Tag archives: nonprofit

Santa Barbara RiteCare
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 31, 2022

When we connected last week, Santa Barbara RiteCare center director and speech-language pathologist Julie DeAngelis was particularly excited to talk about Camp Chit Chat, the nonprofit’s fun and socially interactive camp for preschool-age children with mild-moderate speech and language delays. The program helps children keep up with essential communication skills during the summer when regular […]

Freedom 4 Youth
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 24, 2022

Freedom 4 Youth Development Director Dylan Griffith likes to toss out a quote his mentor once told him that sticks in his head: “Change occurs at the speed of relationships.” It’s a motto that defines and drives the barely 11-year-old nonprofit that empowers youth within and beyond the juvenile justice system to change their lives […]

Bird Talk — Abandonment: When Bad Things Happen to Good Birds
By Leslie Crane Rugg   |   May 17, 2022

Relinquishing an exotic pet bird is rarely ideal, but an owner admitting they have run out of options to handle the full-time needs of a mature parrot is honest and very real. Most people are unprepared for the possessive commitment a parrot exhibits toward its owner or other beloved family member. When that commitment can’t […]

Sansum Diabetes Research Institute
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 17, 2022

Less than three weeks after this issue of the MJ hits newsstands, Sansum Diabetes Research Institute will mark an incredible milestone: 100 years since its founder, Dr. William Sansum, administered the very first injection of insulin in Santa Barbara to Charles Cowan, the first U.S. patient to receive the lifesaving shot. Prior to the discovery […]

CommUnify and Head Start at 55
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 10, 2022

Head Start, the federal early childhood education program, was established in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty with a goal of promoting school readiness to young children from low-income families through providing health, educational, nutritional, and social services. Two years later, Community Action Commission, or CAC, incorporated as a nonprofit to […]

Library Friends: They’ll Be There for You
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 3, 2022

It’s not hard to get a clear picture of the breadth of the age range served by the Montecito Library. Take a look at the events tab on the Friends of the Montecito Library website and you’ll find Italian Conversation, Knit ‘n’ Needle, Poetry Club, Spanish Conversation, Pre-School Story Time, and a New Yorker Discussion […]

Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley (FBSMV)
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 14, 2022

Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley (FBSMV) does some very important and impactful work. Since its founding in 2003 as a response to the methamphetamine epidemic in the Valley, the nonprofit has taken a proactive approach to the issues, creating programs that focus on protecting kids not only from drugs and other substance abuse but also […]

Gordon Guy Remembered
By Richard Mineards   |   April 12, 2022

On a personal note, I mark the move to more heavenly pastures of Gordon Guy, longtime executive director of the 73-year-old nonprofit New House, a recovery center for men with alcohol and drug problems. The charity, which has three facilities in our Eden by the Beach, holds its annual fundraiser at the Hilton emceed by […]

Hillside House
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 7, 2022

Back in 1955, Hillside House relocated to what was then a state-of-the-art facility capable of housing and caring for children with developmental disabilities, the gleaming new digs located in what was then a remote part of Santa Barbara with the descriptive name of Hidden Valley.  A lot has changed in almost seven decades. Society no […]

What Dreams May Come
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 31, 2022

In the quarter-century since its founding, Dream Foundation, the only national dream-granting organization serving terminally-ill adults, has provided end-of-life Dreams for more than 32,000 terminally-ill adults across the country. Based in Santa Barbara, the organization serves as something of a counterpart to the well-known Make-a-Wish Foundation – the Phoenix-founded nonprofit that for 40 years has […]

NatureTrack
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 24, 2022

You’d be hard-pressed to find nonprofits with an origin story more organic and homespun than NatureTrack. The organization was founded 11 years ago by Sue Eisaguirre, who, after raising her own kids with lots of outdoor time, returned to work heading up the docent and K-12 outreach programs for the UCSB Sedgwick Reserve.  “It was […]

Women’s Equal Pay Day
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   March 22, 2022

Tuesday, March 15 is known as Equal Pay Day, a public service awareness event to illustrate the gap between men’s and women’s wages. The National Committee on Pay Equity began recognizing this symbolic day in 1996, in an effort to bring awareness on how to solve wage inequity. The date of the event symbolizes how […]

Redwings Horse Sanctuary
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 17, 2022

Back in 2006, the year before horse slaughter in the U.S. ceased for good, the last three such stateside slaughterhouse facilities killed more than 100,000 horses for human consumption, shipping the meat overseas. Even with those facilities shuttered, approximately 75,000 American horses are still shipped to their deaths in foreign slaughterhouses every year, although the […]

Explore Ecology
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 10, 2022

It’s a big honor for Explore Ecology to be receiving Santa Barbara Permaculture Network’s Local Food Hero Award at the 14th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap this weekend. It’s also a well-earned recognition of the nonprofit’s School Gardens Program and its Garden Educators, who teach garden-based lesson plans in upwards of 30 local schools […]

CommUnify
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 24, 2022

If the name CommUnify doesn’t ring a bell, Patricia Keelean, the nonprofit’s chief executive officer, thinks she knows why.  “We are our own best-kept secret,” Keelean said. There’s a good reason for that – CommUnify is actually the new DBA for what used to be called the Community Action Commission of Santa Barbara County – […]

Clean Coalition: Finding Creative Solutions to Renewables-Driven Energy Resilience
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 10, 2022

Last summer, just a couple of months before Montecito Journal’s 2nd annual The Giving List book was published, Clean Coalition’s work to stage a Community Microgrid in Montecito – a first step toward establishing renewables-driven energy resilience for the vulnerable area – was still largely in the planning stage. The goal to establish individual Solar […]

The Lynda Fairly Carpinteria Arts Center
By Lynda Millner   |   February 8, 2022

“The Queen of the Coast”is an art exhibit held in conjunction with the Rincon Classic surf event. The surfing show has been around for 44 years. The art show, not so long. The Rincon Classic is over, but the art will be around until Sunday, February 20. The show features artists from Carpinteria, Rincon area, […]

Feeding the Flock
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 3, 2022

The COVID crisis has been quite a challenge for nearly everyone in the world. But for Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary – the nonprofit founded in 2004 by director Jamie McLeod to rescue and often rehabilitate unwanted and displaced companion parrots – the pandemic really has been for the birds. Or rather, not so much, as […]

MAW Board Welcomes New Members
By Richard Mineards   |   February 1, 2022

The Music Academy of the West has added seven new members to its board as it launches its 75th anniversary. The new community leaders encompass a broad profile, representing well-known corporations and nonprofit entities nationwide. The new names comprise MAW Women’s Auxiliary chair Judy Astbury, attorney and entrepreneur Mally Chakola, arts curator and nonprofit executive […]

Fifty Years of Providing Meals
By Richard Mineards   |   February 1, 2022

Santa Barbara Meals on Wheels recently delivered its two millionth meal as it celebrates 50 years of delivering hot, affordable meals to seniors and homebound community members. “We’ve never missed a day since 1971, when we had just 18 clients and two drivers,” says Dan Kronstadt, co-president of the nonprofit’s board of directors. “Today, over […]