Santa Barbara Meeting members are involved in our community in a number of ways. Here’s a sampling:
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Meeting members are central to the Alternatives to Violence Project (see http://avpcalifornia.org), a series of workshops held in our community, prisons and schools focusing on communication skills, conflict resolution, personal growth and self-knowledge.
Contact (800) 905-6765 x2.
On the first Sunday of each month, we cook dinner at Transition House, which provides innovative and proven solutions to the cycle of poverty-based family homelessness. If you’d like to participate, please con- tact Carol Hauer (crhauer@verizon.net).
Our Meeting supports PROGRESA (Guatemala Scholarship/Loan Program) by paying the annual expenses of a qualifying Guatemalan student working towards a high school or university degree. A joint project of Guatemala FriendsMeeting and Redwood Forest Friends Meeting. The Program was founded in 1973. Over the decades the program has grown from supporting one student in 1973 to supporting more than 100 university and secondary school students. We receive financial support from a small number of Quaker meetings and a large number of Quaker and non-Quaker friends. Contact Mary Thompson (marydee2@cox.net). http://www.guatemalafriends.org/
Truth in Recruitment is a student advocacy group under the auspices of Santa Barbara Friends Meeting. We work with students, families, schools, and veterans to ensure that students understand the consequences of a military career and their alternative options for academic and career success. We inform families and students of their privacy rights and ensure that school policies and procedures on recruitment are followed. Find out more at: truthinrecruitment.org and https://www.facebook.com/TruthinRecruitment/
Our Meeting is a member of CLUE Santa Barbara (Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice). To find out about CLUEs activities and events that you can get involved in: cluesb.org
Our Meeting has close ties with Veterans for Peace, an organization dedicated to the larger purpose of world peace; see http://www.vfpsb.org
Members of our Meeting visit prisoners at the Correctional Complex in Lompoc under the auspicious of the organization Prisoner Visitation Support (http://www.prisonervisitation.org). Contact James Robertson (robertson68@cox.net) to learn more.
The Coalition Against Gun Violence has the goal of creating a safer community by combating gun vio- lence through educational activities and to advocate for effective local, state and national programs, poli- cies, and legislation. See http://www.sbcoalition.org.
The committee for Peace Earthcare and Social Concerns meets monthly to discuss pertinent issues and to plan and coordinate actions in response to Friends leadings to put our faith into action. Most of the committees activities focus on alleviating human suffering, caring for the environment, and speaking out for justice and equality.
Vandenberg Witness (http://vandenbergwitness.org) has a peaceful vigil at Vandenberg Air Force Base on the first Wednesday of each month. Contact James Robertson (robertson68@cox.net) for carpooling.
Politically Active
Friends have a number of ways of acting on their beliefs. We have a lobbying group in Washington called the Friends Committee on National Legislation which lobbies for causes supported by Friends, and a service organization called the American Friends Service Committee, which undertakes self-help and social justice projects in the United States and abroad. More locally, the Friends Committee on Legislation of California lobbies for our concerns in Sacramento.
We work and worship in unison with other Friends Meetings belonging to Southern California Quarterly Meeting each fall and spring, and with all Meetings in California, Nevada, Hawaii, Mexico and Guatemala each summer at Pacific Yearly Meeting.
In addition, our local meetings have committees on Peace, Earthcare and Social Concerns, which focus on issues such as world peace, opposition to the death penalty, alternatives to violence, respect for the environment, and issues of equality for all people, regardless of socio-economic status, race, gender, national origin, or sexual identity or orientation.