A new racial equity grant-making program received $267,000 from the County of Santa Barbara during the year's budget hearings for an investment in work to "reverse the legacy of slavery and effects of racism." On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors appointed the Fund for Santa Barbara to administer the program.
Full credit for the grant program goes to the Black women who had made the ask of the supervisors in the first place, said Patricia Solorio, who oversees grants for the Fund. "In the work we were doing to develop the criteria in the application, we wanted to honor the community ask," she said. "We're grateful that we can offer this. What we are looking for are upstream solutions to systemic issues."
The Fund has similar grants already underway, and Solorio said they hoped to invest in activities that would change institutional systems, education that created awareness, advocacy policy work, or other programs the community proposed.