Spending the Day with California Connects
DoubleTree Mission Valley
This Wednesday November 5, 2025 we were graced to participate in the California Connect Event to discuss the important governmental programs to make our Communities Thrive. The morning began with an impressive introduction by Josh Fryday the Director and California Chief Officer of the Governor’s Office of Service and Community Engagement who wants to provide needed services “under one roof” to improve leadership and maintain and develop programs to “build our communities” Next we were graced with a panel of experts including Aubrie Fong Acting Executive Director OCPSC, Marcy Kaplan Deputy Director of Community Engagement, OCPSC ( Office of Community Partnership and Strategic Communications), Jacqueline Yannacci Executive Director of CalVolunteers, Thomisha Wallace Executive Director of Youth Empowerment, Electra Fike Data Executive Director of Tree San Diego , Alor Calderon Director of Employees Rights Center and Joseph Parson Policy and Data Research Associates of Inland Empire Community Collaborative. The panel discussion included information about current programming to improve community living. The panel discussed their projects around Food Insecurity, Environmental Concerns ,Employment, Homelessness, and Youth Empowerment. After the panel we were delighted to hear from California State Treasure Fiona Ma who shared with us about her Calkids Program to increase financial literacy and money saving programs to help Our Children Succeed with seedling money for their future. Closely following Ma is our very own Mayor of San Diego Todd Gloria who lovingly encouraged us to support him and the others participants with their plight to reduce homelessness, support economic development and encourage care for the diverse populations in California. After Mayor Gloria spoke we then separated into groups to discuss how we can help people with different life variables. The exercise was helpful in identifying how to listen to the citizens, clarify processes when we are trying help, reducing confusion and stress when we are administering services.
The California Connects event was vital in sharing news we could use about networking, bridgebuilding to get the services to our community. Please check out the available information at
calkids.org
ocpsc.org, https://www.calhfa.ca.gov/CalAssist/index.htm and grants.gov., calhopeschools.org,
https://dream.csac.ca.gov/landing.
