2020 Conference Presentations

Ventura County will share best practices in Recruiting, Selecting, Onboarding and Retaining staff. While most examples will reflect Ventura County’s child welfare programs, many lessons are applicable to other social services programs. Your takeaways from this interactive workshop will include examples of: 1. Behaviorally-specific interview questions that help select candidates who share the organization’s values 2. Collaboration strategies between agency human resources and operational programs to navigate the hiring processes in a civil service environment 3.

Fiscal Essentials 101 is back and will allow you to learn the essentials of human services financing. Fiscal Essentials 101 will provide a high-level overview on how human service programs are budgeted. In addition, it will provide information on how programs are funded, including 1991 and 2011 realignment, and current changes in finance.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and resulting recession have created challenges for our public health systems, clinics and community health centers and the millions of California residents who rely on those systems. At the same time, these challenges have given rise to opportunities and flexibilities, especially in the Medi-Cal program – which already covered 1 in 3 Californians prior to the pandemic.

Mental illness and substance abuse disorders — known collectively as behavioral health conditions — are disproportionately prevalent among children and youth who are placed in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, and Californians experiencing homelessness. The goal of this panel presentation is to explore the many ways in which behavioral health is connected to these issues and current policy proposals to help prevent illness, and promote wellness and recovery.

Fiscal Essentials 102 will provide you with a high-level understanding of how costs are charged to Social Services programs in the state claiming process, how time studies drive the allocation of costs, and why it is critical to have a global view of resource and funding and how those factors may impact your programs, and a review of the complete local budget cycle and how that might impact planning for your programs.

This presentation will break down the steps in creating phone trees, and emergency response options to inform county residents with rapidly changing information. COVID-19 is one of many emergencies that impacts calls to the county. Our residents often look to the county for answers when times are tough. This presentation will show how we built a pop up call center out of thin air in less than 3 days to help reduce calls to our Public Health Division and inform our residents, employers, schools, and families.

San Bernardino County is the largest contiguous county by area in the continental United States, with a population of 2.2 million. Despite decreased unemployment rates and recent job growth, San Bernardino County’s 16% overall poverty rate is higher than state and national averages and is the highest among comparable counties. Projected job growth is strong, but the county’s population of working poor is also growing.

This session shares findings from the California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study (CalYOUTH)–an evaluation of California’s extension of foster care leveraging interviews with youth at approximately 17, 19, 21, and 23 years of age. This session includes: (1) a description of trends over time across key domains, (2) relationships between extended foster care and youths’ outcomes at 23, (3) county variation in practice and services context, and (4) differences in outcomes between types of extended care placements.