United Boys & Girls Clubs

Melinda Cabrera has been in her position as CEO of the United Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Barbara County for only a little more than two months, but she’s no stranger to the Santa Barbara nonprofit world. Her experience includes multiple positions at the Santa Barbara Zoo straight out of college, followed by a decade at United Way, where she served in senior management roles leading programming in financial empowerment, education, and crisis response and recovery. Then it was 20 months as president and CEO of the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara. 

All of that experience has come together in her opportunity to serve as CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs, where her passion for youth development and support has found a home in the long-standing organization.

“It was at United Way where I really fell in love with community-based work and working on behalf of students, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds,” Cabrera recalled. “I missed that hands-on direct work at the Scholarship Foundation, so I’m thrilled to be back working in that field.” 

United Boys & Girls Clubs (UB&GC) operates four standalone sites and four additional school-based locations that collectively serve more than 2,600 students every year. UB&GC maintains a robust food program. In 2025 alone over 63,000 meals – home cooked in the organization’s commercial kitchen – were served to children, helping to combat food insecurity not only in its after-school programs, but also during the summer, when school meals aren’t available and daytime hunger can increase. 

But it’s not just the numbers that matter, Cabrera said.

“We’re really proud of the quality of programming and the breadth and depth of our impact,” she said. “We execute programming that has been designed and vetted by youth professionals and academic experts. Our curriculum is designed and provided to us by Boys & Girls Club of America and derived from their working relationships with top universities like Northwestern and companies such as Apple. So it’s the highest quality programming addressing social and emotional needs, academic needs, and supports our students at every age and stage of their development.”

UB&GC’s breadth of programming envelopes the fields of academics, leadership, health, movement and art. Cabrera was quick to crow about the degree of connection with their eager clientele. 

“They resonate and are highly engaging for our students,” she said. “We bring these programs in a manner that is really experiential for our kids. What I see when I go onto the sites is just kids really engaged in the activities. They’re getting academic support, there’s tutoring, there’s homework help, there’s dance, there’s music – all these different opportunities that we’re exposing our youth to.”

Cabrera also pointed to the fact that much of UB&GC’s programming is implemented in partnership with local organizations, a synergy she is working to increase and expand. 

“What we already have is great, but I think there’s always opportunities to strengthen programming,” she said. “There’s always opportunities to lean more into local partnerships to continue to offer our youth the best resources available.”

Cabrera is also working to bring increased data collection and analysis to the local nonprofit, not only for the value to the organization, but to be able to demonstrate to donors and supporters that their dollars are being used efficiently and effectively. 

“Tracking progress and tracking impact will let us reframe and tell our story in a different way, so that those who have supported us will continue to do so and maybe get more involved as they come to understand and see the impact of their donation in the work that we’re doing,” she said. 

The United clubs have been tracking academic impacts with academic year programs, where teachers are sharing that they’re seeing their kids who are club members complete homework at an improved rate. Now that’s expanding to the summer months. 

“We’re introducing with the library this year a summer reading challenge where we can mitigate the typical summer learning loss and support kids’ literacy skills over the summer,” Cabrera said. “It’s very important to us to know the priorities in our kids’ lives and stay in alignment with the school districts, being able to support however we can.”

Fundraising is a parallel focus, too. 

“That allows us to tell our story in a way that shows people what we’re doing and just how impactful the organization is,” Cabrera said. “That hopefully leads to increased support, which in turn lets us amplify our impact, reinforce our facilities and just focus on continuing to improve the quality of our programs.”

That circular process is represented, literally, in UB&GC’s major fundraising event, the annual Rally4Kids in October. This 240-mile road race to San Luis Obispo County includes various potent gatherings, and a second day gala for hobnobbing and hailing the heroes. The event has new leadership this year too, as founding chairs Monte and Maria Wilson have stepped aside for the event’s 11th year. And there are myriad other ways to help…  

Visit www.unitedbg.org