Since 2005, we have led collaborative efforts to abolish homelessness. Today, we are at the forefront of issues facing the marginalized populations of Santa Barbara, from homelessness to trafficking to under-resourced neighborhoods.

 

Our Mission

The Santa Barbara Alliance for Community Transformation (SB ACT) exists to equip the community to lovingly engage the marginalized while actively working for the betterment of their physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental needs.

Collective Impact Collaboratives

SB ACT creates collaboratives around social issues in SB County following the Stanford Collective Impact model of partnership.* In each of its collaboratives, SB ACT acts as the "backbone organization" that keeps the collaborative moving toward its common agenda. In this way, SB ACT is not a service provider but rather a neutral convener that provides coordination and infrastructure for each of its collaboratives.

2020, Design by Delaney Anderson

Collective Impact Collaborative

Juster, J. S. (n.d.). Collective Impact. Retrieved March 11, 2018, from https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/overview/models-for-community-health-and-development/collective-impact/main

Requisites for Collective Impact

Collective Impact. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2018, from https://unitedway.com.au/learning/collective-impact-3

What We've Achieved

COVID-19 Pandemic

  • Developed and facilitated the Community Food Collaborative, a partnership providing more than 6,000 hot meals to individuals experiencing homelessness and households at risk of homelessness throughout South SB County, with food sourced from local providers and prepared by local restaurant staff

  • In partnership with Cottage Population Health, facilitated the data collection for a formal PhotoVoice study to assess the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on those experiencing homelessness

  • Raised more than $25,000 to pay DACA application and renewal fees for households at risk of homelessness so that family members can gain legal work permits

Homelessness

  • Helped establish Common Ground Santa Barbara County in 2012 by piloting the first all volunteer outreach team for those experiencing homelessness at Pershing Park. Common Ground has since expanded to a countywide operation

  • Partnered to bring the 100,000 Homes Campaign to Santa Barbara County in 2010 to train the county and create the Vulnerability Index. This partnership has been essential in coordinating countywide partners to house hundreds of individuals since its inception

  • Collaborated with the Turner Foundation and other countywide partners to run the first Registry Week in Santa Barbara County, where over 500 volunteers administered the Vulnerability Index to those experiencing homelessness over a two-day period in January 2011

  • Formed the ACT on Homelessness Collaborative, a cross-sector coalition with a three-year plan to reduce the impacts of homelessness in the City of Santa Barbara

  • Formed the Goleta Regional Action Plan to develop and facilitate actionable goals to reduce the impacts of homelessness in the City of Goleta

  • Founded Santa Barbara’s Neighborhood Navigation Centers, neighborhood-based “one-stop shop” sites for homelessness shelter and service providers to engage with individuals experiencing homelessness

Westside

  • Established the Padres Creando Sueños in 2015, a team of Westside parents working together to support all Westside neighborhood children through neighborhood asset development.

Human Trafficking

  • Partnered with the District Attorney's office of SB County to author the 2015 Needs Assessment of Domestic Child Sex Trafficking in Santa Barbara County, the first of its kind in Santa Barbara County

  • Filmed 'Our Kids: Sexual Exploitation in Santa Barbara County', a documentary about local trafficking issues, in 2015

  • Supplied more than $25,000 from a “Flexible Local Dollars Fund” for a variety of needs for local survivors of trafficking (go-bags, transportation out of trafficking context, computers for distance learning, art therapy supplies, and more)

Educational Partnerships

  • Partnered with students at Westmont College in 2009 to create the first Spring Break in Santa Barbara City, which is now a sustainable program under Urban Initiative, to engage with social issues throughout Santa Barbara

Caring for Immigrants & Refugees

  • Founded the Interfaith Sanctuary Alliance (ISA) in 2017. The ISA is a partnership between faith communities working to support immigrant and refugee populations in Santa Barbara, alongside leadership from Trinity Episcopal Church, the Unitarian Society of SB, and CLUE-SB

  • Hosted Santa Barbara County’s first “Love Your Neighbor” weekend to promote interfaith support for local immigrant populations

 

*Kania, J., & Kramer, M. (2011). Collective Impact. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 36-41.

All photography provided by James Daly and Jacob Grant