Transcripts For SFGTV Government Access Programming 20240714

Along with the director and Melissa Mcgee from daas about the leadership Going Forward of the Service Provider work group. Ashley and annie, who had been serving as cochairs well past their term and are looking for some relief, if you will, head ventured had ventured earlier this year and reached out to talk about this and we were finally able to coordinate and come together. Resulted in the idea of the Dignity Fund Coalition and case sharing leadership responsibilities and both of our agencies cohosting the four annual Service Provider work group meetings, so we will both, sue and i, and fiona and marie, will be taking back to their organization this concept and seeing what our memberships we prefer. Whether we each take two or we truly cohosts all four together and we will be reporting back to ramona with that final determination. We also talked about the scheduling and what would be the best strategic schedule for these meetings to give some consistency so people that wish to participate could plan accordingly. All of this with the goal of making the efforts not only for Service Provider work group, about all of a sudden more aligned and quite frankly, reducing the great number of meetings, important meetings, but nonetheless, a lot of them so that we can all be more effective. Finally, ive talked about it forever, but it is finally here. As dianne mentioned, we are getting there together and getting the celebration of all ages and all abilities this sunday at civic centre plaza. We have over 40 exhibitors, we have a whole slate packed with talent, including the 350 voice senior choir that received the award that she was talking about and then a full agenda of engaging interactive activities at the outdoor gymnasium. I would love to see you all. We welcome everyone and anyone. Again, sunday from 11 00 a. M. Until 4 00 p. M. I think that is everything. Thank you. Any comments or questions from the commission . From the public . Thank you. The next item on the agenda is the nominating committee. Commissioner katie loo is the chair of that committee and they are recommending someone be nominated to the council. There will be no voting on this recommendation, but we invite mr. Hallstead to make some comments if he is here. He is. Thank you so much. First and foremost, i want to express my gratitude for the opportunity to serve on the council. I would come to this position potentially as a professional with the experience and advertising in advertising and financial services, as an educator in Higher Education and advocates. Most importantly, as a consumer of direct services. Moving to San Francisco about 60 years ago, i wouldnt feel protected, i wouldnt be independent without being on the receiving end of Human Services, but most importantly i wouldnt feel like i belong. I wouldnt feel welcomed into the city that i have grown to love. I will give you a small and quick trivia bite. I feel when i feel overwhelmed, i do one thing. I was really overwhelmed with work. When i feel overwhelmed, there is one thing i go to, safely, which is below my Apartment Building and i buy the highest grade of dark chocolate bars i can get. The only catch to that is i cant open up the chocolate bar until my caretaker helps me open it up. I had a busy morning that morning. That is two hours from 7 00 a. M. Until 9 00 a. M. From 7 00 a. M. Until 8 30 a. M. , i was stuck on video and doing email entering videoconferences. By the time i got out of the shower, i forgot to ask my caretaker to open of the chocolate bar and my heart sank. I got to the kitchen, i opened up the fridge and i saw that she made it. However, i couldnt get the chocolate bar. I turned around and i saw the chocolate bar not only opened but in a jar. But broken into small pieces. Not only into small pieces but placed in position to where i could grab it with my mouth with the lid cracked. So it is just a small example of my life, but not only my experience with Human Services, they dont normally help me. They really make me feel like i belong, and you dont get the human foreground. So im very excited to have this opportunity to be on the council , understand and get to know my colleagues on the council on a human level. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Commissioners, there is a copy of his resume in your package and we look forward to voting on your recommendation next month. Thank you very much for coming. Any comments or questions . I wanted to say a few words. I think your education and experience will add diversity to our council. Thank you. I just wanted to express appreciation for coming because i served with commissioner lou on the nominating committee and for the interview that we did to make this recommendation. As the commission expands its scope and really seeks to embrace inclusive disability, i think that your participation and perspectives will enrich the Advisory Council and i want to thank you for taking the time and the interest to contribute. Any other comments or questions . Dianne . I wanted to comment that josh came to our last Council Meeting we opened the invitation when i was first coming to the council. That was a question i was asked by then supervisor breed, now mayor breed, had i ever been to a meeting . So made that offer to two of our potential members and josh was able to come that day and got to see what we were doing. We are really excited about the possibility. Thank you. Thank you very much. The next item on the agenda is old business. There is none. Item six, new business, the Community Living fund six months update. Welcome, sandy. Good morning, commissioners. Good morning executive director. And the Program Analyst for the office of Community Partnership and im here today. Im here to present the sixmonth report i would like to give a quick overview for our newer commissioners. Since our last report was back in april. The Community Living fund was created in 2006 to support aging in place and Community Placement alternatives for individuals who may otherwise require care within an institution. We provide home and communitybased Services Using two pronged approach, coordinated Case Management, and purchase of goods and services. They are currently the contracted Service Provider for the program. The program serves adults in San Francisco whose incomes are up to 300 of the federal poverty level. Those who are willing and able to live in the community with appropriate support, and those who have a demonstrated need for a service or resource that will serve to enable Community Living or prevent institutionalization. The target population includes individuals who are ready to discharge from laguna honda hospital, zuckerberg San Francisco general, and other San Francisco facilities. We also serve individuals who are at imminent risk of institutional placement, but are willing and able to remain in the community with appropriate support. The section in the San Francisco administrative code requires that they report c. L. F. Levels of Services Provided and cost incurred every six months. My report today will be fulfilling this requirement. You will find in the sixmonth report covering january through june, 2019, a lot of information that i would like to briefly fill out. My first thought is the total new referrals this reporting period of 158. This is consistent with trends over the life of the period. Most of these referrals were eligible for c. L. F. During this reporting period, we served 343 clients in total, with about 75 receiving intensive Case Management and purchase of equipment and services through i. O. A. We also served 100 clients through the rental subsidy scatter sight housing and rental subsidy administration. Consistent with overall problem defence today, about 70 2 of referred clients were older adults age 60 and up. Trends and ethnic profile of new referrals remains generally consistent with prior periods. Referrals for clients make up the Largest Group of 41 , africanamericans are at 21 , latino at 20 and asian and Pacific Islanders at 16 , which has increased from our last report. During this reporting period, also i. O. A. Worked with a group to update the c. L. F. Care plan module with a revised service plan library and layout. The improvements were made to enhance the accuracy of reporting Performance Measures related to the c. L. F. Care plan. As you all noticed, data on the second performance measure in this report on page three, is currently not available, but will be in the next reporting. Finally, we are happy to report that the c. L. F. Program worked extensively on it staffing plan to fill vacancies at i. O. A. Resulting in the program being fully staffed. We hope that this would lead to an overall increase in clients served and further decrease the number of people on the waitlist at this time, i would be happy to answer any questions if you have any. Thank you very much. Any comments or questions from the commission . Thank you. Thank you, sandy. Just a couple of questions. I was looking at some of the charts in the back. With regard to the areas of the city that are being served, what times are being made to increase referrals from zip codes my 412434 and 12 . Thank you for that question. Our referrals are mostly through the daas integrated intake. They are mostly from School Nursing facilities, primarily laguna honda hospital. We will look at the different areas where we feel that there is opportunity to increase provide better access to the c. L. F. Plan, and that would be something that we could work on at this time, but primarily, the referrals do come from laguna honda hospital, and we do conduct other outreach. The Community Living fund does do presentations in the community to make sure that we spread the word about c. L. F. I like looking at the graphs in the back. There was a couple of graphs in the back that were specifically, charge number three, where there is a red bar with white dots on it, and i couldnt tell what area that was from. Is that the c. L. F. Referrals by zip code . Yeah,. It looks like that would be the second from the top. Okay. There was another one lower that looks like the same color. Maybe lastly, there were two charts in the back. One was 22, which is the Community Living fund sixmonth report, and then there was another one, fivepoint two which had the same title and exactly the same month, but different figures on it. Yes. The difference with the 2. 2, they are numbers related to referral to c. L. F. , where as fivepoint to are actually enrolled. Got it. Okay. Thank you. We will relabel it to make sure it is clear next time. Thank you. Any other comments or questions . I guess i have a question. As most of the people are coming from laguna honda, do the zip codes that are noted here reflect where they originally lived . At the time of referral it would be with their address. All im asking is it doesnt reflect them being in laguna honda in that particular area of town, it reflects where they were living before they were in laguna honda and then got discharged. Yes. There are some referrals that come from the community directly yeah. Otherwise this is a distribution, basically of residents in San Francisco and what neighborhoods they came from. Does that reflect because a lot of this is based on income, does that reflect those . Looking at the neighborhoods sorry, the zip codes, a lot of the zip codes are surrounded or they have a Major Hospital around that area, so that could possibly be the reason why there are more referrals coming from some of the big areas. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments or questions . Any comments or questions from the public . Thank you very much. Thank you. The next item is a presentation on the daas fiscal year 1920 schedule for request for proposals and contract renewals. Welcome. Good morning, commissioners. I am from h. S. A. s office of contract management. Im joined by my colleague and administrative analyst. We are here this morning to present to you the fiscal year 1920 schedule request for proposals, contract modifications, and contract renewals. Every year, contracts and Program Staff Work Together to develop a schedule and we presented here at commission in order to give both the commission, as well as the community and overview of what we are working on and the programs and contracts will be b. We will be bringing to commission for approval over the course of the year. First is the schedule of request for proposals for fiscal year 19 20. On the next four slides, you will see our list of rp his for this year. These are programs that are new programs or existing programs with contracts that are expiring that need a new procurement. The r. F. P. Is marked with an asterisk and they are services that will begin with the in the current fiscal year. Those r. F. P. S are currently in process and have planned contract start dates in fiscal year 1920. The rest of the r. F. P. S will begin services in fiscal year 2021, with a contract start date of july first, 2020. You will see we have listed the program name, the month in which we plan on releasing the r. F. P. To the public, in the month in which we plan on bringing the item to commission for approval. These dates are tentative and could possibly change, but for the most part, well try to stick to the schedule as much as possible. The r. F. P. Process usually takes approximately three months from the time that we issue the r. F. P. , to the time that would bring the contracts to commission for approval, so you will see we have scheduled the Commission Dates for these three months out from the r. F. P. Release date. There are a total of 25 r. F. P. S on our schedule this year. Last year we had a total of 22 r. F. P. S so we are seeing a bit of an increase this year. We will have we aim to have all of our r. F. P. S issued by january. Now i would like to hand it over to my colleague and she will go into more detail on some of the programs. Good morning, commissioners. For fiscal year 1920, the request for proposals, we have s. F. Connected scheduled for an r. F. P. Release in september. In the last fiscal year 1819, they observed approximately 2,050 duplicated clients, and over 50 Technology Labs spread throughout San Francisco with approximately 200 computers. S. F. Connected will continue to offer Digital Literacy training for older adults and adults with disabilities. We also have Employment Services for adults with disabilities and older adults within within r. F. P. Release date of october. Services will provide a continuum of job assistance and workforce opportunities for older adults and adults with disabilities via partnerships with communitybased organizations and the Human Services agency jobs now program the grant will bring clients a wealth of knowledge, talent, and experience to the workforce will also providing clients with added income, and an increased social connection with others. The Dementia Care project for lgbtq with an r. F. P. Release of october, is intended to address the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and older adults and adults with disabilities in San Francisco living with alzheimers and related dementia. Through a series of trainings presented to staff and providers i communitybased organizations, private organizations and hospitals. Training will provide education to staff and providers and improve awareness of Current Issues faced by lgbtq clients and best practices for organizations to promote and and inclusive and safe environment for lgbtq clients. We also have the Family Caregiver support services, which will provide assistance to San Francisco residents who are caregivers to older adults and adults under 60 within alzheimers diagnosis. The grant will provide caregiver support in the form of respite, counciling, Case Management, assessments and information assistance. The support at home program will provide home care vouchers for older adults and adults with disabilities who do not meet Program Eligibility for home care programs like ihss. Homecare Services Include general housework, aarons, nonmedical personal care. The program has broader income and resource limits and provides Financial Assistance for clients who may be recovering from surgical procedures, and have temporary injuries, temporary disabilities and or permanent disabilities. Next i would like to present to you our list of contract modifications. Typically in the first half of the year, we see some new funding coming through budgetary ad bags, and this is to support or expand current programs, and here we have listed just a few contracts that we would like to highlight, which will be modified this year to add additional funding. You will see one was approved at commission back in june and the other two are scheduled to be brought to commission in october lastly, i would like to present to the contracts that are up for renewal this year. Renewals typically happen during the second half of the fiscal year. We plan on bringing these to commission for approval in the months of april, may, and june. These are contracts that we currently have in place and are said to expire at the end of fiscal year, but we have an option to extend it. When we award a contract we have another initial term and extend for certain a number of years i would also like to point out that most of these programs have multiple contracts and they will be presented at commission as a group. For example, some of the larger programs are nutrition services, which includes approximately 50 contracts and Community Services , which includes approximately 29 contracts. The rest of the programs are small programs and have anywhere between one and eight contracts. And we do send outnotices whe released. It is important that theyre in sync as well because there is lots for them to do. Yes. So as much advanced notice makes the process a lot smoother. Thank you very much. Im concerned when we have 80 plus contracts to approve in a couple of months. Yes. Chairman and there is a lot to study. Im wondering if it can be divided in three months, instead of two months, to be presented before the commission. So that we have a little time to study yes. Chairwoman to do a better job. For the renewals, were splitting them between april, may, and june. Last year we had them in may and june. We were trying to give ourselves a little more time this year. And we also do present the larger programs at a Group Commission program. But we will try to spread them out evenly between the three months. Chairwoman that would really kind of help. Yes. Chairwoman and the other thing, im a budget person, so i like to look at the numbers. And some of the numbers are so small. And literally, what i have to do is one hand with my pencil, and the other hand with a magnifying glass. I dont know how to solve the problem because the numbers you know, if you expanded julys number, it would use more pages, so, i dont know, maybe i should buy one of the things the dentists use. [laughter] i can put that out to our staff and see if there is something we can do to improve that. Chairwoman thank you. Cheque. Anthank you. Any other comments d questions . Next is the review of the fiscal year 2019 2020 action plan. While rose is setting up, ill just start. To say, i think well, i know. I know you all know we have a fantastic Planning Team at the Human Services office. And one of the things that this team came up with is, hey, maybe we should have an action plan that is just for the year. That kind of takes all of the work that were doing and projecting and puts it into one document so that we can make sure that were holding ourselves accountable to the things weve said were going to do. And that we can use it as a planning document, not only with the commission and the public, but also with our Leadership Team at all levels of the organization. I think it was a fantastic idea. Im very happy to have this. I think this is the first time weve really had this. And i also want to thank rose and her team for putting together a yearend review, which allows us to look back at all of the things weve done over the year and all of the great successes weve had. What were going to do today is just go through the action plan, and rose and i went to look together and highlighted some things i would like to talk about today. I dont have time to go every single action item because youd be here for hours, and i know the president would not have that. Were going to go through and im going to highlight one strategy from each goal. And then but i am happy to answer any questions you have about anything else that i dont mention. Rose is going to help me field those questions. So, um, you can see that we have five overarching Strategic Plan goals to maintain a Robust Network of communitybuster communitybd services, provide consumercentred programming, and to ensure best use of resources, and maximize client outcomes, and support and develop and engage professional workforce that is prepared to work with other people and adults with disabilities. So from goal one, i really just wanted to highlight strategy b, which is to explore alternative models to best serve younger adults with disabilities. As you may remember, the 2018 Dignity Fund Needs Assessment highlighted that people with disabilities in San Francisco experienced discrimination, and there is a lack and utilization of available resources. Were trying to work with Community Members to address this. Service organizations, advocates, and other city departments to develop a center that will provide information about an access to disability programs and services, and also create a space for people with disabilities to come together. Which will also help advance social and disabled justice, and celebrate disability culture and pride. Last year you approved a contract that we had with the pau paul kay longmore institute. To inform the scope and structure of this center. We knew we didnt have the expertise to do this on our own, and we really wanted to make sure we got all of the information that we needed to do this right. In the current year, well be using information that we got from them to take next steps towards establishing the center. As far as i know as far as we know, this is the first cityled Disability Cultural Center in the nation. There are Cultural Centers often attached to education and universities and things like that, but there really, as far as we know, is not one that is municipally funded. We want to make sure it is successful and welcoming, and focused on being a disability center. Somebody said, please dont put it in the basement of a church no offense to churches. So we really want to make sure that it is a space that is going to be fully accessible on transportation lines, all of those things. Nicole bond, who is the director at the Mayors Office on disability and i have been shopping this idea around to various city departments, trying to find out who might be able to help us find the right spot. Weve met a lot of people who have been very helpful, and i think well get there, but it is challenging to find a space that has all of the requirements that we need. Normally we wouldnt put the work in at the Department Level or the city level, and we just kind of say, okay, nonprofits, you can figure this out. But because this is so important, and because there may be an opportunity to partner with you know, in a retail space, or something that was initially designed for retail, given that there are vacancies, there may be Something Else available. Were continuing to work on that together. We have a fantastic partnership with the Mayors Office on disability. Im really grateful for nicoles partnership. We will be letting you know about progress on that. And im also hopeful, and i put it out there every day, almost, that somebody will help us find a space. So if you happen to have your thinking cap on and have any contacts, it would be great to hear about those. So goal two is to sorry, goal two, we wanted to highlight strategy a, which is to develop specialized resources to address specific clients needs. And we chose to, in this case, to highlight action 3, establish a communitybased service in a Community Independence program, and new housing conservatorship programs. I think Everybody Knows that conservatorship is a hot topic right now because people are trying to figure out how do we help people on the streets who need services and treatment, and yet arent able to access those programs on their own. Were continuing to work with the department of Public Health, and the Mayors Office and other city departments, the d. A. , the city attorney, etc. , the public defender, to ensure that our services are the best that they can be. So were continuing our efforts to develop robust, innovative models by establishing a specialized unit of staff within the office of public conservator, which manages our communitybased conservatorship programs. And jill has taken a lot of leadership with her team on that. But i think San Francisco is really unique in that most counties dont do communitybased conservatorship programs. It is breaking new ground to think about people being able to get that level of street and still live in the community. We have the Community Participation program, and the postconservatorship program. We adhering to a wellness and recovery model. The programs promote psychiatric stability for individuals with less intensive needs who can readily maintain stability when taking prescribed medication, but who have a demonstrated history of not adhering to their medication regimen. Lifetimlast year we had 52 peope in the programs. Sb1045 is something i know youve heard a lot about. And 230 of our clients are in Community Placements. For example, board and care, home, singleroom occupancy hotel. Most of the clients who have progressed however, most of these clients have progressed to the lower level of care. Whereas, the other clients in the Community Programs actually skip that higher level of care and are just served in the community. Cipp is a voluntary conservatorship, which ensures that the person is sticking to the medication regimen and treatment. Excuse me, would you like questions after each goal or at the end . I think lets go through the whole thing, and then well answer any questions. So goal three is to provide and support Consumer Center programming, as i mentioned. Strategy b, streamline access to resources and advanced access to promote timely access of relevant services. We chose action two, enhance Services Located at the doss benefits and resource hub, and develop a revised outreach strategy. I did mention earlier in my report, we have kate shedowan on as the new director, and were able to move forward with many improvements to streamline the services and enhance our outreach, which is something we really need to do. She brings great experience, and were really looking forward to hearing about her outreach strategy, outreach plan. With her on board, were integrated all of the services at the hub, including bringing the reporting line of the eligibility unit from i. H. S. S. Over to the hub. And weve moved the provider Assistance Center from across the street into the hub as well, so that both providers and clients can get services at the hub. We sphgd i figured it would be a much better use of the space and a much better experience for the clients and providers to be able to go to one place. A lot of our providers are also recipients of services. It makes sense they can go to one place where they can get information for themselves, as well as get information about as well as do the things they need to do to be a provider or to change their information and all of that stuff. And then weve also moved the responsibilities of the Inhome Supportive Services Care Transitions program, which was initially over at the hub, over to ihss, to better stream the enrollment process for our clients. There is a lot of stuff there. I think your president , president serinia, about having an updated report on ihss s is a good one. It will make it more clear as to what weve actually done, and it helps streamline our porosi processes to better serve san franciscans. And then goal four, we chose strategy c, facilitate planning processes to promote inclusion of older people and adults with disabilities in the broader city community. Action one is to coordinate age and disabilityfriendly, or a. D. S adsf work group, and the action plan, including recommendations related to accessible transportation and accessible dwelling units. Through the San Francisco initiative, our city has joined nation and worldwide networks, led by the World Health Organization and aarp. As far as i know, we may be the only aging disabilityfriendly plan. San francisco is currently focused on implementing recommendations from the adsf action plan, with a taskforce in 2017 18. Nicole bond and kelly deerman help with that. Over the last year, the work group has help advance policy and programs that support seniors and people with disabilities to engage in fulfilling lives. And ableism training for health care providers, increasing crosswalk timing at key intersections, and for affordable assisted living in San Francisco. In the next year, well be focus on other recommendations, including accessible transportation and accessible dwelling units. Im really excited that weve finally gone to print, or about to go to print, with the age and disabilityfriendly San Francisco assessment report, which looks great. I saw the you know, before it went to printing, i saw what it will look like, and im very excited because weve been waiting a long time to get this out to the public. And so there is a nice address from marilyn breed. She was very supportive of this effort. Youll all be getting copies of that as soon as it is available and well have it posted on the website. So goal five, we chose strategy c, collaborate with education, training, and workforce programs locally and reac regionally. And we chose action three, support evaluation led by the bear Adult Services group, and calswick, and it is modeled after Child Welfare title e, which some of you may know about it at the state level, our a. P. S. Program and deputy director, jill nielsen, have been part of the conversations to incentivize people to enter the programs. Jill has taken leadership in a lot of different ways, and she always does, but this is something they really pushed at the state level, and i appreciate very much her efforts, along with her colleagues. The funding mechanism is there is an a. P. S. S. Innovation program to the department of social services. And the department of social services is sub subcontracted with calswic. And they provided matching funding for the grant. What this means is well be able to have stipends. There is money for eight stipends. For interns. And the doss is funding two additional stipends for a total of 10. This isnt really new for us theyve definitely had this on the Child Welfare side for many, many years, where they provide opportunities for internships, and for education for people who want to become social workers and who really want to continue in the field. One of the issues around this one of the reasons it is important is it really does address some equity issues. So people who arent always able to get in and get their masters degree, but certainly have lived experience, it is often hard to get a government job as a social worker. Simultaneously, we really need to be bringing people into aging services and disability services. It is hard to recruit people. So being able to offer incentives to people to come work for us and to be educated, and to spend their careers here, it is just really important for us. This is a big first step. The stipend people get is 118,500. The first year placements will be aging or disability county nonprofit programs. And secondyear placements must be with a bay area a. P. S. Program. And then calswick identified two universities. U. C. Berkeley and san jose university, they each get five stipends. The universities were selected due to their robust aging curriculum, as well as for the geographic locations of the institutions. Thats a really exciting kind of development, as we think about the challenge of recruiting and maintaining our workforce. And i think those are the five that we wanted to highlight. And were both happy to answer any questions you have about those or about anything else within this action plan. Thank you, sharene. I have a couple of questions. One is on goal two, the conservatorship issue. There has been quite a bit in the press about this city closing down certain beds that were designed to house people who have severe mental problems there arent enough staff to service them. So how does that work with our goal to increase conservatorship and protection for people who really need it if there is no place to house them . Right. Thats a very good question. I know that the department of Public Health has a plan to ensure that people continue to be housed, but there is also a lot of conversations still about the beds that were slated to be shut down, and whether there is going to be a plan to figure out the challenges related to that so that it can stay open. But i know very well, having spoken to grants and to the deputy director, that there is a plan in place, and that overall, what the city doesnt want to do is lose beds, even though they may have had to close a specific facility. Thank you. And there is another sort of related issue, i believe there are some supervisors that are planning to introduce either legislation or a ballot measure that will limit conservatorship until all Necessary Services are in place, which sounds ideal but it is not very practical. We wont have every kind of service for every individual who needs it, but that doesnt mean we dont take action. I understand there are civil rights issues that are of concern to people, but it seems rather counterproductive for that. Im curious as to how were planning in the event that that legislation passes or that Ballot Initiative passes, what do we do . I believe what woe we would do as a department is we would be working very closely with the Mayors Office and the department of Public Health to figure out exactly what that means, and how you check those boxes and ensure that were making the process as streamlined as possible. And, youre right, there are some people who ultimately cant do it without conservatorship in place. There are a lot of people who can respond to treatment if it is available when they need it. And but, youre right, ultimately there are going to be a small handful of people who arent going to be able to make it within the system. We can already serve them now. I mean, those people are eligible for conservatorship, and we will continue to serve them with that program. Thank you. And finally on goal five, i think it is terrific to get stipends and many every effort to recruit professionals, but can we do something along similar lines to recruit power professionals, care workers . There is an acute shortage of them. So we can design the best programs in the world, but if there arent people around who can implement them at the individual level, it will be very frustrating and disappointing for us and for our clients. Thats very true. Yes. This is one part of a larger strategy that we need to be involved in to think about how we recruit and retain workers at all levels. One of the reasons we have a partnership with hombridge is because theyre focused on that. And were working on that with them. And it is challenging and were learning a lot, and we havent figured out exactly what the answer is, but were continuing to work with them to try to figure that out with them. I think one of the other things were doing is figuring out how we support other programs. So say the Health Worker Certificate Program at city college, for example, those workers are really valuable editions t additions te system. Theyre often used at the department of Public Health clinics and things like that, but were working with ou provider our providers, because they have often been incarcerated, often have been down on their luck or were victims of abuse and neglect themselves, and they want to bring through lived experience and their training to this field, either aging and disability services, to healths, alhealth, all of that. So i agree that this is a much bigger challenge. There are also some things that need to happen at the state level with respect to, you know, wages for domestic and home care workers. All of those things have to be in play at ones. We have to keep plugging away at that. Perhaps as part of our participation in the governors master plan for aging we can highlight quick remedies that our 21 billion surplus may quickly take care of. Yeah. I think one of the things that is really important is to look at the overall cost of care. You know, people get very upset about the cost of ihss, for instance, and yet at the same time, nobody said hey, thats probably a lot cheaper then, you know, longterm care in a facility. I think, part of again, as i said earlier, part of the master plan really should be, how do we gather data and continually collect data so we can learn from it. I think a lot of people in the field think it will be cheaper to give them 200 or whatever hours of ihss care. Hopefully this state plan will really help get us to where we need to go. Thank you, sharene. I didnt mean to harass you i didnt feel harassed. Thats fine. Any other comments or questions. I have a question. This goes back to goal number one, and your desire to find a space for the disability Cultural Community center. Can you just elaborate a little more on i know it needs to be accessible to all, but do you have a preferred location in the city or size of the space that youre looking for . So our preferred location would be right on Public Transit specifically. It would be great if it were on Market Street, somewhere on bart and muni metro and where all of the buses converge. Transportation is a huge issue. I think, um, you know, having a space that is new and adaptable a as possible is also important, given that it needs to be accessible beyond a. D. A. Rules. It needs to be fully accessible for people with a variety of disabilities. That means, one, being big enough. We havent really identified the size yet. I think were aware that we may have to start a little smaller than wed like im hoping that is not the case. It would be nice to move in some place and have it stay there and have it be permanent and have it be miraculously the right thing. But sometimes when you start this, you have to ok and so were aware of that. But having something that is really adaptable and on the best transit lines that we can think of is would be ideal. Along those lines, yesterdays chronicle i think it was yesterdays chronicle had a big article about a variety of housing being built on what you referred to as the hub Market Street and van ness. Much of that housing will be for low income, much will be affordable, and there will be a fair amount of public space on ground level. So while that is down the road, perhaps that could be an ultimate location for this particular facility. Because it would be brand new, it would meet all of the known requirements, and be accessible from all forms of public transportation. Right. So nicole and i have had some conversations about the hub and the buildings and what the pockets are there. And, you know, im really hopeful that were going to find something great like that. Thank you. Any other comments or questions . I think theres so much going on at this agency, but whether or not we let people know about it, you know, we should just keep working on that goal, and with the technology, and all the organization you have done, and the new manager, it is good stuff, and i would really like to see that as it rolls out, and keep us aware of it. Right. Our new Program Director will be definitely spearheading that effort. It also includes our Planning Team and certainly our Leadership Team at daas, as well as our communications team. It is interesting, we have a really Good Opportunity here because were putting things in place that we havent had in place before. One of them is rebranding the agency because not only does the word about daas not get into the community, people are always asking me what it is we do, and what does it mean, you know, but that happens with other departments within h. S. A. , as well. The rebranding is very exciting and it will fit very well within thinking about our outreach strategy. Also the reframing campaign that we are about to launch really fits in well with this. I think, you know, we have the opportunity to seize that moment and really get the word out about the services that we have and the really key lifechanging services that we offer to san franciscans, and i think, you know, this is just it should come together really nicely. What we will do is think about how to put together a presentation for the commission that really upholds all those things together really pulls all of those things together into a nice package, and we will definitely be having more collateral materials and stuff like that to get out, as well. Stay tuned for that. Thank you. Thank you. Well, that it is very challenging with all these goals i am just wondering, like maybe after six months, you will come back and talk to us on how far you have reached some of the goals. That is a great idea. Is six months about right . Okay. We will schedule that maybe for january. Thank you. Thank you. And the board would be helpful if it included measurement criteria so we would know and you would know. That would be great. Sounds good. Any other comments or questions . Thank you both very much. It was very comprehensive. Thank you. The next item is item a, and i remind the commission that the presentation will be excuse me . Im sorry, was there any additional comments from the public . Okay. Yes, jessica . Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, commissioners. A couple of comments on the excellent report on the action plan. I wanted to just share how excited i am and so many of us are about the Disability Community Cultural Centre and thank you to the executive director and others for spearheading this. I think it is going to mean a lot to the Disability Community and really push us all in the right direction. On the conversation about conservatorship, i want to remind us all that while the conservatorship programs are moving forward, there is also a need for all of us to continue to push for voluntary services, that we know