Company Profile
Community Action Commission of Santa Barbara County
Company Overview
CAC is a private non-profit that provides early childhood education, youth mentoring, healthy meals, home safety and energy conservation services, and utility payment assistance for low-income individuals and families in Santa Barbara County.
CAC:
• Assists over 12,000 people in Santa Barbara County each year
• Operates 26 Head Start and Early Head Start Centers
• Serves over 500,000 healthy meals to low-income children and seniors each year
• Provides energy services to over 1,000 low-income homes per year
• Helps over 500 children avoid entering the foster care system each year
Company History
The Community Action Commission of Santa Barbara County (CAC) started in 1964 as a 15-member Community Action Committee that was appointed by the County Board of Supervisors. CAC was incorporated as a private non-profit organization in May of 1967. In October of that year, CAC began operating a seniors program, and in 1969 started an adult job-training program. CAC has gradually expanded to to include the wide array of programs available today including:
- Learning experiences and high quality care for children age 0-5
- Job training, education, and mentoring for teens and young adults
- Leadership, involvement, and educational opportunities for parents
- Healthy daily meals for children and seniors
- Improvements that make homes warmer, safer and more energy-efficient
Many highly successful local programs – including the Community Housing Corporation, the Friendship Center, Shelter Services for Women, and Easy Lift – had their beginnings at CAC, then moved into their own right within the community.
Although we’ve made incredible progress in the fight against poverty – now at approximately 15% of the population– there’s still plenty of work to do. And we are committed to ending poverty in Santa Barbara County.