As Santa Barbara County continues to see more coronavirus cases, first responders and health-care workers are forced to work longer hours away from their children. Rather than scatter free childcare sites throughout the area, as Sacramento and other California counties have done, Santa Barbara County is setting up a completely original model.
The trailblazing model puts essential workers’ children in childcare sites based on their parents’ employers. Through a partnership between United Way of Santa Barbara County, Jane and Paul Orfalea with the Audacious Foundation, and the Natalie Orfalea Foundation with Lou Buglioli, the Emergency Child Care Fund started with $500,000.
Paul Orfalea, the founder of Kinkos, has a long history for his philanthropic efforts to support children in Santa Barbara County. Just under 20 years ago, Orfalea gave $2 million to the early childhood care center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, now known as the Orfalea Family Children's Center.