Low-Income Children and Families Need Your Help This Summer!
3/19/2010

Despite (and because of) the recent federal Learn and Serve America/Summer of Service grant that United Way of Santa Barbara County (UWSBC) has received for the Fun in the Sun(FITS) program for the next three years, the underserved children and families of FITS 2010 still face some challenges.
 

Due to the current state of the economy, the future success of FITS 2010 was not looking so bright prior to March 2010. FITS’ projected 2010 operating budget was to be cut in half compared to 2009. Services would be cut to less than half of the usual number of participants (169 vs. 364), and the number of sites was in jeopardy of being reduced from four to three.

Local contributions to UWSBC have been the lowest seen in over 35 years, and FITS funding was greatly reduced from the previous FITS summer.
 

In short, UWSBC was $200,000 away from being able to fully implement FITS 2010. This translated to 200 fewer participants in the 2010 FITS program, when the waiting list for FITS’ seven weeks of eight-hours-per-day programming was the longest in its history during the summer of 2009.

However, rather than worry about repercussions of this shortfall, UWSBC made it its mission to find a way to operate FITS to its capacity in 2010. This is being accomplished by:
 

• The recent federal and local grants that UWSBC has been awarded.

• UWSBC has managed to streamline FITS overhead/operating costs and come up with

a small cash match, while still being able to maximize services.
 

Everything else is in place: hundreds of volunteers, dozens of hours of partner collaboration, new academic programming designed to more significantly reverse summer learning loss, enrichment activities, the new service learning component, critically needed referrals to health/mental health services, parent education and empowerment opportunities, health/nutrition awareness and education, clothing, fresh food, and school supplies for each participant.
 

So now it comes down to this: just 100 more days before school lets out, summer kicks in and FITS kicks off its seven-week slate of comprehensive services. Just 100 days to find $50,000 more dollars (12% of the total FITS budget) so FITS can operate at full capacity. We are asking for your support of FITS 2010 to help us reach this goal. Because of the new federal Service Learning grant, local FITS students have an opportunity to receive $225,000 in education scholarships over the next three years – but only if we have the resources to operate at full capacity. We need your help!