Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors approves Racial Equity Fund recommendations

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. – The Fund for Santa Barbara announced Tuesday that the County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the organization's Racial Equity Fund recommendations.

The Fund said that as a result, the following recipients will receive funding:

• C4 Lompoc Collective Cultures Creating Change - Self Healing Communities - $78,473 
  • Funding will support the implementation and stabilization of the Self Healing Communities project, to engage community, build leadership and self determination and begin to address the unrecognized and untreated trauma in the Lompoc community. For more, see: www.c4lompoc.org. 
• Madi’s Treasure Box - Madi’s Treasure Box (World Changer Initiative) – $13,000 (Year 1), $13,000 (Year 2) 
  • Funding will support the World Changer School Ambassadorship Program which provides multicultural tools to K-5 teachers, and the Santa Ynez Valley Juneteenth Celebration. For more, see: www.MadisTreasureBox.com.
• NAACP Santa Maria Lompoc 1072 - Santa Maria-Lompoc NAACP Racial Equity Projects - Black History Celebration, Juneteenth Celebration, and addressing systemic Racism in Schools in northern Santa Barbara County – $32,500.00 (Year 1), $32,500.00 (Year 2) 
  • Funding to continue dismantling systems of racism, oppression, and discrimination by addressing systems that perpetuate racism, discrimination and hatred. Funding will support an annual gathering celebrating Black History, Juneteenth Celebration and work in schools addressing racism including the "the N word." For more, see: www.santamarialompocnaacp.org.
• The Regents of the University of California, Santa Barbara - The Healing Space – $32,138.50 (Year 1), $32,138.50 (Year 2) 
  • Funding will support the Healing Space in closing the service gap for Black community members seeking mental healthcare by reducing the cost of therapy services, improving the overall wellness of those seeking care by connecting clients to social services, and building the Black mental health workforce by providing a culturally-affirming training environment for Black psychologists-in-training. For more, see: www.sbhealing.org.

"We applaud the County of Santa Barbara for taking concrete steps to address racial inequity in our region, and hope that this partnership initiates a more concerted effort by the County to invest in the most vulnerable and historically marginalized communities in Santa Barbara County," said the Fund.

"We congratulate the organizations receiving funding and celebrate the work they are carrying out to build a more equitable, just, and inclusive region."

Organizers said the Racial Equity Fund of the County of Santa Barbara (REFCSB) is an initiative that came directly from grassroots organizing by Black Female leaders in Santa Barbara County who demanded that the county invest in the Black community in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and the ongoing racial justice movement.

In the past, REFCSB said the county passed a resolution declaring racism a public health crisis, made a commitment to racial justice, and pledged $500,000 to begin to address equity issues in the county.

Roughly half of the funds were allocated to internal/institutional county equity development with the remaining funds were distributed through the Fund for Santa Barbara’s participatory grantmaking process in collaboration with the county.

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