Tag archives: Black community
For week two of Black History Month, we bring our focus to Healing Justice SB, a nonprofit organization that will celebrate its five-year anniversary this May. Founded May 2020 by Krystle Farmer Sieghart, Simone Akila Ruskamp,and Leticia Forney Resch,their mission is, “To uplift all Black African Americans to affirm that they are deserving of safety, […]
Santa Barbara Black Culture House, founded and headed by Darrell M. McNeil and Sally A. Foxen McNeill,are inviting all community to their monthly series of cultural events, music, programs, community talks, exhibits, and poetry, for Black History Month 2025. The events are at their pop-up location, Soul Bites Restaurant (423 State Street), and two events […]
Gateway Education Services organization is inviting all Santa Barbara area Black African American-identifying youth in grades 5 through 12 – along with their parents and teachers – to the Black Youth Leadership Summit 2024. The event is on Tuesday, August 17, at Santa Barbara City College West Cliff Campus, from 8:30 am – 5 pm. […]
Two important groups working to support Black based organizations in the State of California at the business, community and legislative levels will be presenting with our local Black leaders on Saturday, July 13, 9:30 am to 1 pm at Santa Barbara City College BC Forum Building. The event titled, “State of Black California,” is a […]
The Fund for Santa Barbara was founded way back in 1980 as a means to support local organizations working for progressive social change. Nearly 45 years later, while the issues, its methods and organization might have grown, that purpose has not been altered at all: The Fund remains dedicated to helping to find solutions to […]
The Fund for Santa Barbara’s Development and Communications Manager – Alina Rey Keswani – is understandably proud that Bread & Roses, the organization’s major annual fundraiser, is marking its 30th anniversary this fall. The benefit event that has long been a staple on the social calendar of many in the community has survived massive growth, […]
The Supreme Court ruling that reversed the half-century old landmark Roe v. Wade decision had been handed down only hours before, but The Fund for Santa Barbara was already scrambling to respond in the wake of the decision. “It’s a national issue, but there’s actually so much that could be done at the local level […]
“Black History is World History” We read and hear this, but are we listening? Are we showing up to support the Black/African community we share this town with, to learn and heal, to ensure they feel safe and free to be who they are to live and thrive here? To begin our important work in […]
It was towards the end of Black History Month in 2019. Coffee with a Black Guy (CWABG) was hosting our first community conversation in a yearlong collaboration with the Lois and Walter Capps Project (now the Common Table Foundation). More people were gathered for this event than any of the previously convened conversations since launching […]
Who was Martin Luther King, Jr? Why do we celebrate a “MLK Holiday” and is he still relevant in 2022? All great questions. Joyfully, the research to explicate those answers took a full day that I will be grateful for the rest of my life. Many of us grew up in the civil rights era. […]
The Endowment for Youth Committee is one of the oldest nonprofits serving the needs of African American students and the greater Black community on the Central Coast, with a history that dates back 35 years. But before Guy R. Walker stepped in as executive director in 2015, the EYC had struggled to continue as a […]
I started at UC Santa Barbara in 1976, almost on a whim. I thought I would attend UC San Diego, but my high school girlfriend had her heart set on UC Santa Barbara, and though she was a junior, my romantic ass decided to head north and wait for her. When she finally arrived at […]
When it comes to criminal justice reform, the compassionate path is also the wisest. President Obama had one quote woven into the carpet of the Oval Office. It read: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” That Martin Luther King, Jr. quote has resonated with us down through history […]
