executive director dearman. welcome to commissioner penningten. the item before you today is a new program pilot so new programming we are going to be launching and excited about this. this is a program designed to help reduce barriers to employment and ease concerns for people who are on means tested benefits, and to have them rejoin the workforce. how did we come up with this idea? we know that many people want to work. we know that there are financial benefits of working but also other intangible benefits, perhaps tangable and meaningful connection with the community and giving back to the community and sharing skills. there are many studies about employment and value and also know from other employment programs that participants in the programs derive this meanjug connection from participation that way. we know that benefit programs such as supplemental security income and medi-cal have very complicated rules to navigate through. we know this because when we look at the legal service providers, over a third

why thank you director dearman. i would like to start by kicking it off saying that das as a department are mandate to provide social services to older adults and adults with disabilities. but along with this, we also bring an understanding. populations to policy and strategy conversations on housing. hope to continue having a seat at table in future research and policy conversations on this topic. of the of so. das is in the the primary city department them provides housing we provide small scale housing related service to older adults and adults with disabilities. going forward, we are primarily look to use dignity fund growth to support implementation strategies publish in the the need's assessment this fall within our social service framework. keep are novelty permitted to use dignity funds to build any housing. for need's assess am recommendations were also published at a good time for us. as we are finalizing our service and allocation plan as director dearman mentioned earlier. and the plan guides the program