The Santa Barbara Foundation is the largest community foundation in the region and Santa Barbara County’s go-to resource for investment and capacity-building as well as a key convener of people and organizations. The foundation has provided support to nearly every Santa Barbara County nonprofit organization and essential community project in its 90-year history. Connecting those who give, with those in need and all who dream of a better community. To learn more please visit SBFoundation.org.

United Way of Santa Barbara County is a local nonprofit organization that serves children, adults, and families across Santa Barbara County. Our mission is to enrich the lives of children and families and build resilient communities by leading local programs and partnerships that improve school readiness and academic achievement, financial empowerment, and crisis response and recovery. Since 1923, United Way has served the Santa Barbara County community through funding, capacity-building, volunteer development, and by creating and managing its own unique collaborative programs and initiatives.

The Santa Barbara Rescue Mission has served the county and city of Santa Barbara for over 50 years, providing emergency services and long-term recovery for the homeless and addicted. We are the only emergency shelter that is open 365 nights of the year from Santa Maria to Ventura. In 2016, we provided 143,051 meals and 51,627 safe nights of shelter for individuals with no place else to turn. Because substance abuse has a sizable impact on our community and is often a contributing factor to homelessness, we focus 85% of our resources on recovery efforts employing both outpatient and residential modalities. The Mission’s 12-month residential recovery program aims to bring individuals from decades of addiction, institutionalization, and homelessness back to sobriety, health and wholeness. Certification through the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs ensures that participants receive the highest standard of treatment in a non-medical facility. The recovery programs are operated in two separate gender-specific locations for 45 men and 24 women. In 2016, 44 people completed the recovery program, joining over 723 graduates since 1997. Our most significant accomplishment is the long-term change we see in our graduates. In contrast to national statistics that show only 21% of those who complete addiction recovery programs not returning to dependency within five years, more than 53% of our graduates maintain recovery over this same time period.