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Santa Barbara County is one step closer to a comprehensive view of community wellbeing. With the launch of four focus areas (health, food security, housing, and economic security) and a major grant from Eric and Wendy Schmidt, the Santa Barbara County Community Wellbeing Dashboard is on track for full completion by 2027.
With generous funding from the Santa Barbara Foundation, the Natalie Orfalea Foundation, the Towbes Foundation and the Schiele Family Foundation, this community-led collaborative effort began in 2024 and will ultimately include data for eight interconnected elements that provide windows into the county’s collective wellbeing.
The remaining four focus areas (education, peace and justice, sustainable ecosystems, and community connectedness) will be available in 2027, made possible with a $250,000 grant from Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
“Information is essential for action–we can’t address, or even comprehend, problems we can’t see,” said Wendy Schmidt. “The Santa Barbara County Community Wellbeing Dashboard offers a real-time snapshot of how our region is thriving and where it needs support, laying the groundwork for far-reaching, resilient solutions for the beautiful place we’re lucky to call home.”
“The Santa Barbara Foundation is thrilled that with the generous grant from Eric and Wendy Schmidt, the work we envisioned and supported beginning in 2024 to make relevant, actionable information available to all with the Santa Barbara County wellbeing dashboard will be completed next year,” said Jackie Carrera, Santa Barbara Foundation president and CEO. “Without community contributions of funding, knowledge, experience, and guidance, this project would still be just an idea. Thanks to the Schmidts, the idea will become a fully developed reality next year.”
The dashboard offers a single, accessible online location to find data and resources regarding community wellbeing in Santa Barbara County. It tracks essential metrics to equip residents,policymakers, nonprofit organizations and funders with timely data to understand community needs, identify challenges and make informed decisions.
Beyond serving as a shared data resource, the dashboard has established an ongoing network of partners committed to learning together and coordinating action. To date, 214 individual partners from 101 organizations across the nonprofit, government, funding, and business sectors have contributed to developing the dashboard’s content.
Partners on the dashboard project align around shared goals, engage in honest dialogue, and shape a framework for collective impact to realize the long-term vision for the dashboard: a community where data is understood, shared, and used collectively to improve wellbeing. At monthly collaborative workshop sessions, partners share data, expertise, and ideas, shaping the dashboard through a participatory process.
“Data is essential to understanding the health and well-being of our community — where we’re making progress, where needs are emerging, and where we must do better,” said Beth Skidmore, board chair and executive lead, Rooted Santa Barbara County. “This Dashboard brings together data, resources, and lived experience across areas of wellbeing too often viewed separately, helping us see how deeply connected they are. Rooted was proud to contribute to this effort and especially grateful for LegacyWorks’ leadership in connecting food security and health, with ‘Food is Medicine’ represented across both. Making these intersections visible gives us both a responsibility and an opportunity to invest, collaborate, and act in ways that can meaningfully improve community health.”
The initiative is facilitated by LegacyWorks, which supports partners, guides the process, and helps ensure community priorities are clearly reflected in the dashboard. Content, direction, and decisions are guided by the partners themselves, ensuring the dashboard reflects real community experience.
“LegacyWorks is incredibly grateful to be partnering with so many organizations, funders and leaders who inspire us and contribute their time, data, expertise and lived experience to this ongoing collective effort,” said Ellen Kwiatkowski, LegacyWorks’ director of the Central Coast regional initiative.
Community members, agencies and organizations are invited to participate in upcoming dashboard development. Interested parties may learn more or inquire about engagement opportunities by contacting Ellen Kwiatkowski, Regional Director at LegacyWorks Central Coast, at ellen@legacyworksgroup.com.
