2021 DPSS Annual Report Online_FINAL

Annual Report 2020/2021

Self- Sufficiency

Senior Program Specialist Aracelia Sandoval coordinated the Change Network Champions program, providing tools and resources for CNCs to provide support for the thousands of employees using the new CalSAWS system.

CalSAWS: We are ONE! One Team, One System, One Goal.

Riverside County commenced its CalSAWS journey in June 2019 with 58 California counties coming together as one Joint Powers Authority to develop the first California Statewide Automated Welfare System (CalSAWS). CalSAWS is an automated, integrated eligibility and case management system that supports key public assistance programs on a cloud-hosted architecture. Hundreds of employees from DPSS and other county departments collaborated with community and state partners to gain customer feedback. That input provided the foundation for a contemporary customer-centered system to serve Riverside County residents by the end of September 2021.

Dozens of DPSS employees were trained as Change Network Champions (CNCs) — their responsibility is to communicate and provide Riverside County staff with project support. Aracelia Sandoval, a senior program specialist, served as coordinator for the CNCs. She built the “CalSAWS Help Center” to offer tools and resources at a click. The new platform merges technology, collaboration and resources, and supports the department goals of strong customer service partnerships, operational excellence and employee engagement. “Riverside County is ready. A number of great improvements are coming that will enable our teams to work smarter, faster, and more

efficiently,” said Ricardo Miranda, Region 5 Manager with Riverside County DPSS.

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