Just Communities Central Coast

“The draft 990 is distributed to the board of directors via email. The 990 is reviewed and approved by the board of directors prior to its submission.”

“The conflict of interest policy is reviewed at the annual board of directors meeting before any new elections. All conflicts are addressed before the vote on new members. If a conflict arises, the conflicted member is prohibited from voting on the relevant issue.”

“The process for determining compensation of the organization's executive director includes an annual review and approval by the board of directors. Comparability data from the grantmakers salary and benefits report published annually by the council on foundations is used as a reference and guide to determine reasonableness of compensation packages, as well as comparison of form 990 of other similar organizations in california. Substantiation of the deliberation and decision is recorded and kept on file.”

“For all employees, compensation is based on a number of factors, which include; original job description compared with current job description, feedback from community partners, areas of concern and observation, merit-based salary adjustments, and cost of living adjustments.”

“The organization makes its governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements available to the public at the organization's principal office located at 1528 chapala street, santa barbara, ca 93101, monday - friday during the hours of 10am - 4pm. The 990 is available on guidestar and by request.”

“Just communities programs work together as part of a larger strategy to address racial and socio-economic disparities in educational opportunity and outcomes. To that end, an independent evaluation of our work was conducted in 2013. It found that: just communities accelerated change through its iee and supplementary programming at dos pueblos high school, la colina junior high, and mckinley elementary to different degrees. Each had facets of leadership support, common language, community resource engagement, and critical mass for change. This pilot studys triangulation of policy, process, and achievement indicators along the theory of change are evidence that just communities made a measurable contribution to latino student achievement between the 2007/2008 and 2011/2012 school years ( rubayi srivastava & michelle enriquez, contribution analysis: a pilot study, september 2013, pg. 7.) specifically, since partnering with just communities, the santa barbara unified school district has seen the following increases in the academic achievement of latino/a students: a 43% increase in english language arts (ela) proficiency on national standards at the elementary level. A 27% increase in math proficiency on national standards at the elementary level. A 70 point increase in elementary school level academic performance index (api) scores. A 56% increase in ela proficiency on national standards at the secondary level. A 50% increase in math proficiency on national standards at the secondary level. An 85 point increase in secondary level api growth scores. A 55% increase in ela ca high school exit exam (cahsee) scores. A 41% increase in math cahsee scores. A 101% increase in participation in the high rigor academy programs.”

“Youth organizing & leadership developement: just communities offers two core youth programs: the community leadership institute (cli) and talking in class (tic). Cli is a summer program that works with 40 high-school aged youth per year to strengthen leadership, communication and advocacy skills while tackling important issues of racial, gender, sexual orientation, and socio-economic inequality. This workshop allows students to explore their multifaceted identities, learn how to recognize and counter inequality, gain advocacy skills, and create plans to create changes in their schools, organizations, and communities. Tic takes place during the school year and engages students in meaningful dialogue and strategic action to eliminate disparities in academic opportunities and achievement by developing concrete school improvement strategies that work. This is a customized program that is built to fit the needs of each individual school. Talking in class ensures students from grades 6-12 have a voice in their own educational process and success. Since launching talking in class, student recommendations have led to improved school cultures and climates, increased numbers of students of color in rigorous classes, new supports for lgbtq+ students, and more. Youth organizing institute”

“The language justice initiative (lji): the lji improves access to inclusive, effective multilingual spaces in school and community environments in order to remove language barriers and connect people across differences of language, culture and race. This initiative increases the accessibility and effectiveness of interpretation services in school environments and just communities events. The language access initiative is made up of several programs as well as customized coaching and consulting. During the grant period, the most prominent language justice work was done in response to an unforeseen and unprecedented event. During the recent thomas fire, the need for language access was immediately evident. In ventura county, just communities was approached by a non-profit agency to help with the translation of a website that would provide different resources for people affected by the fire. As the coordinator for the language justice network (ljn), lena moran immediately reached out to our members, who work and reside in three regions (north and south santa barbara county and ventura county). When the call went out, the response came quickly and from all regions. 10 members of the ljn assisted with the document translation, despite some being evacuated or waiting to be evacuated. The call also went out to a national network of language justice allies, of which 3 were able to help from north carolina and new york. At least another 8 members were on standby. Organizations like the santa barbara county foodbank also reached out to have their press releases and social media posts translated. In santa barbara, the county reached out for help with interpretation during the daily town halls at san marcos high school. 4 ljn members volunteered to interpret, while another 3 were on standby. Following the fire, there was notification that rain would be headed to the central coast and a press conference and town hall were scheduled to brief the community, and once again, just communities was called upon to provide interpretation for these events. Law enforcement / criminal justice system: we have been working with the santa barbara police department (sbpd) to provide training to all sworn officers on implicit bias and how officers and the department as a whole can mitigate the negative impact of implicit bias as they work with the community. To date, we have conducted 6 full-day trainings - each with about 40 officers. These first two sessions have included most senior level officers and the second training included sbpd police chief lori lunhow who was extremely impressed with the program. We have also been working with sgt. Sean hill on the sbpd voices program which connects new officers with community members with whom the pd has often had challenging relationships in order to build trust and understanding. We have brought just communities youth, parents, and other community members, including monolingual undocumented community, to these sessions that also include reviewing existing policies around use of force, racial profiling, and other department practices. The conversations have resulted in both community members and officers wanting to continue, and are now in discussions with the santa maria police department and the santa barbara sheriff's department.”

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