Freya Estrella, DignityMoves COO, accepts Check from Women’s Fund.Courtesy photos.
Front door of Santa Barbara Street Village, DignityMoves
SANTA BARBARA — DignityMoves, the organization that has partnered with Santa Barbara County and Good Samaritan Shelter, has received tremendous community and philanthropic support in its effort to reduce homelessness and provide essential services to those in need.
DignityMoves’ appreciates one of our early “believers” whose initial support in 2022 of $75,000 provided both credibility and much positive public attention.
The Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara, one of the most respected and established local organizations, recognized what DignityMoves was attempting to do with the combination of Interim Supportive Housing Villages, land donated by the County, and extensive supportive services through our partner Good Samaritan and wanted to learn more. Their support did not come automatically by any stretch of the imagination, and the thorough research team at Women’s Fund looked at all aspects of DignityMoves’ work and early successes. Representatives of DignityMoves were asked to speak to and present background information at Women’s Fund meetings and gave members tours of the Santa Barbara Street Village facility.
To date, DignityMoves has built three interim housing communities in Santa Barbara County—Santa Barbara Street Village, La Posada Village off Hollister Avenue, and Hope Village in Santa Maria—with a total of 243 beds and the capacity to serve over 350 residents per year.
The model of using County land and modular construction to accelerate an otherwise laborious process, particularly in Santa Barbara, of getting new housing built was one aspect of our work that was particularly intriguing to Women’s Fund members, as well as the government, nonprofit, and philanthropic collaboration. Using donated money for construction and County money primarily for supportive services helped assure a high rate of success in moving people off the streets into permanent housing.
DignityMoves was a natural fit for the Women’s Fund whose mission is to address the critical needs of women, children, and families in south Santa Barbara County. Since 2004, the Women’s Fund has invested over $1.9 million in providing housing assistance for our unsheltered neighbors.
The Santa Barbara Street village was completed on time and on budget and served a substantial proportion of unsheltered women living downtown.
The childcare center for the upcoming DignityMoves family village in Santa Barbara is a core program the Women’s Fund supported this year with a $125,000 grant that was part of a record-breaking $1.125 million in grants to 10 local nonprofits.
The Women’s Fund has supported a series of nonprofit projects all aimed at moving our unsheltered neighbors off the streets and into permanent housing. SB ACT navigators helped identify individuals who would benefit from the DignityMoves Santa Barbara Street Village project. DignityMoves built the interim housing units and partnered with Good Samaritan enabling residents to become “document ready” with a new sense of optimism and hope to move on to permanent housing. This is a model that works and is being replicated in other communities across California.
For the Women’s Fund, these grants were, and continue to be, an investment in the Santa Barbara community. The impact of the grants is tangible and fits their model of changing lives together.
Since the first community village opened in downtown Santa Barbara, DignityMoves and its partners have been dedicated to uplifting the lives of people experiencing homelessness in Santa Barbara County. With assistance from dedicated organizations such as Women’s Fund, providing enough housing for everyone is proving possible.