Santa Barbara City College Visits St. Vincent’s Campus to Make Education Attainable

Tables shrouded in red cloth and embossed with the names of Santa Barbara City College departments lined the room as potential students — many of them seniors or mothers with children in tow — mingled with college representatives. It was like any other campus resource fair, but this time the campus was not on the Mesa.  

On Thursday, SBCC held its first-ever resource fair at St. Vincent’s Santa Barbara, connecting low-income residents with the services needed to make continuing their education attainable. 

Founded in 1858 by the Daughters of Charity as an orphanage and Santa Barbara’s first English-speaking school, “St. Vincent’s remains the longest, continually-operating nonprofit social service agency in Santa Barbara,” according to its website. The organization has inhabited different locations across town and taken many shapes over the years, continually evolving to meet the community’s needs. 

Today, their Goleta Calle Real campus houses about 100 low-income seniors and about 30 women and children in two-year transitional housing, and it serves about 85 people daily at the Fr. Virgil Cordano Center homeless day shelter. When on St. Vincent’s campus, residents and shelter visitors are connected with resources to help them navigate tumultuous times.

Thursday’s event was one such example. By bringing SBCC representatives to St. Vincent’s, working mothers with limited time and elderly residents with limited mobility were able to learn about the college’s resources in the comfort of their own community. 

Susana Ortega, St. Vincent’s program manager of Unsheltered Services, Enhanced Care Management, and Community Support said that many of the residents are focused on meeting their basic needs, “a shelter, a roof, food, taking care of your kids on fixed incomes. They’re not thinking about education.” 

By bringing SBCC representatives to residents, Ortega said it creates accessibility to education and “makes it something that’s in their reach.”

Student program advisor Jessica Mora was at the event to tell residents about the college’s EOPS (Extended Opportunity Programs and Services) and CalWorks programs, which both provide funding for supplies, food, and child care and help place students in on-campus jobs. Mora said that students who are parents can pick a daycare of their choice, “fill out a contract with us, and then we’ll cover the funds for it.”

Many of the residents of St. Vincent’s qualify for SBCC’s Rising Scholar program, which provides financial aid for those who are “system-impacted.” Noel Gomez, SBCC’s Coordinator of the Rising Scholars Program, said that system-impacted students are individuals “who have been directly or indirectly impacted by the criminal justice system,” either by themselves having been incarcerated or by having an incarcerated family member. 

Throughout the late afternoon and evening, about 50 community members mingled with college representatives. SBCC’s senior director of admissions and records and dual enrollment Angelica Contreras said that she had three residents sign up for classes that go toward earning their GEDs and had spoken to many more interested in registering for certificate and associate degree programs.

Senior resident Olga Reyes signed up for an art class at SBCC’s Extended Learning Center, which provides free courses for the community, at Thursday’s event. Reyes said that both she and her granddaughter will be students at SBCC now.