On October 25 on the expansive hilltop lawn at the Santa Barbara Zoo, the Santa Barbara Foundation (SBF) unveiled its 2018-2023 Strategic Priorities to about 275 nonprofit leaders, supporters, and other community members. After an 18-month process of getting input from constituents, poring over data and reports, discussing and debating, the foundation developed these new priorities aimed at maximizing its value to the community.
The priorities flow out of its new mission statement: To mobilize collective wisdom and philanthropic capital to build empathetic, inclusive and resilient communities. The new priorities are maintaining a safety net for our most vulnerable residents and finding solutions to problems of working families.
In support of its focus on safety net measures, SBF cites telling data points for the county: 11.3 percent of adults are uninsured, 44,960 people (10 percent) are food insecure, suicide is the second leading cause of all injury deaths and 90 percent of these involve mental illness, and 1,489 individuals are chronically homeless.