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.”

“At just communities we work to ensure that central coast schools, organizations, and communities are places of opportunity, not places of limitation. We advance justice by engaging our community in leadership development, dialogue, action planning, and mobilizing for social change. We bring together community members and empower them to be leaders who promote equity around issues of race, socio-economic class, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, language, ability, and other identities.”

“Based on multiple factors, including insufficient funding, structural deficits and changes in the external environment, just communities central coast (jccc)s staff and board of directors have decided, with a very heavy heart, to close the organization effective august 31, 2022. More than twenty years ago, jccc emerged as one of the leading social justice organizations in our tri-county region and we are exceedingly proud of our impact on the community, especially in the areas of education justice and language justice. In collaboration with youth, families, educators and many other local organizations, jccc worked tirelessly to help close the achievement and opportunity gaps and inequalities throughout the areas we served, particularly in the santa barbara unified school district (sb unified). Thousands of students, teachers, staff, and administration officials benefited from jccc-led educational experiences on implicit bias, racism, sexism, heterosexism, class privilege, and other forms of oppression and injustice. Jcccs youth programming has left a lasting impact on a generation of central coast students who have gone on to become current and future leaders for inclusive and equitable change in our community. The virus outbreak brought immense loss, anxiety and uncertainty to our community, particularly to the most systematically marginalized members of our community. Jccc pivoted away from in-person to virtual programming in order to continue serving our mission. This significant adaptation produced debilitating limitations to jcccs core strengths: workshops, consciousness raising, building relationships, and professional development. Despite many efforts made by staff and the board of directors, we could not establish the sustainable structural footing needed to continue to deliver on our vision of co-creating an equitable and inclusive central coast where all people are connected, respected, and valued. We cannot stress enough how incredibly sad we are to sunset our organization. In these times, with our hearts heavy from shootings in buffalo, orange county, and uvalde, one may reasonably wonder, when will things get better? When will this physical and structural violence end? When will our communities finally be just? These questions are without easy answers, but when we take a long historical view, from out of the ashes, we see new life has always emerged. The central coast is replete with multiple generations of people who care, who love those on the margins, who will continue jcccs legacy to fight back and never give up on the struggle for a world full of joy, compassion, and liberation. Therefore, without a doubt, the work will carry on through others including the ongoing commitment to justice from our individual staff and board members as we move to the post-jccc chapter of our lives.”