Women’s Fund Hosts Virtual Forum: Aging in Place

The Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara will present a virtual forum on Tuesday, December 8, 2020, from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm to examine what aging seniors require to live safely and happily, and how two nonprofit agencies are serving Santa Barbara County’s aging population. The Forum will explore strategies for healthy aging and how communities can support their seniors as well as obstacles to aging in place. The event is free and open to the public with registration located at: “Aging in Place Santa Barbara: Obstacles and Opportunities – Grants in Action Educational Forum” or at: www.womensfundsb.org.

In May 2020, a total of $180,000 was granted to the two featured agencies for expanding services for eligible seniors and disabled people:

2nd Story Associates – Housing Authority of Santa Barbara – received $100,000 to provide case management and health support team for 500 low-income seniors living in four HACSB communities including Garden Court and Gardens on Hope.

Easy Lift Transportation – received $80,000 to establish greatly needed same-day transportation services for eligible seniors and individuals with physical or mental challenges.

The Forum features a Keynote Presentation by Caroline Cicero, Ph.D., Associate Professor at USC Davis School of Gerontology, providing a national and regional overview of seniors and aging followed by presentations by Women’s Fund grantees Chris Tucker, Executive Director, Garden Court, and Ernesto Paredes, Executive Director, Easy Lift Transportation.  Then these three experts will have a panel discussion focused on obstacles to aging in place, proposed remedies, needed policies, and new models in action nationally and locally that show great promise. The Forum will end with recorded closing remarks by Rona Barrett focused on the establishment of the groundbreaking Golden Inn & Village in Santa Ynez which is a cornerstone of the Rona Barrett Foundation. In 2000, recognizing the oncoming exponential growth in the aging population and that communities and the nation were not prepared to meet their needs for affordable housing and adequate programs and services assuring health, wellness, and safety, Ms. Barrett created the Rona Barrett Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization, to develop tangible solutions to address the growing need for affordable senior housing.

Since 2004, the members of the Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara have been combining their charitable dollars into significant grants. The agencies featured in this Forum were two of the nine grants Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara provided in 2020 totaling $685,000. Grantees were selected by a vote of the membership of more than 1,100 women following extensive research and a needs assessment process. To date, nearly $7.9 million has been distributed to 111 local area nonprofit programs serving over 100,000 women, children, and families in Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Carpinteria. The next round of grant funding will conclude in May 2021.

ABOUT THE WOMEN’S FUND OF SANTA BARBARA:  The Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara is a volunteer-led collective donor organization that enables women to combine our charitable dollars into significant grants addressing the critical needs of women, children, and families in south Santa Barbara County. For more information go to www.womensfundsb.org