The Social Services Committee received updates on three major programs: the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), and Workforce Development. The meeting included staff presentations, board discussion, and one public comment. No formal votes were taken; items were informational.
Good afternoon and welcome to the Alameda County Board of Supervisor Social Services Committee meeting for Monday, October 27th, 2025. May have roll call, please. Supervisor Fortunat. Present, Supervisor TAM. Present. Are there any instructions for online participation? Sure. Detailed instructions are provided in the teleconferencing guidelines. A link to the document is in today's, is included in today's agenda. If you are joining the meeting using a computer, use a button at the bottom of your screen to raise your hand and to request a speak. Uh, when called to speak, please unmute your microphone and state your name. If you are calling in dial star nine to raise your hand to speak, when you are called to speak, the host will enable you to speak. Thank you. Let's start with the first information item, which is the volunteer income tax assistance program for the 2024 tax year or tax season update. Good afternoon. Vice President TAM and Supervisor Fortunato Bas. My name is Pamela Powell, Executive Program Coordinator with the Social Services Agency. I'm joined by Marissa Hollenbach, who served as this year's lead VIDA liaison. So together we had the privilege of supporting the 2025 Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program or VIDA, working closely with site coordinators, staff, volunteers, and community partners to write free tax preparation services to our residents. Thank you for the opportunity to share a summary of this year's tax season, including key outcomes and recommendations for next tax season. Next slide. So here's the agenda of today's presentation. We'll start with an overview of the VITA program, followed by our preparation process. Then we will review VITA data by sites covering total returns, averages, and populations served. We'll then discuss the key highlights and outcomes, reflect on areas of improvement, and share a few recommendations for the next tax season. Then we'll conclude with recognizing our amazing volunteers in a quick video of our VIDA and DeVere celebration this past May. So since 2002, the Alameda County Social Services Agency has partnered with the United Way Bay Area's free tax help program to offer free tax preparation services to low and moderate income individuals and families through VITA sites across the county. The VIDA program helps residents file accurate tax returns, navigate the tax system, and access free funds and credits such as the earned income tax credit, all at no charge. Additionally, the VIDA program aligns with the Alameda County's Vision 2036 goals of building a thriving and resilient population and supporting a prosperous and vibrant economy by increasing financial stability and access to resources in underserved communities. Next slide. Thank you. So for planning and operation, we collaborated with community partners, including the IRS, United Way Bay Area, and site points of contact to develop the program timeline and coordinate logistics across all five CIDA locations. We coordinated and led volunteer training and orientation sessions, including site reservations, security scheduling, and facilitation by tax law trainers. We also manage the IRS certification process and coordinated the distribution of training materials and supplies. In terms of site operations, so opening day was January 29th, 2025. The Gale Steel Enterprise and Thomas L. Berkeley sites were open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 5 30 to 8 30 p.m. and also on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Our San Leandro sites were every Wednesday. We worked with our county ITD to ensure Wi-Fi and printing capabilities at satellite sites and coordinate it with site points of contact to manage room setup and secure storage of program supplies. In terms of our end of year celebration, at the end of the tax season, we celebrated to recognize volunteer contributions. We had certificates of appreciation signed by our agency director Andrea Ford, raffle prizes, and photo collages that showcase memories from past tax seasons, and we'll share a quick video of that later at the end of our presentation. In terms of volunteer engagement survey, this was sent after the end of the tax season, and this we use to gather feedback on the training, the site experience, and our growth opportunities. We use some of these insights in our recommendations that we'll go over later. So out of about 80 volunteers, we had a 30% return rate in terms of or response rate rather for the survey. Next, I'll hand it off to Marissa to discuss the data for each site. Thank you, Pamela. Hello, my name is Marissa. I was the lead VIDA liaison and have had the privilege of spending time at each site.