Senate Standing Committee on Human Services

We are going to call the Joint Oversight Hearing for the 2024-2025 Community Services Block Grant State Plan to order at this time time today, I want to welcome the public. California's poverty rates vary widely across the state and are a result of a number of complex factors that contribute to the disparity within different communities. The Community Services Block Grant is intended to be flexible and to meet unique needs of our state and local communities and is an important resource to help those who are in need.

This body works tirelessly to help uplift Californians out of poverty. While poverty rates have recently declined due to the investments this state has made in social safety net programs, there is more work to be done. Despite the fluctuating poverty rates, the Community Services Block Grant remains a reliable stream of aid designed to provide immediate relief for individuals experiencing poverty by using local and targeted approaches.

As part of today's oversight hearing, I am interested to learn how those of you who are testifying, how your organizations have used these funds to respond to the unique needs of your communities. Again, thank you all so much for your participation today. I'm looking forward to a robust discussion about the important work accomplished using the Community Services Block Grant and how the Legislature can support the incredible work that you all are doing in your communities.

As mandated by law, this joint hearing must be done in order to make sure that we remain in compliance. As soon as my colleague on the Senate side, Senator Alvarado-Gil, is out of her Democratic Caucus meeting, we look forward to having her to also provide remarks as well. But we also know that many of you are here and you have taken flights and you are oh, fantastic timing. And we want to make sure that we are respectful of your time as well.

And just like she usually is, Senator Alvarado Gill is always right on time. And so I will now hand it over to her for her opening remarks.

This microphone is a little odd. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Jackson. Thank you for convening us here today and Members of our Assembly Human Services Committee and staff, or both of our committees for getting us today. Our panelists have collaborated to put this hearing together, and I'm happy to be part of this. We will engage in informative and thought provoking discussion, and I'm confident that we will all bring some new information forward today.

I do want to note that one of my first jobs was administering a CSBG funded program for community action in rural California, so I'm very excited to be able to hear what we have to say today. The community action that I worked with dealt with housing, Head Start, youth build programs, and healthcare. So for me, I've been actually looking forward to this today. And if the pro temp didn't have me in a meeting, I would have walked out but you know how that goes.

Okay, so the purpose of today's hearing is to review the state plan for the federal Community Services Block Grant. A little known fact, but this is a decades old federal anti poverty program. As chair of the Senate Human Services Committee, I, like many of you, are dedicated to the cause of eradicating poverty. Access to shelter, nutritious food, health care, and other basic like necessities are a human right.

While many federal, state, and locally operated programs aim to address poverty, CSBG is unique in that federal dollars are distributed as a block grant, allowing local providers to determine how these funds will be spent within specifically federally mandated criteria. A key concept of CSBG funds support programs in that Members of the local communities have the opportunity to define their own community needs and desired outcomes. I saw this and experienced it through your tripartite boards, which I believe is the most phenomenal concept ever.

CSBG funds support programs and services that directly impact people where they live. These are funds that address an array of community needs, ranging from meeting the basic human needs for food to more complex needs like evading homelessness and helping individuals who experience homelessness find housing and other supportive services.

So I here with my colleagues, look forward to learning more about the California Community Action Agencies and how you're responding to community needs in this modern day age, how the Department of Community Services and Development supports these efforts. And in particular, I am interested in hearing more about how rural communities are served and how the Department and Community Action agencies support the proper Administration of these precious federal dollars. Thank you so much. I'll turn it back to you, Chair.

Thank you very much, madam Chair. And we will begin with an overview of the CSBG state plan. And with us to do that is David Scribner, Director of the Department of Community Services and Development. David Knight, Executive Director of the California Community Action Partnership Association and Brenda Callahan-Johnson, immediate past President of the California Community Action Partnership Association board of directors. You may begin when you are ready.

All right. Good afternoon. I'm glad that you have such enthusiasm for us today. I love it. I'm David Scribner. I am the Director of the Department of Community Services and Development, or CSD. And I'm sorry you're going to get a little bit of acronym training here today, but I'll keep it to the minimum. CSD works to improve the economic security of vulnerable Californians through partnerships and programs that lift up the state's low income communities.

We do this by administering community services and utility assistance programs through a network of local service providers and regional administrators. This network delivers services to help low income Californians achieve and maintain economic security, meet their home energy needs and water needs, and reduce utility costs through energy efficiency upgrades and access to clean, renewable energy. I want to thank you for this opportunity to provide an overview of the Community Services State Block Grant State Plan, as I will refer to it as the CSBG State Plan.

This public hearing is a requirement of the CSBG State Plan, and I appreciate you giving us the opportunity to share with you and the public how California CSBG agencies use this Federal Block Grant funding to help low income households and communities across California. In addition to CSBG, CSD administers the Federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, the US. Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program, and California's Low Income Weatherization Program, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions and residential energy costs and is one of California's climate investments.

CUC also currently administers the Low Income Household Water Assistance Program, a limited term, federally funded program that helps Low income Californians pay their water bills, and I didn't give you any of the acronyms for those programs. CSD also partners with the Franchise Tax Board to administer grants for community based outreach to raise awareness and uptick of the California Earned Income Tax Credits, California's Young Child Tax Credit, and access to free tax preparation assistance.

As the lead agency designated to receive and administer CSBG funding, CSD works directly with 60 nonprofit and local governmental organizations throughout the state, known as CSBG Agencies, and who are eligible to receive this funding annually. CSBG agencies offer a wide range of supportive services in each of California's 58 counties, including housing, employment, education, income, support and management, health and nutrition emergency services, which includes disaster relief and more.

Of the 60 CSBG agencies, there are currently 52 Community Action agencies, four migrant seasonal farm worker agencies which serve migrant seasonal farm workers and their families, and three Native American Indian organizations that work to address the specific needs of California's native populations.

CSBG is a unique funding source for a variety of anti poverty services, and this funding is flexible by design, empowering each local CSBG agency to deliver those services that best respond to the needs and priorities of low income California within their community and that make a measurable impact on the causes and conditions of poverty at the local level. To ensure that every community has a voice in what services local agencies provide.

The CSBG Act requires agencies to be governed by a board of directors composed of at least one third low income community Members, one third elected public officials or their designees, with the remainder of the Members representing business, labor, religious, human services, education or other major groups and interests within the community. As a condition of funding, CSB agencies are also required to develop and submit a Community Needs Assessment.

These assessments are informed by surveys, public forums, and direct involvement from local low income residents to provide a comprehensive picture of the local conditions faced by vulnerable Californians in each service area. Now, these Community needs assessments are submitted every two years by each agency to CSD as part of their Community Action Plan. Community Action plans address the immediate issues impacting the health and well being of California's communities and provide quantitative and qualitative data that inform the service delivery strategies for each agency.

It is this community engagement that includes insight from local Low income residents that informs the community needs assessments and community action plans that establish the basis of the CSBG state plan. These assessments and local plans also address federally mandated programmatic assurances that the state and each CSBG agency must adhere to by showing how CSBG funded initiatives improve the lives of vulnerable Californians.

While no two local agency plans are exactly alike, broadly speaking, the most common needs that our CSBG agencies have identified in the CSBG state plan that they will address over the next two years are affordable housing, food insecurity, employment, utility assistance, mental health services, and financial management training. And as the state lead agency, CSD has committed in the state plan to supporting California's network of CSBG agencies with training, coordination and capacity building supporting the professional development of state and local staff, and leveraging new technology enhancements.

CSD will also continue to assess and evaluate emergent social issues that impact California's diverse low income populations, including in the areas of affordable housing, homelessness, equity, accessible health care, education and disaster relief needs, as well as supporting local efforts to address these critical challenges. For the federal fiscal year, California received approximately $67.6 million in funds. This funding has remained relatively stable over the past two years, increasing from 66 to 67 million from 2021 to 2022.

Funds are distributed according to state and federal law and Low income population US. Census data. For each county, 90% of CSBG funding is allocated directly to CSBG agencies. The remainder is set aside for state Administration, training and technical assistance and targeted initiatives. Of that 90%, approximately 84% is allocated to community action agencies, 11% to migrant seasonal farm worker agencies, and 4% to Native American Indian organizations.

In 2021, California reported serving over 685,000 low income Californians through CSD's network of CSBG agencies that includes serving approximately 199,000 children, 126,000 seniors, 67,000 people with disabilities and 74,000 people who lacked health insurance. CSBG agencies provided just over 1 million supportive services and outcomes for low income individuals in California, 1,000,034 422 supported services and outcomes just to be exact.

Highlights of these services and outcomes include 296,000 housing assistance services provided, with 56,000 low income individuals receiving temporary shelter, affordable housing placement, eviction and foreclosure prevention, utility payment assistance or weatherization services. 47,000 employment services were provided to reduce or eliminate barriers to initial or continuous employment, with almost 11,000 Californians achieving outcomes such as acquiring a job, increasing their income, or achieving living wage, employment and benefits.

87,000 education and cognitive developmental services were provided, with 67,000 children, youth and parents increasing their skills and knowledge to improve literacy and school readiness and enriching their home environments. CSBG funding has also supported the distribution of 22 million meals and food parcels to families and individuals in need.

While all CSBG agencies are engaged in innovative initiatives to support low income households in their communities, I would want to take this opportunity to highlight two projects that are illustrative of how CSD and our agencies can leverage CSBG funding to magnify the impact of these funds by partnering together to meet new and emerging needs. First, the effort during the pandemic and supply chain crisis to distribute infant formula to Low income rural and farm worker communities that were disproportionately impacted by infant formula shortages.

In 2022, CSD partnered with Supply Bank, a nonprofit that distributes vital essential goods statewide to secure and distribute infant formula to households served by CSBG agencies. CSD worked with Supply bank and infant formula manufacturers to source hard to find formula supplies. Using CSBG funding and a grant from Kaiser Permanente, Supply Bank purchased and distributed over 41,000 containers of infant formula to 41 CSBG agencies across California.

This initiative filled a critical gap for vulnerable families during the formula supply crisis and shows how CSBG funds can foster public-private partnerships that overcome barriers to supporting low income Californians. Second, the Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo's, or CAPSLO's, 40 Prado Homeless Services Center is another example of public and private partnerships achieving outstanding results for those most vulnerable within a local community.

I was lucky enough to recently tour this facility that serves unhoused residents of San Luis Obispo and came away amazed by the scope of what CAPSLO has achieved. Opened in 2008, 40 Prado provides meals, access to showers and laundry facilities, mail and phone services, case management, primary medical and mental health care, and recuperative care, among other services. In 2020, CAPSLO sought to address the high energy costs of operating 40 Prado by exploring, installing solar panels and making other energy efficiency upgrades.

CAPSLO was connected with CSD's Low income Weatherization Program to make this project a reality. The Low Income Weatherization Program reduces greenhouse gas emissions by funding energy efficiency and renewable energy upgrades for low income housing.

40 Prado qualified for Low Income Weatherization Program funding and with the support of private donors and key partners including the association for Energy Affordability, Pacific Gas and Electric, Central Coast Community Energy and the TriCounty Regional Energy Network, the center received energy efficiency upgrades that include a 120 kilowatt solar panel system, battery backups and heat pump water heating. These upgrades are projected to reduce 40 Prado's annual carbon dioxide emissions by 86.5 metric tons, while also reducing energy costs.

By freeing up critical funds that would otherwise go towards energy costs, these systems will give CAPSLO the ability to redirect resources towards more direct services for those in need. This project again showcases how CSBG funds can be braided with other funding sources to effectively coordinate and deliver services that can make a meaningful difference in the lives of low income Californians.

And I'm pleased to have with me today representatives from the Community Action Partnership association and some of our CSBG agencies who will share their stories and insights into the important work taking place to help vulnerable Californians on the path toward economic security through CSBG. Thank you for the opportunity to present the 2024 25 CSBG State Plan. CSG truly values and appreciates the Legislature's support and ongoing insight and oversight of CSBG, and I look forward to any questions that you may have. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Thank you to the joint committee and the chairs, Assembly Member Dr. Jackson, Senator Alvarado Gill for inviting the California Community Action Partnership known as CalCAPA to speak regarding the community service block grant in this state plan. My name is David Knight, and I serve as the Executive Director of CalCAPA. Our organization serves as a Member association for 60 CSBG eligible entities to provide training and technical assistance, increase statewide communications, and lead advocacy and policy development.

Our association also leads the way and serves as the lead state for regional performance and innovation. Consortium for the United States Health and Human Services CSBG Region Nine. This means that California and Calcapa lead the region, which includes the state of Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands in the areas of training and technical assistance, regionwide communications and policy development. California community action doesn't just lead in the region.

It also leads nationally with two of our agency's Executive directors who are also CalCAPA board of Directors serving on the Board of Directors for our National Community Action Partnership Association, as well as the State of California CSD deputy Director serving on the National Association of State Community Services program. California Community Actions and CSBG eligible entities have long been leaders in the national community Action movement for decades, we often are still sought out as the voice of Community Action throughout this nation.

While the Community Service Block Grant celebrates 42 years this year, the Community Action movement is approaching its 60th year. While it relies on decades of experience in each of our communities, it constantly thrives to adapt to the ever changing landscape of our families and our communities. Being in partnership with California CSD and serving as the lead development association for all agencies statewide, CalCAPA has a unique opportunity to see and measure the landscape of our great state in each of our communities we serve.

While you hear a mass testimony today about the families we serve and how agencies had a greater need to them than ever before during both the ongoing pandemic and the natural disaster recovery. It's important to note that the Community Service Block Grant is vital to leading our communities on the path of diversity, equity and inclusion, all while serving our families of low income directly. Community Action is built on the premise that Csvg is not a program, but rather a funding source.

Our agencies are extremely knowledgeable of their community needs and their community strengths, and how to best combine private and public resources to ensure they develop thriving communities. CSBG focuses on being locally led, which allows for other low income funding to have a stronger return on investment. Whether these are California funded or federally funded, programs often require startup and capacity building dollars. With the influx of this ongoing CSBG funding, agencies are able to hit the ground running and also be flexible in their delivery of services.

They already know what housing needs are present, what workforce training is needed for business to thrive and expand, what communities lack health and mental health access, and where lack of nutrition slows development in all areas. Our flexibility in the Community Service Block Grant allows agencies to ensure families not only have access to SNAP or food vouchers, but also creating the place to get that healthy food.

It creates access to transportation vouchers while at the same time making sure there's a successful transportation infrastructure to use those vouchers. They advocate for equity and quality in the development and access. They fight for people that don't have a voice in their communities, while those same exact people lead our agencies and show they are part of the thriving workforce that makes our communities successful.

Progressive development is led by CSBG agencies throughout our performance management structure, CSBG has long been the leader in measuring the success of low income programs. This is evident in our annual reporting and Community Action plans submitted around the funding. The network uses Results Oriented Management Accountability, known as ROMA, as its structure for performance management. This not only allows agencies to be efficient, but to be extremely effective in the use of the dollars.

To have a successful implementation of opportunities, the program must have two things funding and access. As we're more aware, funding levels are at a critical point in our political discussions. What is also extremely beneficial about having a statewide association such as CalCAPA is our connection and relationships. CalCAPA brings each agency together. We serve as a huge catalyst for agencies to share best practices and performance systems. This allows development and capacity building more rapidly. This allows CalCAPA to move all the data we collect into information.

We're then able to take this information and put it into communication in a way that people are better able to learn about services that benefit their communities. This is powerful for use as a network and for you as decision makers. The key to CSBG and its connectivity across our state allows you as policymakers to know that you have local boots on the ground, organizations ready to deliver opportunities to families.

You will hear more today about those successes and how our agency's abilities are maximized as the COVID-19 virus continues to rear its ugly head, as temperatures rise, climate change causes bigger natural disasters, flooding lingers on, and homes costs rise, which are all things that adversely affect low income people of our communities. Community action will continue to be called upon.

CalCAPA has been and is proud to work alongside the State of California and CSD to keep our network at the top of the state's response to needs, as well as lead the country in the work for our families and communities. Our success with collaboration and with CSPG in General is evident by being called upon by the nation to be a part of the improvement and developments of other states.

Thank you for the opportunity to share this information on our network and on CSPG today and thank you for your time and governance of our great state.

Good afternoon, honorable senators and Assembly Members. My name is Brenda Callahan-Johnson, and I am speaking to you today as the immediate past President of CalCAPA. I'm substituting for our current President, Mr. Jeremy Tobias, who sends his regards and regrets that he couldn't join you today. I bring 30 years of experience with the Merced County Community Action Agency and hope I will be able to represent the network well.

The Community Action Network is proud to be established as a part of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, which not only birthed us, but closely aligned our mission and purpose with the Civil Rights Movement of the time. As a part of the founding legislation, Community Action agencies were directed and legally bound to abide by what we refer to as a Tripartite Board. The three factors in the Tripartite Board are the public, often elected officials, major community organizations, the private and low income participants.

Congress wanted to ensure the voice of the poor not only had a seat at the table, but a vote as well. This structure has aided us in not only being able to develop diverse programs specific to the communities we serve, but allows us to identify possible barriers to services prior to their implementation. In my case, low income board Members are often my greatest resource.

In 1981, our funds were consolidated into what is now called the Community Services Block Grant, which in California is administered by the Department of Community Services and Development. This funding acts as a foundation for many agencies to attract and gain additional resources. On average, in the state of California, agencies are able to attract an additional $16 in funding for every dollar that they receive in CSBG. For example, my agency, through a community needs assessment, determined that the greatest need for services was homeless and housing support.

Our homeless numbers in Merced County have more than doubled over the last ten years. As with many communities throughout the nation, we are the largest provider of homeless services in Merced County, and many organizations look to us to provide much needed support. CSBG funds, although limited, allow us to write grants, conduct community needs assessments, track data, and provide support to our local homeless navigation center all essential steps in attracting much needed funding for our community.

As a result of CSBG funds supporting those efforts, last year we were able to secure over $8 million in funds to pay for rental assistance, housing and HMIS CES programs. We were also able to partner with the city of Merced to provide support services to 92 recently housed formerly homeless individuals in apartments. And in 2024, we plan to add another 100 customers to those roles. We know that these are essential components in keeping people housed.

My story is unique on how I use CSBG funding because Merced County is unique in what it needs. Sister counties have very different stories about how they use their Csbg's funds. Another example I'd like to share with you is how a rural Northern County uses their CSBG funds to support Meals on Wheels. With severe weather and very Low density housing, their federal award to deliver Meals on Wheels does not meet the need. It is a very rural county. The aging population is high.

However, the unhoused numbers are very low. We often say in community action, when you've seen one community action agency, you've seen one community action agency. The ability for each of us to diversify our funding on an individual basis in response to local need is the genius of CSBG. Too many federal funds are over-regulated and then become underutilized. That is not the case for CSBG. As a network, we take pride in the services we provide that hit every inch of the state of California.

The need is great, and we are proud to be part of the solution. Thank you for having me today, and I'm excited to answer your questions.

Thank you very much. Now we will turn to questions from committee Members. Any committee Members have any questions? Yes.

So you did note that the concept of community action programs has been around for almost 60 years. And certainly noting that the civil rights movement of the times, we have since moved into more modern movements, how have you adjusted to some of the new civil rights movements of perhaps this decade?

Go ahead. Yeah, so that's the beauty of CSBG and being able to understand completely what is occurring at this moment, what is constantly incurring. As you've heard multiple times, not only do we put people of marginalized populations, not only do they get a seat at the table, but they get a voice at that table. And so what that has allowed is for us to constantly not necessarily be ahead, but be right there when we know these things are coming and how they occur.

Our philosophy as far as community action goes around. When you talk about the new issues that we face, is it's not just simply enough to address policy issues that are bad or just practices or systems that are bad, but it's making sure that you empower the people that it really does affect to have that voice, to be able to say, no, this is what needs to change. And that's the big, unique nature about our agencies and how they're able to do that.

I just wanted to allow him to speak first, because, again, CSBG is unique in programs in that it's ground up. It's not top down. It really is bottom up. And you have had that experience of having that opportunity to really define the goals in your community at a particular point in time. And CSD works tirelessly with our network, who works ten times harder with boots on the ground to try and understand those emerging needs.

And as Mr. Knight spoke to those, vary county by county and points in time, month by month, we come out of a pandemic and next thing you know, we don't have any infant formula. PPE was a problem. Housing, education, food insecurity, these are constants. But the minute small shifts in needs and demands at the local level. The Department fully supports the local agencies that we work with in helping to define those so that they can then have that come to the Department.

So that we, as a network and as a state, can best use these funds to meet those emerging needs and those social issues as they arise in almost as much as we can in real time.

Can I add just I said I'd try to be quiet, but I'm trying. I was just going to say that at our heart, if you're a good community action agency Director, you're a good grassroots advocate, and you can't do that in case you're in your community and the people in your community know you and know that they can come to you for the services they need, for the services they're not getting.

So one thing specific to community action is we're in the community, we're known in the community, we're accessible in the community, and the people in the community know that we're going to fight for what's right. Even though I can say on a pretty direct basis, we're not always the favorite for doing that, we feel secure in the stance that we take.

Thank you so much for this presentation. I think I'm going to ask a very baseline question and then try to just suss out some of the outcomes that you all have shared here. Do you believe that CSBG is in the business of servicing poverty, addressing the kind of supported needs that come with the experience of poverty? Or do you believe that the funding stream is also intended to eradicate poverty?

That's a question, because as I look at the outcomes that you shared in your grant fact sheet, many of the outcomes well, first there's a lot of information about inputs, right? So services provided. And then there are some indicators around outcomes, but they definitely vary in terms of whether or not it's just provision of a service or whether or not it has an intention to be able to support the eradication of the experience of poverty for people.

Sure. I'll start from the department's perspective, and I'll allow my colleagues to fill in my gaps. I think from the basis it was stated earlier. When you've seen one community action agency, you've seen one. And services and outcomes, as I provided and has been noted today, do vary widely throughout the state based on those community needs. And I think that at its heart, CSBG is a partner in trying to alleviate the impacts of poverty. And very much so.

We would love to be able to say that we can eliminate poverty as a limited funding source. And the fact that this is not an entitlement program, there are limitations in federal law somewhat in what CSBG can do. But more importantly, I think the vital piece of CSBG is it can be used as a funding source again to respond to those community needs assessments.

Those community action plans that are developed by each of our network agencies and very much in real time address those emergent social needs as they can impact either with homelessness, whether it's food insecurity, education, training, those instances of poverty that do exist throughout the state of California.

And I do believe that, yes, CSBG at its heart is meant to help eradicate poverty, but it can be done in a variety of different ways throughout the state, depending on what the needs are in a particular locale or that a particular network agency has identified.

Yeah, so the short answer is both. The longer answer is when we look at it, first of all, when you look at again, it's $62 million, and CSBG qualifies low income on the federal poverty line, 125%. So if you're looking at the numbers of that, that's a family of one is about 14,000 a year, up to about a family of four would be about 20,000 a year.

So when you look at it from within our state, if you're at that income level, that's extreme poverty for our state. When you look at our data, majority of the families that we serve are typically under 75% of the federal poverty line. So we're not even talking about just extreme, extreme poverty of the families that we look at.

So it's constantly building the plane in the air where you can't stop the mass amount of outputs that you have to have, the mass amount of services that you have just to create stability in families.

But at the same time, our agencies, because of, as you said, by the heart and the structure of it, is looking at how do we maximize that small investment into larger investments, whether it's through workforce dollars, whether it's through Head Start dollars, and looking at pre K and those type of things that create the economic mobility opportunity to happen. So those numbers are definitely there. Typically with the majority of our dollars.

You're talking about years worth of work to get someone from an extreme crisis situation to where they can actually start working towards that economic mobility. But we do, like you said, at the heart of it is to focus on that. And one other thing I'll add is the unique nature about these dollars is it just doesn't look at it from a family level perspective.

And what I mean by that is we can create all the family services we can to help balance folks out, but a lot of times it's just a lack of the over opportunity in the community. So again, it could be a mass amount of outputs to help people register for Cal Fresh, but if they don't have that local grocery store with healthy food, that's where CSBG is really successful. To say that's not going to be anything on a big outcome report, but getting a grocery store in a food desert is a huge deal.

Thank you for those answers. One of the things that we realized coming out of the pandemic is just how fragile our single mothers are. One of the greatest needs of rental assistance, one of the most likely to fall into homelessness, fall even deeper down into poverty. And then most recently, we are seeing one of the fastest growing groups of homelessness are our seniors. And even more disturbing is the very high percentage of seniors who qualify for CalFresh but are not enrolled in CalFresh. What are we doing or what are you all doing to hyper focus on these two very fragile groups to ensure that their needs are being taken care.

Of again, I would just start and go back to the beginning. I think that every network agency focuses their community needs assessments and their plans on those particular items that they believe are top of the charts for their particular area. And while there are only a few of us here today, you might get I know we have other agencies that do focus more on seniors than others, and that's just based on the needs of their particular community. But I'll leave it now to Mr. Knight.

But before you do that, we're talking about the state plan though, right?

Correct.

But from the standpoint of a state plan right, and this is just the social worker in me, so you're talking to a whole different kind of person here, is that we know statewide, these are issues that are happening and the numbers are so great, it would be hard pressed for us not to see a county that are not seeing some of these numbers. Right.

So from a statewide or strategic point of view, when we look at a state plan, unless you're saying the state plan is just an accumulation of everyone's local plans and then we just put it in there, or is there really a statewide plan that we're trying to look at?

I think the statewide plan is effectively using CSBG funds to effectively respond to the individual and directed needs of the entire state. That could look in a myriad of different ways, where if we just look at the state plan from the top down optic, it may appear that we have 58 little kind of state plans happening, but it effectively does. Come together as a single plan to help alleviate poverty and instances of poverty to help build communities up based on those local needs and assessments.

Now, we do have discretionary funds that are available to the state that we use on an annual basis depending on those emerging social needs and issues that come up. The infant formula crisis was one of those things that we use those funds for.

So we absolutely, as a state and as a Department, can go into 2024 and 2025 and look at those very particular issues that you've mentioned and see what we could do with either state discretionary directed funds or even working in conjunction with our network of agencies across the board, across the state to see how can we address this emerging social need that is, you're right, becoming a very pressing concern for the state as a whole. I'm not sure if they wanted to yeah.

And then part of that state plan and as David had said, with the discretionary dollars, part of that is our role as the association to have that relationship with our state officials so that we're constantly aware as well. So in that state plan, we don't necessarily target overall issues.

But when we specifically know that these populations, based on the data that we collect, based on the information coming from you guys and from into the state office and to us, we are able to proactively focus in two different areas, which are communications and then our training and technical assistance. So how do we better educate our agencies on statewide issues? Example of that would be when we talk about single mothers, we understand that that is a prime population for us to be able to better serve.

So in our collaboration between us and the state, we were able to recently secure $1.2 million for a Diaper grant to pilot that program. So that's some federal dollars. So having that knowledge, having that ability, putting that forth to say we're going to work together to make sure that we're always communicating those specific populations that we know are in our poverty metrics.

And tell me, my last question is how can the Legislature serve as a partner to support the work of the departments and your organizations?

And I think that the prime area is this conversation right now to hear from this committee and the Members of what you're seeing from your offices and what you're hearing from those in your community, to have that direct communication, there never can be too much conversation, there can never be too much data. And we want to be able to make these determinations, develop this state plan based on good data.

And the more we can hear from the Legislature, the more that you get from your constituents and pass that on into the Department, we then obviously can through our partnerships, filter that information through and develop a stronger, more resilient more responsive community, state block grant and a Department and a network.

I was just going to add I don't know if I'm...I was just going to add that it's very helpful from the local level as a community action agency when we have relationships with elected officials, because sometimes wheels that we can't get moving, you guys can get moving very quickly for somebody. And so the relationships at your local offices so that you can refer constituents to us so that you can come visit us, we love that, come know your community action agency.

Many of us are multifaceted. I run about a $34 million organization. 500,000 of that is CSBG. So it's a very small portion of what I do. But it's a great foundation for all the other programs that I run that can help you directly. And then in turn, when I have something that seems like it needs to be greased, I have a relationship so that I can call you too, because that's how things happen.

Thank you very much. If there's no other questions or comments, we want to thank this panel very much for being here. And we would like to welcome up some of the funded agencies at this time. Thank you so much for being here. And so we want to welcome up Carla Lopez Del Rio Executive Director of the community action partnership of Riverside.

We want to bring up Jorge De Nava Jr. Executive Director of Central Valley Opportunity Center, and Greg Gehr, Executive Director of the Northern California Indian Development Council. And I believe he's joining us remotely.

Thank you so much for having us here, for allowing our voice to come to the Capitol and for it to be heard. I represent more than 2.5 million people back in Riverside County. It's one of the largest counties in the region. It's very diverse.

I've learned so much by working at Riverside County about the difference between rural and urban, the difference between serving somebody who is low income and extremely low income, the partnerships that have to be in place and the commitment that has to be in place. But all of this is really centered and really helps. To have the state partnership that you just mentioned at the end of your last panel. This multilevel collaboration that has very strategic focus on helping local communities solve their issues is extremely important.

So thank you so much for having us here. Cap riverside is unique. We are a public private entity in the sense that community partnerships, community actions are usually non profits. We are embedded in the county, which gives me a very unique role.

I serve as a deputy Director of the Housing Workforce Solutions, along with five other deputies, the deputy on the Continuum of Care, the deputy on the Affordable Housing Development, the Housing Authority Workforce Solutions, and I am the fifth deputy helping with upward mobility, we really believe that we want to start in our communities talking about financial wellness. I think that we have really taken a role in addressing mental health as an issue. But financial wellness affects mental health tremendously.

And what we see in people that come to our office that are stressed out, that are completely, sometimes unable to communicate because they're so frustrated, really emanates from this poverty that they are enduring on a daily basis. People that will not leave my lobby because they don't have anywhere to sleep and they're scared of going out at night. A young 21 year old woman who was refusing to leave unless I gave her some water and let her sleep in our lobby.

So we're seeing it firsthand and being at the county level, it really connects us to the community. Sometimes they say government may be disconnected from community, but in this case, I am able to carry the experience right into the team that is addressing housing and workforce solutions. We believe in community centered public private partnerships designed in collaboration with Low income residents. In my tenure there, we've been able to, as I will share with you, do a lot of this work.

We use our network to call upon upon a wide array of stakeholders and residents to identify opportunities where we can support their local solutions. We want to have a role to support the local efforts by funding Activating Bridging and Incentivizing Change. The greatest assets of this funding for us is the flexibility that you've been talking about. It allows me to speak to people and bridge emergencies as well as build with strategy. And I will share a little bit more about that.

This also allows us to collect community level data. I heard that state level data is really important, but the nuisance of the difference of the solution really lies in the community level data, and we have very little infrastructure in that case. One of the examples that I can give you is that Riverside County is 52% Latino. But providing housing that is the aspiration of a Latino.

In rural California, Coachella Valley may be a double white trailer versus a family who is Low income and wants a two bedroom, affordable housing apartment in urban Riverside. So we have a wide range of needs, and this community level data is very difficult to find. It's very disconnected. It's usually not available. We don't know who holds it, who is responsible for it. So we rely a lot on data that's given to us by partners that are trusted by the community. For example, two one one.

So 211 allowed us to have insight into who is calling for their services and how are we leveraging our efforts. 500,000 calls came in last year out of which the top three needs were housing, utility assistance, and food. But the most important piece of that was the breakdown of the demographics of who's calling in and the insight that it gave us into the community needs assessment.

70% of the people that call were women, and out of those, 36% of those are Latinas and 35% of those are African American women. There's only 8% of African American populations in our entire county. That's an enormous amount of disparity for African American women. Single motherhood is above the top issues. I was a single mother myself, and I did go back to college. I was on the other side of the counter as cap at 1.0 in time.

So on the issue and the question about is it possible to pull out of poverty, I can tell you yes. Is it over? For me? No. Why? Because I need investments. And that's something that we are really thinking about when we are talking about solving problems of poverty in Riverside County. It's about small businesses, it's about homeownership, it's about going back to school and really being able to get into the upper echelons of high end university, but also being able to run your enterprises.

So what are we doing with this Csvg funding to address what I just told you? First, we need to stabilize people financially. It's very difficult to come out of poverty when you're spending most of your time looking for food, for shelter. This is the time you spend every day, and we know it as busy executives. Every minute counts. Well, that happens in poverty too. So what we try to do is we try to stabilize people financially first. So we have programs that are geared towards that.

The cool and warm centers are one of the biggest, not only provider of a safe space during these extreme heats, particularly in the Coachella Valley and the desert areas, but they also provide a place for you to go and spend time if you cannot afford your utilities to pay for air conditioning. And we have about 70 of those throughout the region and those are all run by volunteers that are in their communities opening their doors.

This is funding that is leveraging not just money, but people, and people's care and commitment to their community. Besides that, we have the weatherization program. That is actually what I'm seeing and this is empirical, I don't have good data, but what I see is that most of the people that are coming through weatherization are seniors. And what we're helping them do is stay in place and avoid homelessness, which is one of the trends that you have just brought up in your opening panel.

And this is important for us because our community needs assessment did tell us that the fastest growing population is seniors and they are impoverishing fast. Inflation is being very harsh on them and their homes are not in good conditions. So once we address the financial stability of people through some of those programs, we also run the largest utility assistance program. We provide assistance to almost 20,000 families.

We focus on priority points that focus on people who are either on ventilators insulin, have children under five, have some critical medical, and we ran out of money last year. We had to prioritize to the T because the funding was not enough for everyone. The Liwa program saying we were able to with this very important, powerful role that I see in this being embedded in the public entity.

We were able to connect immediately with the water districts and create very strong relationships with them where we were able to educate them on how this program would Fund and how it would be beneficial to the residents and to them as an institution. Because of those partnerships, we were able to lead the state in deploying water assistance and receiving additional funding so that we could continue to provide that service. So this stabilization leads us then to the upper mobility programs that we try to leverage.

One that I really want to highlight to you is a volunteer income tax assistance program. That program is transformational for my region. We have about 25 nonprofit partners around the region and with the help of 75 volunteers and this is building. After the pandemic, that base was very difficult to rebuild. But we are rebuilding it. And they are not just providing a community knowledge of how to file your taxes, but also how to receive your refunds.

And those refunds are transformation of the IETC refund, the Earned Income Tax Credit refund is a very important poverty alleviation tool that we have, but it's not been fully activated and who is activating? It is the residents that are helping other residents learn how to apply, how to file their taxes so abide by the law, but also receive the incentives of all these different credits. One quick story I want to share with you is one of Hunter contreras.

She was one of our single moms who came for the Vida program to be assisted. We were able to backtrack and amend her taxes because she had been doing it with TurboTax for too long. And as we went back a few years back, she ended up with a $30,000 refund check. But the most important part was that she had a dream that she wanted to be a homeowner.

And through our asset building programs, we matched her funds and we connected her to services that led her to homeownership. It's unheard of nowadays, I know, but it happens. And what I have faith in is that many of my nonprofit partners are creating noble housing developments in manufactured homes and different types of not the $750,000 single family home that nobody can afford, not even $150,000. You cannot afford that house.

However, we're looking for new projects, and that only happens when Csvg gets in the mix and starts asking the question, what do we need to bridge? What needs to be addressed so that you can take the next step? I can keep going on on that one, but what I also wanted to point out is that we are trying to educate just a few more minutes. Yes. We're trying to educate people how to become self sufficient through starting their small businesses.

And not only how to do it, we're doing it in partnership with people who are there funding their ideas, seeding their ideas, but also showing them how to be a vendor to the county that's hurting for service providers right now. So we believe that this upward mobility can be a public partnership that benefits all areas. Finally, I want to talk about the most important piece that I see for the next five years of my tenure, and it's the tech digital divide.

This is very important to Dei work. This is very important to the rural areas, which I know that are very important to both of you. The broadband information, the digital divide is going to have to come through the trusted partners of the community. That's what community action partnerships are. They are the trusted voices of those communities that are able to mobilize ideas that are going to be innovative.

Because if we do not connect from seniors to kids, our regions to broadband and those technology pieces, we're going to get left behind in the technology revolution.

Thank you very much. Good afternoon. My name is Jorge De Nava, Jr. And I'm the Executive Director at Central Valley Opportunity Center. A little bit about myself briefly. Born and raised in California, I'm a first generation Mexican American. Both my parents are immigrants from Mexico, grew up in Stanislau County and continue to represent that area to this day. Professionally, I've been with Central Valley Opportunity Center for 21 years. I've been the Executive Director since 2017.

It's only the second job I've ever had, so it's been a pretty good one. So I'm here today to talk a little bit about what CVOC that is our acronym, what CVOC does with our CSBG funds, and who we are. And I'd also like to touch on how we leverage the CSBG funds to bring in additional dollars to our service area. So, Central Valley Opportunity Center is a 501 nonprofit organization independent of local government. We're a grassroots organization on steroids.

So our allocation for CSBG is right around $2 million, but we leverage that to bring in about $16 million in additional funds to fill in the gaps and to serve more people than CSBG allows. Right. Our primary service area encompasses five counties: Mariposa, Tuolumne up in the Mother Load, Stanislau, Merced, Madeira County in the San Joaquin Valley. We've been around for 43 years.

Central Valley Opportunity Center, we've been around for 43 years, and we've been operating CSBG grants for quite a long time, a few decades. So we are familiar with the flexibility of the funding. You've heard earlier today that it's not a program, it's funding. Each individual area designs their own program based on community needs assessment. We're going to say that over and over again because it's a very important piece of the work that we do as community action agencies and as CSBG entities.

So in addition to the needs assessment and CSBG, CVOC is also very unique in that we are one of the four migrant and seasonal farm worker grantees under the Community Services Block Grant. So not only are we serving the Low income population with CSBG funds, we're also focusing on the migrant and seasonal farm worker populations in our area. However, I like to think, and I like to let folks know, that serving Low income folks encompasses everybody in our community.

Veterans are Low income, migrant seasonal farm workers are Low income, single parents are Low income, ex offenders are Low income, the disabled are Low income, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Right? So CSBG allows us to have a very large reach within our community, again, designed off of the Community needs assessment and the Community Action Plan that we put together every couple of years.

So for my area and the agency that I represent and the 100 hardworking employees at Central Valley Opportunity Center, our community asks us to focus on workforce development services. A large portion of the delivery of services that we provide is around vocational training and employment services. CVOC operates our own vocational training schools. Last year alone, we were able to with CSBG funds, we were able to serve approximately 235 people with vocational training services, and 159 of those received a job.

Our motto at CVOC is helping people, changing lives. We are searching and striving to help our participants become self sufficient. Not get a certificate, not get a job, not keep your utilities on, not to provide you a cool environment during the heat, but it's to help you become self sufficient. And we focus on that extremely hard. Another area that we focus on that is in conjunction with the Workforce Development services is education services.

A lot of the community that we are serving lacks a high school education and lacks basic English skills. So what do we do? Right?

We provide high school equivalency programs in preparation, and we have ESL classes that are standalone and also incorporated into our vocational training programs. Another area that we focus on is housing. We do that quite a few different ways that's with rental assistance programs, emergency shelter programs and temporary shelter programs. We also have a security deposit program that we focus on with housing as well. We then move into a transportation aspect.

So it's a big ask to enroll you into a vocational training program and help you find a career while you're taking ESL classes and working towards your high school diploma while still trying to keep the lights on and food on the table, gas in the car, right? So we incorporate a whole person approach and include wraparound services. So we have a transportation system that we've built outside of our local city and county bus system. So we remove the no and the excuses for our participants.

So we'll pick you up at your house, we'll bring you to class, we'll take you home, et cetera, et cetera. So we're able to serve our community that way and support our folks that are in the program. In addition, we are the Ly heat provider, the water provider, Lywap. We also have a weatherization program. We teach weatherization as a vocational training course as well. So we're able to again remove the barriers. In honesty, they're excuses sometimes from participants. So we like to remove the barriers.

That's the nice word for our participants so that they can be successful in the end from all the services that we're offering so that they can become self sufficient. I mentioned earlier that we have about $2 million in CSBG funds, but we do leverage that into $16 million in funds directed towards Low income residents in our service area. Last year alone, we served about 7500 households and about 21 500 individuals. We are primarily providing services in the Central Valley.

So a lot of the folks that we served, 5000 to be exact, or about 24%, were considered deep poverty, meaning they were at 50% of the Low income level. So the impact that we're having with the CSB Jigs funds, especially for the folks that are in deep poverty, is really exponential. It allows them to not only survive at times, but again puts them on the path towards self sufficiency. With that said, we're very proud of the work that we do.

We're very honored to have been invited today and sharing the days here with my counterparts and online as well. I know Greg's on there. So, again, thank you for your attention and thank you for supporting the Community Services Block Grant, supporting community action. And again, my pleasure to be here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Denava.

Next up, we have Mr. Gehr. Am I pronouncing that right? Oh, wow. All right.

Committee co chairs, Senator Alvarado Gill, Assembly Member Dr. Jackson and all the Members of the Committee. My name is Greg Gehr, I'm the CEO for Northern California Indian Development Council, or NCIDC, as pretty much everybody calls us. I'm honored to be here today to provide a perspective on the use of Community Service Block Grant funding to help poverty level American Indians and Native communities in California strive for self sufficiency.

California is one of, if not the only, state in the nation to have established an American Indian set aside under the Community Service Block Grant program. Since the implementation of CSBG in 1982, California has maintained that American Indian set aside within the state's total CSBG allocation. NCIDC is one of only three eligible CSBG organizations, along with the Karuk Tribe and LA County, that are both Native American Indian agencies. The Karuk Tribe and NCIDC are also, in addition what are called limited purpose agencies or LPAs.

Our migrant and seasonal sister agencies are also a specialized form of an LPA. We were granted that status as an LPA because of relationships we had with the Community Services Administration back before CSBG and when the CSBG Act came in, our eligibility for the CSA programs grandfathered us in as LPA agencies under the public law and allowed us to continue to serve alongside all of our Community Action Agency CSBG entities throughout California.

NCIDC is a nonprofit 501 c three Indian organization, but we are made up as an intertribal organization. We have a membership of 13 Indian tribes and tribal organizations. Our original direct service area when we were created in the mid 70s, consisted of four counties in the northwestern part of the state bust the name. However, since 1986, NCIDC has also been the primary statewide CSBG service provider for the American Indian Set aside network.

We have 57 counties and over 100 reservations and rancherias in our contract which get allocations for services with CSD through CSBG. Last year, we had over 25,000 Native people assisted directly by CSBG programs and services within the state, and approximately another 40,000 people were served by new community resources that were created through CSBG. Services were offered that addressed immediate need and had long term impact in people's lives.

In order to facilitate the delivery of services to the American Indian eligible beneficiaries throughout the state, ncidc has an established subcontractor network of American Indian organizations that deliver direct CSPG services to off reservation Native people. The majority of these subcontractors have been previously designated by the US. Department of labor as Native American Grantees providing services under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. WIOA Our CSPG program becomes a complement to the employment and training services of those agencies.

The ability to case manage clients with both CSBG and WIOA resources provides much more flexibility in addressing the barriers clients face and achieving successes with each client. In most instances, the addition of CSBG funded has expanded the capacity of these subcontractor agencies, strengthened their management and operational systems, and provided a catalyst to develop additional programs and services for their American Indian service populations.

NCIDC responded to the Pandemic by establishing an online application process and working with Supply Bank, a sister agency that you've already heard some about, created tribal PPE distribution centers and testing sites throughout the state and Indian country. We had built off of the efforts of what we learned and what we did during the pandemic, and our CSBG network continues to develop more innovative programs now as we come out of that pandemic.

Some examples of current programs include creating and supporting disaster response networks statewide for Indian communities, creating statewide Low income tribal school supply distribution programs, again working in conjunction with Supply Bank providing support for economic development projects and sustainable energy expansion in American Indian communities. A lot of what we're doing right now has to do with offshore windmills and community benefits agreements as well as dam decommissioning, which is another big thing happening in the north part of the state.

And we also have a lot of building support and a need for mental health and substance abuse prevention for indigenous people, and particularly in youth. One of the things that I'm very proud that our network has done in recent years is to develop online telehealth mental health counseling specifically targeted at youth. Youth being defined as 14 to 26 years old.

And our model in Northern California is based on a model that was originally developed by one of our subcontractors, the Southern California American Indian Resource Center in San Diego and Southern California. Sharing those best practices amongst the network is something that we try to meet and do on an annual basis.

Reservations and rancherias in California are all designated as pockets of poverty within the CSBG network, and Ncidc also contracts directly with each tribal government or their designated tribal entity for the provision of CSBG services on and near the reservations or rancherias.

As with off reservation and rancheria subcontractors, many of the tribes have successfully used their CSBG funding to augment existing programs, initiate new service programs, and expand their capacity to self determine the programs that they need to operate to provide the best outcomes for their tribal communities. None of these tribes are getting a lot of money. The tribes on our we have over 100 tribes on our contract, and many of the smaller tribes get under $1,500 a year.

Yet even this small allocation of CSBG resources to a small tribe can often provide critical, locally directed funding that allows the tribes to create and leverage programs that they otherwise would not be able to execute.

Programs on reservations span the potential universe of eligible activity with concentrations in community garden projects, other related health and wellness projects, youth education support programs, youth career exploration, work experience, cultural and language programs, addressing intergenerational trauma, adult employment and training support services for elders, which is a big component in Indian Country emergency services and similar activities. There were some questions earlier about priority populations, and I just wanted to echo what I think encouraged from other Members of the network.

If you look at the priority populations set in policy for our LIHEAP, LIWAP and CSBG, you will find elders, single parents with young children, families with disabled people in them, the same priority populations that I think we were talking about before. And that goes across quite a few programs. And those values, I think, are endemic culturally within the Indian community.

We're appreciative of the partnership that our American Indian Set aside network has established with the non Native CSBG agencies in California, such as the Community Action Agency. Representatives on this panel with me, as well as the strong support of the staff and leadership of the Department of Community Services and Development as we work on addressing poverty promoting self sufficiency in Indian Country as described in the draft state plan before you today.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the support of the State of California Legislature themselves in establishing and maintaining the American Indian Set Aside program within the California Community Service Block Grant legislation. And we hope to continue to be partners in addressing and improving the unemployment and poverty statistics within Indian Country in California on an ongoing basis. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Questions from committee Members. Questions or comments? Senator.

Thank you for your presentation. Mr. de Nava, I think you answered it in your question, but I was curious about what percentage of your overall budgets come from CSD or Community Service Block grants? Just to get an idea, because I know you leverage other philanthropic funds, but approximately what is that percentage that you count on every year?

Little context. So we've been around for 43 years, and for 40 of those years we were primarily federally funded through the recent Pandemic Cares funds, et cetera, that came through. We are now 50 50. So $16 million last year, and we're trending towards 18 for this next fiscal year. Last year we were exactly 50 50. Next year, our fiscal year is ten one.

It'll be the first year in our existence that we are primarily CSBG funded when you include the energy dollars and the energy programs that come along with that. So, yeah, interesting times.

Okay, so almost completely funded by CSBG dollars.

Yeah. Next year we'll be at 10 million in CSBG dollars.

Okay. How about our other agencies? Is it similar with you as well?

No, not...I'm sorry. I can't see you. You're right behind me. So we get an allocation, a demographical allocation, which is about $3 million. It's a formula, so we really don't have any way to expand it. But what we do is we leverage it. So, for example, some of the work that we do with the Emergency Management Department is leveraging their dollars. When we did the Oasis Water Park, they were having issues with the water, and they were not able to mobilize quickly.

So our CSBG dollars was able to bridge and leverage other funding that was coming from the community to address the water issue. That was one of the examples we gave you. But then at the same time, we are leveraging other funding. With the Housing Authority, for example. So CSBG is liberating almost $150,000 of deposits so that people, when they get the call for the voucher, they don't go to the cash in place, or they don't go without the voucher, or they lose their voucher.

So we are liberating money there. So the way that we approach CSBG is that leveraging power that it has, so it's almost impossible to say how much money we're leveraging, because we would have to track all that data. What we do see is the leveraging with the internal what he was mentioning, my colleague was mentioning with the LIHEAP and the LIP programs, the weatherization program. So, for example, the weatherization program is very just specifically about energy efficiency.

However, if you have a roof or a floor that is not conducive to the work you go without. So we're able to bridge some of those or address some of those issues that are locking the money in. Also, we bring in partnerships. So I don't know how you would quantify this, but after we weatherize a home, we are partnered with grid alternatives.

They're coming in with their solar panels, and they're installing those solar panels for free on the Low income communities that we are servicing with our weatherization. So that leveraging power is unlocking their millions of dollars as well. And I can go on and on with all the different ways in which we are partnering with the public, the private, the state, and the federal funding. And it all starts because CSBG is present and it's available to mobilize and spark that change.

Thank you. I have another question kind of similar to this, and maybe we'll start with Mr. Gehr, and then we can kind of move on. I'm interested in knowing, how do you track the outcomes, those real stories behind the numbers, and how does that help to evaluate your impact?

We utilize an online cloud based tracking system that measures both services and inputs and outputs, services and outcomes. And it's made in real time to all of our departments. For all programs of our agency, we actually selected the same vendor that the state of California selected for all of the CSBG agencies to punch in their organizational standard data and their annual reports for CSBG and have been working with them for a number of years to integrate that completely into our system so we get real time data. We have a planning Department that is engaged in its own state planning process. And I'm going to go back a little bit to your first question. We get roughly $2 million a year to cover 57 counties and 106 tribes. Let that sink in for a minute.

It represents maybe about a third of the agency's funding. We recently were about a third philanthropic funded and been a host of federal and state sources. For the rest of our funding, we do our own statewide community needs assessment and community action plan to figure out how this $2 million can be best used to leverage other funding in all the tribal communities we serve, as well as 57 of the 58 counties in California LA County being funded directly and not being part of our contract.

It is something that we have really dedicated ourselves to. We have something in CSBG called Roma, Result Oriented Management and Accountability. And we have certified staff with credentials who every year maintain their continuing education and every year work everybody from the board all the way down to the frontline workers on the phones to let them know how they're part of a team that is supposed to be working towards results, towards results that we do.

Not just units of service, not just marking off how many people got this or got that, but talking about how do we make and measure real change. So it is something that we really take seriously here, and I think the rest of the network does, too.

I appreciate that. I do have one more question, but I want to give you opportunity just to respond to the current question.

Sure. So I could give you one very good example of how we do that. Again, my colleague Greg mentioned Results Oriented Management, and one way that we track results is, for example, I mentioned that our program placed 159 participants into employment last year. Well, those 159 are technically with us for the next two years.

After that job placement date, we follow up on our participants at the 30 day mark, the 60 day mark, and then at the 90 day mark to check in, see if they're working or if they are in need of any support. Perhaps they need tools, perhaps they need transportation. We then check in with them quarterly. So every three months up to after that for two years.

What we find is that that first job that we've placed them in two years ago, well, they've now upgraded within that company or upskilled into a different industry. So we're there along the way to support them through that, to get to their ultimate goal, which these days we can find anybody a job. It's all about finding them and helping them keep a career.

Yeah, I appreciate your response as well, because when I think about eradicating poverty, it's lifting people out of a situation and also preventing them from coming back to that situation. So the results really matter in terms of not only a timestamp of here and now, how you were able to impact them today, but how does that help to lift them and alleviate poverty in their future and for their families moving forward?

Great for us. We also have mechanisms in place, particularly when we are collaborating with other agencies. They keep tabs on case workers. So we have partnerships with case workers in the Office on Aging. That was one of the partnerships that we've been strengthening for a long time. But we really accelerated that after our Community needs Assessment and the pandemic. So we are able to know if these interventions are fruitful in a technical way in many different ways. They're also part of our contract.

So anytime that we have any type of subgrentee or subcontractor, they're responsible for reporting back to us and from us learning. But it's a skill in the yard to lead this seat because you have to be also the touch in the community, the one that talks about what the data is not showing yet. And that starts kind of pointing to that point where you're saying there might be an issue here that we may be not paying attention to and there's no data about it.

So it is through that very close collaboration and very tight knit community of leaders that we know if our interventions are working. And what I would say in closing is that the more we start collaborating, the more we start sharing data, the better we'll be understanding how our investments are working and how to make them more fruitful in the future.

You talked about sharing data, and I think that that kind of informs my next question because I heard of all our presenters a reference to the Community needs assessment. And it's the data gathered in the Community needs assessment that then informs your ability to create your programs and services and get awarded the funds and then also to evaluate your impact and the results. So educate me a little bit on what is the tool that you use for this Community needs assessment.

Is it the same across CSD funded organizations? What do you do with that data and how does that work in the realm of data information that you gather?

Me first. Okay, I won't speak for CSD. I'll tell you how we do it in the Central Valley. It's evolved over the years. The basic formula has kind of stayed the same. The tool is what has evolved over the years. But our basic formula is we are boots on the ground. We schedule public hearings and public forums where we don't answer any questions, nor do we pretend to solve our community's problems. That evening.

We are merely soliciting information on what those folks that showed up that evening are seeing in their community and what they feel we should focus our award towards. So that's the first step. Another second step is everything is digital these days and electronic. We, however, still use an actual needs assessment survey that is paper and pencil in addition to electronic. Right?

It's also on our website. You can access needs assessment survey five different ways. But the focus and the primary return of that survey is paper and pencil. Because the folks we're serving, the Low income community, it's easier. I'm doing pencil and paper today, right? Your internet is never going to go out. You're not going to get your laptop, whatever that may be, right? The paper and pencil has been kind of the staple for us, so we continue to do that.

So the needs assessment survey, we distribute that out to local partners, local government. We keep them in our lobbies at the front desk, and we encourage everyone to fill those out. Right after that, we compile the information and compile the data and we create categories to where these comments from the community are falling into. After that, we put together a community action plan with that information. It goes public for 30 days.

For comment goes to Cvoc's board of directors to review and comment on as well as well as to the community. The public gets an opportunity to comment on what we've put together from our public hearings, needs assessment surveys, et cetera. After that, it goes to our project officers at CSD, and hopefully we're off and running shortly after that. So for us, we've been doing it a long time, so we usually start right around in March and go pretty heavy in April and May.

Then we take the month of June to compile and submit by the June 30 deadline.

We have an approach of leveraging our local resources. We have an approach of leveraging our local resources. So this last assessment that we did was a collaboration with the University of California, Riverside. They have researchers that are really interested in social issues. So they helped us with the big data. They were able to look into trends. They were able to look into some of the things that we had not seen before in our community level data that I want to get into.

So the census data was just very difficult during the time that we were collecting it. And that's what I'm referring to, that there was a lot of difficulty with the data that was coming out of the census. Redistricting was also a really hot topic in my area. But eventually the data settled and we were able to conduct the assessments the way that we've done it historically. So paper and pen for sure were developed in Spanish and in other languages that are in our area.

They're done through the trusted partners. So those partners getting those surveys and asking their constituents to answer is extremely important to us. We also created on technology. We created the surveys for the nonprofits that we serve and other people that can answer digitally. And then we also combine that with the support of the county agencies that also answered. So the combination of all of that information and the board, the commission, we are called a commission.

Our commissioners that are the Low income are doing this analysis and these conversations about what we found. And from there we draft our community needs assessment. And the most important piece of it is that this is the information that we give to our advocates and that has the backing of our institution saying that this is information you can take to your local agencies, you can grant right with this information, you can be transformative with this community level data. But I will say it's a huge effort.

It's very expensive, very difficult to do, particularly if you're staying true to the voice and those needs really coming from the community. But I think that technology is coming in a way where we could really leverage it. And that's why I really advocate that we pay attention to technology even when it has not been historically there. It should not be continuing to be the voice of it's never been done that way.

It's always been paper and pen because those are the people that will be left behind if we continue to do that. So yes, let's continue to provide that paper and pen, but let's also educate and connect and really bring those voices into the technology area.

Thank you. Mr. Gehr, did you want to comment just briefly?

I agree with everything they've said, although it's interesting to hear us all talk about how we do our surveys. Our survey was statewide. We sent it out to over 110 tribal governments and to a multitude of Indian Health Service and tribal service organizations, and have found that we were in the same place as Central Valley was several years ago. But it has changed. We've got a survey that's designed such that it can be done on a phone, on a tablet, on a computer.

It's very adaptive, and everybody has a phone. My mother has a phone. Everybody has a phone. If you put something together that's simple enough, they can respond to it. Two community surveys ago, it was 90% paper. This last one, it was 95% online, even though we offered paper options in every place.

So I think that I want to echo the things that the more we can start using technology to gather this information and make sense of it, we gather it more efficiently, we get more participation, and we just need to be sure that those few outlying people, the elder who doesn't have a computer or a phone that we call them and interview them, that we fill out the survey for them in an interview fashion.

We punch the survey in for them as long as we don't let those outliers fall through the cracks. I think we need to continue to move forward with using technology to be efficiently gathering the information we need. We had focus groups, regional focus groups with different focuses. Some of them were in high school, some of them were in elder homes. Some of them were for unemployed people in different areas of the state. We talked individual interviews with traditional leaders, tribal leaders, and tribal chairs.

We did a lot of secondary research. We got help from Cecita and some technical assistance from the CSBG network. We put a full court press. We started working on our Community Action plan and our Community Needs assessment, particularly last year, and carried forward into this year. So it's posted on our website. The document and all of the attachments and appendices is posted under the about page on our website.

We want to thank this panel very much for your participation. And now we will have our time for a public comment. We will have public comment in three different ways. First, we'll have an opportunity for those that are in the room to make any public comments, and then if there's any of those who are at a remote testimony station to be able to make their comments. And then for those who would like to participate via the phone line, this is your time as well.

Please begin to call in now. The number should be on your screen to be able to do so. So beginning with those that are in the room, are there anyone in the room that would like to provide public comment at this time. Just come on up and just state your name and affiliation, please.

Affiliation? Hi, my name is Sarah Nicholson, and I'm a fifth generation Californian.

That's a good affiliation. We're not doing questions. It's just comments.

Yeah, it's rhetorical. Okay. Anyway, so first of all, let me say thank you for having this hearing. Thank you for your service to our great state and our communities. I want to thank all those we heard from today and all of the work that everyone is doing to help improve the lives of our brothers and sisters in my world throughout California.

So I would just like to leave a question in everyone's mind, and especially for our legislators, is, number one, what is the definition of a Californian? I heard a couple of references to vulnerable Californians. I believe that was the word correct a couple of times, vulnerable Californians. So I would just ask you to keep that in the back of your mind. What defines a Californian?

Okay. The second thing that jumped out as I was listening was that there was an agency that's been around since 1963 and that recently our homeless population in that community has doubled in the last 1020 years. I'm from Morgan Hill, California. San Martina, actually, technically, but point of reference, Gilroy. Morgan Hill, San Jose. I was born and raised there. My father's a retired San Jose firefighter. I was the fourth of six children.

So because of the choices my parents made to have a large family, for my mother to stay home and work, and for my father to work two jobs to support six children, our socioeconomic status was a little bit lower than if they would have maybe only had two kids or four kids. Right. I don't believe there's any such thing as a single mother. You can't get pregnant by yourself. So I understand that women are raising children by themselves. Where are their fathers?

So there are a lot of questions that we need to kind of think about as we're working to empower our fellow human beings and bring them out of poverty. I appreciate a lot of things. I appreciate hearing about self sufficiency, self reliance, teaching people how to get a job. One of the things that jumped out was this career path and that these kind of menial jobs don't matter. We need fast food workers. We need janitorial service. We need all those workers here.

So I'm not here necessarily with the answers, but just some more things to consider to get back, to help us consider what the root causes are. And I feel that those who presented did a good job in justifying the funds that have been given to them, and I can see that they're working very hard. One of my concerns was there's never enough. If you build it, they will come. If we keep giving more and more money? Does this invite more and more people into our state?

That's something that I've seen going back to why I mentioned where I'm from, because I've seen the demographic change and I've seen the economic change in my lifetime. And for me, as a single woman with no children, I won't say I cannot. It is very difficult and challenging without a bachelor's degree, without a career path to live in the area that I grew up in. For me, what I have witnessed is the influx of immigrants from other countries and other states, both legally and illegally. Right?

And so, again, I would just mention, as legislators, like, looking at that big picture, what are the laws that are being passed that are contributing to this disparity and to this poverty and what laws are not being passed? So I would just beg that you would consider again what defines a Californian who are receiving the services? Are they Californians? Or are they people that are just constantly coming in?

"And I arrived yesterday and now I get services," because as long as that continues, there's never going to be enough money and it's going to consistently invite more and more people. And I feel like the problem is just going to continue to get worse. So those are just my thoughts.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Okay, now we'll go to is there anyone okay, anyone else in the room at this time seeing none. We will go right into the phone lines. Operator, is there anyone on the phone lines at this time for public comment?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. For those who wish to speak right now, please press one, then zero. Press one, then zero if you wish to comment. And once again, for your comments, please press one, then zero. Mr. Chair, no one has signaled that they wish to speak.

Okay, well, now we will do our closing. And first I'll give it to my colleague, Senator Alvarado Gill, for any closing remarks that she may have.

Well, I just want to thank all of our presenters for bringing me back to my college years and reflecting on my first job as a young community action partnership fledgling, I guess I will call myself. I will say that's the start of my political career was a community action partnership. So thank you.

I also just want to ask, so I represent 13 counties in California and hoping that community actions in my district will invite me to come see your programs firsthand, meet some of your clients and families that you work with and your board to really understand how community actions are impacting the community on the ground level. That grassroots, boots on the ground. Thank you so much for coming out here. And thank you, everyone, for public comment.

Thank you very much, Senator. I would like to thank my colleague on the Senate side as well as committee Members who were able to come by and participate. We'd like to thank the Department and the panelists who also participated in today's hearing. It is important to hear from those who serve communities directly to help inform this committee as we make policy decisions.

I look forward to seeing how the services provided with CSBG funding continue to adapt to meet the changing needs of our state and how the Legislature can continue to serve as a partner. There is no doubt about it. The needs will continue to shift, probably even faster than we have had before. We will continuously be challenged with more and more crises in California, more natural disasters, more public health emergencies, and we're going to need everyone on deck to be able to help out with those.

So thank you for those who are thank you all very much who are serving our most vulnerable populations. And with that, we will be adjourned for the day.