security rules, CAPI rules, or other HDAP-specific case questions. This is a collaborative space for experts and practitioners to work through the daily challenges of benefit advocacy. All attendees are encouraged to come with any and all questions regarding SSI, SSDI, or CAPI.

Housing and Homelessness Division (HHD): Tribal Set-Aside Award Proposal Information Session

At this Award Proposal Information Session, HHD will present information regarding the proposed approach for awarding set-aside funds, seek feedback on the proposed approach, and respond to questions on the award process for this round of funding.

California Department of Social Services Housing and Homelessness Programs announces $17.5 Million Available in Tribal Set-Aside Funds 

The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Housing and Homelessness Branch has set aside $17.5 million of match-exempt funds available to California tribes to operate programs serving community members experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. These funds are an opportunity for California Tribes to set up programs providing direct housing assistance and wraparound housing supports to community members through several targeted programs.

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Notice of Fiscal Year 2022-23 Funding for the CalWORKs Housing Support Program, Bringing Families Home Program, HDAP and Home Safe Program

The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Housing and Homelessness Division (HHD) is happy to announce the Notice of Fiscal Year 2022-23 Funding for the CalWORKs Housing Support Program (HSP), Bringing Families Home (BFH) Program, Housing and Disability Advocacy Program (HDAP), and the Home Safe Program. CDSS will be hosting a walkthrough of the All County Welfare Director’s Letter (ACWDL) and Director’s Certification requirements on Thursday October 6, 2022 from 1:30-3:00 p.m. Both continuing and prospective HSP, BFH, HDAP, and Home Safe grantees are strongly encouraged to attend the Webinar and are welcome to share with partners.

Landlord Engagement Series:

The who, what, when and how of developing a successful housing navigation and location system. 

This series of sessions will take a deep dive into a system-wide approach to landlord engagement and unit acquisition, and will provide detailed examples of how best engage and support landlords, housing program participants. You will complete this series with the necessary tools to implement a systemic approach to working with landlords in your community and increasing your community housing stock. 

Program Foundations:

Intensive Learning for Rehousing Program Staff

During this two-day intensive learning program, program staff will gain a full understanding of all necessary components for implementing CDSS Housing & Homelessness Division-funded housing programs. This learning opportunity is intended to give programs a solid foundation in building a program no matter the stage of your program’s implementation. Attendees will leave equipped with a full understanding of program operations and how to sustainably build their program. The training covers the essential details of building a program budget, creating and implementing program policies and procedures, and compliance and monitoring improvement. Attendees will also learn how to build their program’s housing portfolio through landlord engagement, master leasing, and shared housing strategies. The training will also discuss how to apply a racial equity lens to your program and concrete next steps to improve your program. Attendees will gain the confidence, instruction, and tools needed to fully operate a sustainable and equitable program.

Monetizing Your Rehousing Investment: Performance Budgeting for System Leaders

Increased investment in funding to address homelessness in California has created an opportunity for counties to play a more significant role as system leaders in their local homelessness response networks. New funding creates exciting opportunities to help more vulnerable community residents, however, the new funding comes with expectations to achieve system-level performance measures that cannot be achieved in isolation, but in tandem with cross-sector homelessness response system partners.