Anyone in Santa Barbara County can call for support for a person under 21 years of age experiencing a mental or behavioral health emergency. Trained counselors provide callers with risk assessments, in-home support, conflict resolution and communication skills training, safety plans, and referrals to other local alcohol, drug, or mental health services. Counselors also provide in-person intervention for youth with a very high risk of psychiatric hospitalization and ongoing counseling.

As CEO Shawna Morris says, “The availability of a specialized mobile crisis program like SAFTY results in significant decreases in acute psychiatric hospitalizations, detainment in juvenile hall, and visits to hospital emergency rooms.” SAFTY also helps equip youth and their families with skills for managing future crises.

By hiring an additional full-time counselor, the SAFTY program will be better equipped to answer calls promptly; the number of calls to the hotline increased significantly during the pandemic. These funds will help alleviate staff burnout and help counselors to better serve their clients. During the year the new counselor will handle an average of 252 crisis calls, and 25 youth in proactive intensive in-home services (averaging 30-45 days). The counselor will provide an average total of 85 proactive in-home sessions annually.

For more information about Casa Pacifica and the SAFTY program, please visit casapacifica.org.

For health services in Santa Barbara County, call SAFTY at: (888) 334-2777, 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM Daily.

Members, RSVP here.

Not yet a member? RSVP here.

Tuesday, August 27, 2023
5:15 – 7:00 pm
Alpha Resource Center
4501 Cathedral Oaks Rd, Santa Barbara

And Speaking of New Members – We Have a Few!

Let’s welcome our 41 newest members: Charlene Aguilar, Mary Ellen Alden, Georganne Alex, Diane Alexander, Kristin Bergstrom, Geraldine Bidwell, Eun Bishop, Maria Black, Jane Eagleton, Hope Falstein, June Ferguson, Meri Gyves, Patricia Hauptman, Jennifer Henry, Caitlin Hensel, Jessica Hoagland, Rachel Johnson, Susan G. Jorgensen, Janet Kates, Pita Khorsandi, Phyllis Lane, Lee Lopez, Kate Ludeman, Corrigan Luther, Laurie MacMillan, Vanessa Marin, Cynthia Martin, Sally Matthews, Kay Matthews, Maureen Murdock, Pauline Paulin, Beth Prinz, Kate Rees, Jesiy Richards, Karen Roberts, Karen Rose, Autumn Shelton, Ann Speicher, Maria Valencia, Jinny Webber, and Deborah Wood.

After an initial review of ideas – this year, more than 90 were submitted by agencies -- researchers work together to choose about 25 of the most promising projects for further consideration. After the Finance Committee evaluates the financial health of the agencies, each agency is assigned to a researcher who will guide them through the months-long process.

Agencies complete an application that describes their project in greater detail and explains how it will meet a critical community need of underserved and/or low-income women, families, and children living in south Santa Barbara County. Agencies are also required to submit a budget explaining precisely how grant dollars will be spent.

At this point, researchers look for evidence that an agency has the expertise, capacity, and stability to manage the size and complexity of the program they are proposing.

During this process, researchers ask a variety of questions:

• What results does the agency hope to achieve and how can these outcomes be measured?
• Are the methods regarded as best practice?
• If it is an innovative concept, is there evidence the new approach is likely to be successful?
• Are matching funds available?
• How will the agency sustain the project after the grant from Women’s Fund expires?
• Depending on the proposal, how does the agency collaborate with other local nonprofits to avoid duplication of services?   

As you can guess, there’s a lot of back and forth during the process. Once the lead researcher is satisfied with the application, she prepares a report and makes a presentation to the entire research committee. All researchers weigh in with questions and comments to clarify and strengthen the proposal. In virtual Site Visits, the executive director makes a brief presentation to the lead researcher and answers our questions.

As the process unfolds, some projects fall away or are withdrawn by an agency. In December, the research committee decides which projects are strongest and most compelling. In January, the committee recommends these projects to the Board for approval and the ballot goes to members in February. 

If you have more questions about this or any other aspects of Research, please send an email to research@womensfundsb.org. Or, you can visit our website for more information. We’ll try to answer your questions in future columns.