SBCC Education Continues at Sally

The Salvation Army Santa Barbara Hospitality House is a 70 “bed” transitional living program designed to assist homeless, single adults move into permanent housing. Our emphasis is on helping our residents become self-sufficient through employment.

Unfortunately, many folks come to us without the basic skills that most of us learned in high school. You can probably imagine how difficult that makes it to apply for a job—much less to find and to keep gainful employment.

For years, Santa Barbara City College’s Continuing Education staff has worked with us to mitigate the problem. SBCC provides adult education classes, four nights per week, right in our facility. They offer our program participants—and the public at large—general education diploma preparation and business skills training, a food management vocational program, and life-skills classes such as Compassionate Communication and Personal Finance.

Like many in Santa Barbara, we held our breath while SBCC restructured their course offerings in order to adjust to their funding cuts. We feel blessed that our classes were allowed to continue without interruption.

In all of my Salvation Army appointments, from Alaska to Arizona, I’ve not lived in a community more generous or more caring than Santa Barbara. In these difficult times, I thought that you would appreciate knowing that Santa Barbara City College’s Continuing Education program continues to provide outstanding services—maybe not so visible to the community at large, but certainly to those who are often considered the most in need. —John Clitheroe