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Social Services describes new utilities and benefits flyer, committee urges broader digital and municipal outreach
Summary
Department of Employment and Benefit Services staff presented a new utilities‑assistance flyer and community resource guide distribution plan. Supervisors urged wider digital distribution, targeted outreach via school and city portals, use of QR codes and consideration of safe, governed data‑sharing to reach eligible beneficiaries.
Department of Employment and Benefit Services (DEBS) staff presented outreach work on June 26, showing a new multilingual flyer with information about reduced‑rate utility programs and how benefits applicants and recipients can access them. Staff said the flyer is posted in agency lobbies, included in application packets, available online and shared with community‑based organizations and committees including the Safety Net Committee and CalWORKs Advisory.
What staff said: Bridal Villarreal, program and policy manager with social services (introduced at the meeting), said the flyer appears in three languages on the agency’s social media channels (SCCSSADevs on Facebook, Instagram and X) and is included in the agency’s community resource guide available online.
Committee feedback and requested follow‑up: Supervisors praised the marketing but urged staff to broaden distribution through board offices’ social media channels, municipal school‑parent portals and city networks. Supervisors also asked DEBS to explore data‑sharing procedures that would allow county systems to target outreach to existing safety‑net clients (similar to a prior garbage‑rate outreach project), and to pursue formal legal processes if sharing is to be done.
Staff response: DEBS said they are open to partnerships that require legal data protections and affirmed they will share the digital flyer with board offices; they noted the garbage‑rate outreach was executed by a different department that used data parameters to perform outreach on behalf of the county.
Digital suggestions: Committee members recommended adding a QR code and simple feedback loop (a single yes/no and short form) to the online resource guide so the department can measure whether people find what they need and iteratively improve content. Staff said the county is revamping the resource guide’s online presentation to make it easier to search and update, and that the printed guide is intentionally more generic to avoid rapid obsolescence when community organizations change offerings.
Action: The committee voted to receive the report. Vice Chairperson Young and Chairperson Arenas voted yes; motion carried.
What’s next: Staff will circulate the digital flyer to all board offices and continue exploring partnerships and the legal processes needed for targeted outreach; committee members offered to coordinate distribution through schools, libraries and city communications channels.
