Transitional Assistance Department gains national recognition for outreach, customer service

Under the leadership of the Board of Supervisors, the County’s Transitional Assistance Department (TAD) has been recognized with four national achievement awards for helping the homeless access life-changing services, creating an awareness of nutrition benefits for college students, enhancing customer service, and recognizing employees for excellent public service.

TAD established these critical and qualitative programs through collaborations with San Bernardino County’s Department of Public Health (DPH), Department of Behavioral Health (DBH), the Social Work Action Group (SWAG) and the California Statewide Automated Welfare System (CalSAWS).

The awards are part of the National Association of Counties’ 2023 Achievement Awards program. San Bernardino County won 160 of these awards, nearly doubling the number of awards it won last year and once again winning more awards than any of the nation’s more than 3,000 counties.

“The Board of Supervisors is proud of the innovation and dedication TAD employees and all of our public service professionals bring to their jobs each day,” said Third District Supervisor and Board of Supervisors Chair Dawn Rowe. “These awards reflect the progress San Bernardino County is making toward achieving the Countywide Vision and making our communities healthy and prosperous.”

The first of four Achievement Awards received is for the TAD/SWAG collaboration to assist individuals who are chronically homeless or at-risk of becoming homeless, gain access to benefits and programs. The collaboration is a key component to ensure low-income individuals at-risk of homelessness or the chronically homeless are connected to the direct services SWAG provides to help achieve sustainable independence through community support and partnerships that enhance the quality of life.

The second award is for the College Student Outreach program, toolkit, and pamphlet, which provides college students with resources and information regarding eligibility and access to CalFresh benefits. The program was developed by TAD and the DPH Nutrition and Wellness Services, which administers CalFresh Healthy Living. These efforts have been enhanced by partnering with multiple local colleges to provide information about the CalFresh program, including TAD’s participation in multiple college outreach events and presentations.

The third award is the Employee Recognition program which recognizes and features TAD’s employees on a quarterly basis for their exceptional work performance while providing excellent service to an estimated one million customers through California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs), CalFresh and Medi-Cal programs. This program is part of an effort to motivate and encourage employees to succeed, while creating a positive and encouraging work environment, in addition to increasing employee satisfaction, enjoyment and continuously providing excellent service to TAD customers.

The fourth award received is for the use of Automated Assistant technology to help bridge the gap between increased workloads and limited staff to enhance and simplify the customer service experience, which allows TAD’s customers to self-service, reducing overall call times while providing quality customer service.

Additional County Update News – August 25, 2023