Santa Maria Sun / News

Helping hand

A $20,000 grant will allow a local nonprofit to expand its homelessness services

BY AMY ASMAN

Dream team Good Samaritan Services Inc. will use a $20,000 grant from the Santa Barbara Foundation’s Katherine Harvey Fellows program to rehire a caseworker for its family transitional shelter. Pictured are (left to right) Stacy Goldsmith, emergency shelter caseworker; Susanne Newman, emergency shelter director of operations; and Sandra Binnebose, newly hired family transitional shelter caseworker. PHOTO BY AMY ASMAN

Mirroring a parable straight out of the Good Book, the Santa Barbara Foundation has awarded a $20,000 grant to Santa Maria’s Good Samaritan Services Inc.

The money, Good Samaritan Executive Director Sylvia Barnard said, could not have come at a more crucial time.

For more than two decades, Good Samaritan has helped shelter, feed, and educate Northern Santa Barbara County’s neediest individuals and families. But the recent downturn in the economy, coupled with an increasing demand for services, has left Good Samaritan in need itself.

Since summer 2008, the agency has seen a 15 percent increase in clientele, according to Barnard. But despite the growing number of people who are seeking assistance, Good Samaritan has had to decrease its services. Cuts from the state and federal level forced the elimination of a clean and sober living program in Lompoc and two staff positions, as well as the closure of the agency’s Santa Maria thrift store.

“About nine or 12 months ago, we were really struggling,” Barnard said. “It’s been pretty lean times.”

The $20,000 grant—courtesy of the foundation’s Katherine Harvey Fellows program—will enable Good Samaritan to rehire a caseworker, and therefore continue providing much-needed services to people living through the Santa Maria Valley area.

The agency employs a caseworker in both of its shelters: an emergency shelter and a family transitional shelter. The former houses people for anywhere from 30 to 90 days. During that time, a caseworker assists clients using agency programs and community resources to meet individual needs.

“It could be as basic as helping them get an ID or a copy of their birth certificate,” said Susanne Newman, the emergency shelter director of operations. “Or they might act as a liaison with Child Welfare Services, or provide them with job leads and clothes for job interviews.”

The family transitional shelter is designed to help families reestablish a stable living situation. Each family gets a private room, but must share a common living space. The families are also expected to participate in a goal-oriented program that helps them develop skills in money management, parenting, and budgeting. In comparison to the emergency shelter, clients at the family transition shelter stay for two years.

For the past couple of months, one person—Stacy Goldsmith—has had to serve as the caseworker for both shelters.

“It’s been hectic at times,” Goldsmith said, adding that working in the emergency shelter can be especially difficult because “you need to get all the resources to people within 30 to 90 days.”

But thanks to the grant money and additional funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Goldsmith will soon be able to focus solely on the emergency shelter. Sandra Binnebose, a former Good Samaritan employee, is taking over the family transitional shelter.

“Having two minds is so much better than one,” Goldsmith said.

The shared workload will allow Good Samaritan to focus on implementing more services, such as job training programs, educational workshops, and self-defense classes.

The additional staff member, director of operations Newman added, will also help boost everyone’s morale.

“It’s great to watch people light up and get excited because they have someone to say to, ‘Hey, I got the interview!’” Newman said. “I think they need that because after being homeless for a while, you get down on yourself.”

But with motivation, she said, “People start to think, ‘OK, maybe I could get a job. I can make my life better.’”

Contact News Editor Amy Asman at aasman@santamariasun.com.