Investing in Working Families

Building A Future Together

The County of San Diego is invested in community. By connecting with you online, through community meetings and surveys to help shape our services. But also by investing in our working families through safety net programs like CalWORKs, CalFresh and Medi-Cal. And by providing services to help seniors, children and families.

This past year, our Board of Supervisors approved the County’s new Child and Family Well-Being Department to improve how we protect children and families, and to keep them safe and supported. The new department reimagines Child Welfare Services, combining it with other systems including First 5 San Diego and County Health and Human Services Agency departments that serve children and families. This union will help the County work to keep families together and help them thrive. At the same time, the County has increased funding to help foster children as they age out of the system.

"I never stopped thinking of how and when I will finish high school... There are reasons why we did not finish high school, things we couldn't control. We finally controlled it. We finally conquered it."

- Carolina Garibay, 2023 Library High School Graduate & Commencement Speaker

Our County’s 33 branch libraries used a $4.3 million federal grant to add something new this year to the books, movies and music they lend to children and families―7,000 sets of Chromebook computers and hotspots to provide internet access. The County also gave free computers to some local families who open their homes to foster children, continuing a program it started in 1999.

In March 2023, the County opened its new Lakeside Library and is in the midst of designing active and passive recreational amenities for its Casa de Oro branch library. The County Library also won an award for its “Little Free Libraries” that the County started in 2021 to boost literacy in lower-income communities. The mailbox-like structures create neighborhood book exchanges for people to borrow and leave books for others to read. The County library has 43 Little Free Libraries and plans to build 57 more.

The County also plans to revitalize the main commercial strip and adjacent residential area on Campo Road in Casa de Oro.

And in 2025, the County expects to open new East County Crisis Stabilization Units to give people experiencing a behavioral health crisis a safe, comforting place to get help rather than go to an emergency room or be taken to jail.