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In the June 2023 issue…

  • Grantee of the Month: 2nd Story Associates
  • Profile in Philanthropy: Leslie Meadowcroft Schipper
  • Achieving Early Intervention and Equitable Access in Children’s Mental Health
  • Membership Corner: Thanks and Welcome!
  • Women’s Fund in the News!
 

Grantee of the Month: 2nd Story Associates

If you were watching KEYT TV Channel 3-12 recently, you were treated to a segment featuring our very own Kerry Parker and Alice Villarreal Redit, the Resident Programs Supervisor of 2nd Story Associates. They were discussing the summer opening of Vera Cruz Village and the Women’s Fund’s contribution to that effort.

Built by the city’s Housing Authority in partnership with 2nd Story Associates, Vera Cruz Village will contain 28 studio apartments. A $50,000 grant from the Women’s Fund will furnish those apartments.

2nd Story Associates’ award-winning developments enhance the quality of life of families, seniors, and disabled individuals with an emphasis on promoting stability and self-sufficiency. Their mission is to promote social equity so that all members of our community can experience safe and quality affordable housing.

The building, located on East Cota Street, is expected to provide permanent supportive housing to low-income, homeless individuals including seniors and those with disabilities. Most incoming residents will have few possessions and very little income, so the Women’s Fund grant will provide basic household furnishings, such as beds, nightstands, dressers, dining tables, chairs, lamps, and more. According to this article in EdHat (that also mentions the Women's Fund grant), the facility should be complete in late summer. 

Vera Cruz Village will combine affordable housing with an intensive on-site support strategy including a counseling center that has vast experience in helping people rebuild skills required for independent living. Research indicates this comprehensive approach increases housing retention among tenants with a history of homelessness.

2nd Story strives to ensure there is always hope for someone’s “second story” and the Women’s Fund grant is playing a crucial part in making that hope a reality. The provision of new furnishings will help preserve the human dignity that every individual is entitled to and provide them with the comforts of home, something that many of these individuals haven’t experienced in years.

 

Profile in Philanthropy: Leslie Meadowcroft-Schipper

Leslie Meadowcroft-Schipper met Women’s Fund member Sally Hamilton at the 2016 Celebration of Grants when the TRADART Foundation received a grant of $50,000 to provide materials for Santa Barbara District high school students to construct three Tiny Houses. The foundation helps preserve the industrial arts and skilled trade programs in the Santa Barbara Unified School District by providing supplies, materials, funding, and support.

Leslie says her experience with the Women’s Fund sold her on the organization. “I was so impressed with how the research committee thoroughly vetted prospective grantees. And learned how being endorsed by the Women’s Fund gives so much credibility to your nonprofit!”

In 2018, Leslie joined Sally’s Transformers group. Soon after, she also became an individual member because, “I wanted to join the wave of financial support we are giving to vital and fledging organizations in Santa Barbara.”

More recently, Leslie gave an additional and very generous contribution to the grants pool beyond her membership support. She said, “I believe in the two-year giving cycles. Many of our members never know about the particular and critical needs of our local community, and I believe that giving more helps the Women’s Fund stand behind local programs and help them fulfill their missions.”  

Leslie added that TRADART has benefitted from seeing how the Women’s Fund runs its organization. She has learned much by observing our model of operation and loves how we work together to come to consensus.

 

Children's Mental Health: Achieving Early Intervention and Equitable Access

There is a critical shortage in the number of local professionals needed to treat the mental health needs of children in our community. And nonprofit staffs are themselves vulnerable and need support to remain in their fields.  

Those were two important take-aways from the Women’s Fund Grants in Action forum on mental health wellness for children and youth that was held on May 15 at the Ensemble Theatre. Three local nonprofit organizations reported on the impact of their combined $255,000 in Women’s Fund grants, and a panel of experts analyzed related issues.

The featured grantees included:

Storyteller Children’s Center, provider of quality education for pre-school children in adverse circumstances. Dr. Gabriella Garcia, Executive Director, and Jacqueline McDonough-Ryan, Program Director, reported that grant funds enabled them to increase the hours of an onsite family advocate.

Jamie Collins, Executive Director of Girls, Inc. of Carpinteria, related how its two-year grant funded an onsite mental wellness coordinator for K-12 girls.

According to Lisa Moschini, Vice President and Clinical Director, Sanctuary Centers of Santa Barbara, the grant helped her organization meet its objectives of cost-free access and timely prevention in bringing psychiatry and therapeutic services to children and adolescents. 

Moderated by Jon Clark, Executive Director, James S. Bower Foundation, the panel included leaders from each of the grantee institutions:

  • Dr. Garcia, Executive Director, Storytellers Children’s Center
  • Ms. Collins, Executive Director, Girls Inc. of Carpinteria
  • Terri Allison, Board Member, Girls Inc.
  • Barry R. Schoer, President/CEO, Sanctuary Centers.

Dr. Samira Kayumi-Rashti, a Children’s Medical Center pediatrician, joined the discussion to share the medical perspective.

Addressing Critical Issues

  • Pediatricians’ goal of directing children and youth to therapists and psychiatrists, alleviating pressure on overwhelmed families, has been significantly advanced, thanks to Sanctuary Centers’ grant program, which considerably reduced wait time for such appointments.
  • All speakers agreed that partnerships and coordination with other agencies contribute critically to the successful treatment of children’s mental health issues. Open communication and trust figure centrally in such collaborations as well as the promotion of such inter-agency cultures from the top down. Toward this end, grantees recommended that unrestricted giving, rather than the funding of one program alone, be considered by the Women’s Fund.
  • Early intervention and prevention are essential, given that trauma causes biological changes affecting cognitive and emotional development, which persist into adulthood. The Covid pandemic has exacerbated already existing difficulties for children and youth and will impact them into their 20s.
  • Human resource issues constitute an ever-present concern for our panel speakers. A shortage of workers in high-priced Santa Barbara reduces access to professionals. Moreover, mental health employees can be vulnerable: while their own life experiences help them deeply understand children’s needs, their work can also trigger secondary trauma. Our grantees have invested in its mental health work force by raising salaries – a living wage is vital in our area -- and offering staff special programs, but more must be done. There is hope that a psychiatry residency program will soon be reintroduced in our area.
  • Continuity of care, embraced by the panel speakers who visibly represented this goal, involves a holistic approach to mental care that ranges from early intervention and equitable access for children in need to helping stabilize their families to ensuring that communication among all the different providers in the process is maintained.
    In the end, all agreed that children are our best resource and that focusing time, energy, and resources on their mental health needs will make a critical difference for our entire community in the future.
 
Membership Corner: Thanks and Welcome!

Our first renewal notice for 2023 went out last month; thank you to all who responded and renewed for this year! Our volunteers on the Finance Committee, the Research Committee, and the Board of Directors are particularly grateful for the early renewals -- we’re well on our way to raising $1 million or more for our 2024 grants pool, our 20th anniversary.

The Women’s Fund is growing like the spring wildflowers! Please welcome our newest members:  Laura Condon, Sandra Travanti Copley, Bonnie Cummings, Susan DuPont, Laura Habecker, Whitney Kopf, Karen Lindblad, Beverly Mayer, Meredith Murr, Anna Probstel, and Cheryl Sweeney.
 

Women’s Fund in the News!

Our most recent record-breaking grants pool and Celebration of Grants garnered quite a bit of attention with local media. If you didn’t see it, here are some highlights of the reporting:

“Nearly $1 million in help: Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara provides $925,000 in grants to local organizations” – NewsPress – April 8, 2023

Cynder Sinclair: “Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara Awards 10 Grants” – Noozhawk - May 12, 2023

“Hillside Gets $100,000 Grant from Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara” – Noozhawk – May 16, 2023

Society Matters | “Women’s Fund Awards $925,000 to 10 Nonprofits: Grants Address Critical Needs of Women, Children, and Families” – SB Independent –  - May 18, 2023

Our Town | “19th Annual Celebration of SB Women’s Fund Grant Recipients” - Montecito Journal – May 18, 2023

“Hillside Awarded $100,000 by Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara” – The Voice – May 19, 2023

“Santa Barbara Housing” (Vera Cruz Village / 2nd Story Grantee) – KEYT News Channel 3-12 (TV) – May 19, 2023

“Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara hits record breaking $925,000 grants for nonprofits” (Food from the Heart Grantee) – KEYT News Channel 3-12 (TV) – June 5, 2023
 

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