>> good morning and welcome. i'm rabbi eric weiss. as we present this show to you, our city in -- mayor has died. we want to extend our condolences to his family and loved ones into the pity and city and county of san francisco. we would like to talk with schwerin, who is the executive director of the department of adult services. the chair of the dignities fund. with the city and county of san francisco. welcome. our country in every minges

ability is looking at issues of aging and all the values of the country and state and locale exercise with values into services and understanding of the way that people age and the kinds of services that they need. and so i'm wondering if you can just give us a short history of what the department of aging and adult services is here. >> certainly. thank you. so san francisco has a long history of providing services for older adults and adults with disabilities. i think we are a leader in that. the department has been around for a long time. but it came together with a lot of services. our biggest program is in-home supported services which provides homecare for 22,000 people in san francisco. but we do a lot of other things as well. >> so the department is 17 years old? >> yes. although the city was providing

services well below -- before that. so there are a lot of things in the horizon that are new. one of the things that is new is that deputy fund. she can talk a little bit about how it started. >> okay. >> a group of service providers with a history of providing services came together and asked about the underfunding of services, not the [ indiscernible ] the demand. we thought perhaps a legislative kind of direction would be the way to go to increase funding. so we -- we planned and got the proposition on it on the ballot, november of last year. that insured that there would be some funding increases for services for those who [ indiscernible ] and adults with

disabilities. it's a huge sense of accompaniment. it worked its way toward getting to the 44 million current needs then of underfunding. people waiting for services. people needing services but no capacity to meet those. so it's an incremental increase . and the department is -- has the capacity to do that. >> said this is a legislative and economic decision by the people of san francisco to really value the experience and to support it in different ways. >> it was a fabulous wind. we are grateful that the population of san francisco understood that 25% of its population currently is over age 65 and adults with disabilities. and it will be 30%. so if we are not meeting the current needs, how can we be ready to meet the increasing demand, without more money? >> i think a consequent of the

legislation was really more attention to the issue. i think it certainly has helped our department rise above where it was in terms of disability. it's been great in terms of that. while what ramona says is correct, as advocates were hoping for, it really has put the department kind of more in the spotlight than it was before. >> can you give a couple of examples of what they need and what's a service and what are some of the gaps that the dignity fund hopes to fill? >> yes. you want to go with the priorities. >> sure. i'm sure there are a number of priorities that were determined. but one of the things that -- the biggest funding -- i guess the biggest proportion of

funding is nutrition's. so think about things like home delivery meals and congregate meals. that's what a lot of it goes for. there are many other things that are underfunded. and that need funding. i think one of them is -- i know. >> homelessness prevention. there's that. there's also the services that are needed. so there is some social services that are funneled into that care. there's also things that we haven't been able to fund as much like home care for people who don't qualify for the state entitlement program. also, one of the things that is come -- that comes up a lot is the underemployment of adults with disabilities. people need employment. and that means they need to be ready for employment. so there are preemployment programs that

could be funded. there are also actual unemployment subsidies that could be used with dignity funds. and another big thing that has come up is housing subsidies. these are things that we do fund on a very small scale. certainly the need is really there. and we're looking to use dignity fund dollars to fund those services. >> thank you so much. we are off to a great start. we will take a quick break here on the mosaic. [ cell phone rings ]

>> yeah, i'm watching it too. i see them every day. >> the curtains, they're always drawn in this place. >> i know. >> that guy, it seems like he's in charge of them. i don't know, i don't feel very good about this. >> we have to report this. >> yes, absolutely.

good morning. welcome back into mosaic. i'm rabbi eric weiss. i'm honored to be your host. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation with the director of the department of aging and adult services. ramona, the chair of the dignity fund. welcome back, ramona entering. we were talking about the different priorities around providing services to sensitive cisco -- san francisco's aging properly -- population. this is kind of a buildup and an expansion. you are talking about issues around nutrition and food. preventing homelessness. issues around -- you didn't use the word isolation but it seems like that is part of that.

and also ways in which elderly people, people who are disabled are underemployed, don't work enough or don't work at a high enough level of the actual school capacity. there's lots of ways to understand animal -- underplay. is there is this system, how you've gone about identifying pockets of the population, demographics, how do you actually find out what the need really is? >>. one of the things the department has had to do as what we call the area agency on agent is look at the demographics of the city and try to plan based on those demographics. but what the dignity fund legislation has been is really to say that san francisco needs a robust needs assessment to

find out what people want, what people need to really look at the demographics of the city and do make sure that we will be equitable with respect to dividing services across the city. so what we're doing this year is that robust needs assessment and we've hired a contractor to work with us. so we are doing a variety of things. we've done a number of community forms. we've done in -- one in each district where we just did a very robust survey of older adults and adults with disabilities and caregivers. and providers in the city. and that just ended. and we've done a phone survey. we are embarking on a series of focus groups to really get out what the needs are. so i'm excited as the director of the department to find out what people want and need. and to see whether what we currently do measures well with

that or whether we need to make some changes. >> i know you're in the middle of all of this. maybe it's too soon to tell. do you have any kind of early index -- indications or surprises or things that you are discovering along the way? >> i don't think we have an accurate description yet of what is trending. certainly information, knowing where to go and what service might be appropriate, ongoing theme. that's a long-standing theme. you can go up and down california and hear that same thing. people just don't understand what their needs may be and then where to go to meet those needs. hopefully we will get more detail than that. >> interesting. it's a hint that maybe that people need to become more anticipatory about their own

aging and in some ways come to understand what they might need in the future, that they don't need now? >> that is part of it. i think i think that some of it has to do with us not wanting to think about aging and i think -- i think there's a lot of ageism in society. easy -- i know. i see it every day. i think that's because i pay attention to it. i think that we need to figure out ways to get beyond that so it can be more anticipatory into about how we are going to care for ourselves in order age or how we are going to care for each other. >> san francisco is the same in the ways in which it takes a beautiful idea like the need for the rights of the lgbt community or the needs for women's rights or confronting issues on races and about ageism , on and on and on. and how to actually get into the trenches of an issue and to

provide services upon money and have a no breath -- robust nonprofit community. and so in this particular way, can you talk just a little bit about the kind of ageism that you see in the kind of ways in which you think the city and county and has been on the forefront of looking at it. even the word dignity fund says a lot about your system in place. dignity is a word that is jampacked with values and division and lack of understanding of what happens as we age into the world. >> sure. [ chuckles ] it's a big question. >> i know. >> i can start, i guess. i think -- so i guess i feel very fortunate to work with san francisco. i think when i travel across the country and i'm on one

national board that looks at aging services, i'm -- i realize how sense for cisco does exactly what you say. we are really at the forefront of this issues and thinking ahead often. but i actually also think that age has been so embedded in our society that it's hard -- people just don't want to talk about it. one of the things that we are doing at the department is to really look at kind of what it means to reframe that conversation and there's been a lot of work done. there's an organization called dreamworks that is reframing aging and we are looking to adopt that model in san francisco and thing about how we talk about aging, being much more deliberate in using language to think about older adults, talking about older adults and aging instead of thinking about people being frail, thinking about people aging and the best way they can pick and it does mean looking at

aging and think it's all glowing and it doesn't mean that people don't get sick or that we are not going to acknowledge that, but there are ways to talk about it and use language in a way that we can really just talk about it and focus on that. >> we will take a quick break. we will come back to continue our conversation. please join us in just a moment here on mosaic.

good morning, and welcome back to mosaic. i'm rabbi eric weiss. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation about the dignity fund and the department of aging adult services with shereen and ramona the chair of the dignity fund

oversight and advisory committee. welcome back, ramona injuries. >> thank you. >> we were having some wonderful conversations about how the san francisco [ indiscernible ] articulate itself. you were going to can discontinue that conversation. >> describing the efforts that were being taken to look at ageism and how to address it, how do we frame it? it is also, as demographics demonstrated, this is a social justice issue. and given the contributions that aging persons and persons will work -- with disabilities make in the community, it is important that there needs be attended to. i did want to point that out. all of us are aging. so it isn't as if we reach a magic number and all of a sudden become old. we need to be preparing. we need to be looking at it as family members or ourselves and

for those that we care about. my career was in aging services. and suddenly, i'm there. and the preplanning, the conceptualizing ahead of time about what it's going to take to meet my needs as i change. >> i think that one of the things that marks all social justice movements, if you can use that words, is that somebody sees something that's on the streets or in their circle of intimate friends and they talk about what they see. i see that, too. there's a way in which the conversation moves to a different level of what can we do about this? and what needs to be changed? what's the next step? from there, lots of different things happen. maybe in the neighborhood, any family, any circle of friends, in a larger community. and so i'm wondering if you can speak, ramona, a little bit to that development that in the

concept of the dignity fund itself? >> the -- what were the earliest conceptions? we know somebody writes something. but there's a lot that happens before we get to that point. >> the dignity fund coalition formed. it was predominantly service providers. so it was people in the front line that new. and were frustrated by who could not be served. who is being left out? coming together and identifying -- what's more, who has said, who did you choose to fight for? current program criteria. there's not enough service to meet the demands or the needs. so that's the vision. it wasn't an aha that was so personal or observed. it was experience. it was an experiential learning

by folks who have grown tired of the underfunding and the inability to address needs. >> this is fascinating. when we talk about underserved needs, it basically means that there are some government programs that provide services and those services are based on criteria that might have to do something about your demographic or your income level or your capacity to go about what daily needs are about getting dressed, feeding yourself, getting about the city. so those kinds of criteria of civic engagement, if i can use that word to a part of that. are you seeing that in some ways that the criteria isn't expensive enough? >> one of the things we do know is that -- for some programs, we have wait lists. we know there are people who

desire those services and can't access them. one of the things we do know -- is that particularly for middle income people in san francisco, middle income older adults and adults with disabilities, often they don't have the income to pay for the services that they need. and so we see that there's a gap there. whereas, people sometimes people can qualify for state- funded programs, they can't necessarily -- people who are middle income can't necessarily access those programs. >> in some ways it's paying attention to the particular demographics. we will take another quick break. we will be back with shireen and ramona . please join us back here in a moment here on mosaic.

good morning. welcome back to mosaic. i'm rabbi eric weiss, an honor to be at your house. we're in the middle a wonderful conversation with shireen mcspadden , the director of adulting services and ramona. welcome back. shireen, what else is new at

the department of aging and adult services. >> i would be remiss if i didn't mention that mayor ed lee was a proponent. and it's just a sad week for us. >> yeah. one of the things that he did is he wrote to the world health organization to ask -- to say that san francisco was interested in being designated as an age friendly city. what that has allowed us to do is to work as a city to ensure that all of our planning that we do has an age and disability friendly length to it. we have had a task force that has been working on this. we have been looking at various domains, including things like transportation and building environments. social services. so that as we move forward, we can think about our strength to being accessible for people with disabilities and older adults and to ensure that all

of our planning includes that the stability and age friendly length. so it's exciting. hopefully san franciscans will see this success. >> people talk about the legacy of leadership and the personality of somebody and the work they did in an office. whatever those exceptions go, what a marvelous legacy that ed lee did that for the aging population in the city and county of san francisco. >> yes. and is there anything else new that's happening in the department that will be important for people to know about. >> what i want people to know is that they can access the services of the departments. ramona mentioned that often people don't know where to go to for services. we have one phone number where people can access all of those services of the department. so -- and really just to ask questions if they have an older adult or a person with a disability in their life.

or if they don't know where to go. the phone number is 415355 6700. we call it the daas benefits and resource hub. and our staff are there to answer the questions. >> we have a little bit of time left. when people talk about a social justice issue and people talk about meeting needs, there's the people who need the services. there are also the people who want to give the services. and so i know that some of our viewers are going to be people who are going to think, i would like to actually do this kind of work. so we have just a moment. if somebody is out there and wants to actually throw their hat into the ring to work, to volunteer, then do they go through the san francisco human resources permit? how did they actually do that? >> those people can call daas

as well. i know the local senior centers and other services in the community really need help, too. people can go to their local senior center or a service like that. if they don't know where those are, they are welcome to call. the same phone number. >> wonderful. shireen, ramona, believe it or not, we are out of time. but thank you so much for this wonderful conversation. we hope this time together has given you a new perspective on aging in the city and county of centers go. thank you so fobeing with us here.

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