Santa Barbara County Community Dashboard
About the Dashboard
The Santa Barbara County Community Dashboard is a community-led, online platform designed to provide a comprehensive view of key indicators impacting the wellbeing of Santa Barbara County. Beginning with critical areas like Stable & Affordable Housing and Economic Security, this dashboard will track essential metrics across multiple sectors. It equips residents, policymakers, nonprofit organizations, and funders with the real-time data needed to understand community progress and challenges.
Community dashboards, like this one, use data visualizations, reports, and other resources to illustrate trends, identify areas of need, and prioritize actions that enhance overall outcomes. With seed funding from the Santa Barbara Foundation, the dashboard represents a collective commitment to building a healthier, more resilient Santa Barbara County.
Learn more about the LegacyWorks Dashboard Enterprise at Data-dashboarding.
Purpose
Empower communities with the real-time information needed to make decisions and take action to affect positive change.
Goals
Drive effective data-driven decision-making
Communicate prioritized community wellbeing metrics and trends
Strengthen collaboration based on openness, honesty, and respect
Bolster key community organizations’ capacities, tool chests, communication resources, efficacy and public confidence
Build community data literacy and sense-making skills for complex systemic and acute challenges
Build capacity for navigating challenges, crises, and opportunities collaboratively
Identify and address community needs and vulnerabilities
This collaborative project empowers our community to make informed decisions,
assess the impact of programs and policies, and drive positive change with transparency and accountability.
Status
February 2025: We just started Phase 1, where we started to develop a framework for collective impact. To see the slides from the Kick-Off meeting, click here:
During Phase 0 we completed interviews with 21 community leaders and are summarizing key findings.
Download the summary: Setting the Table: Summary of Partner Interviews SBC Community Dashboard
The Santa Barbara County Community Dashboard needs data from more focus areas to tell a holistic story of our county’s well being. Focus areas will be developed depending on community need and funder interest. Funders are encouraged to fund any part of a focus area. Focus areas cost $50,000 to initiate and $6,000 per year to maintain.
Proposed Focus Areas
Focus areas will likely fall within one of these broad wellbeing categories:
Health
Shelter
Food
Economics
Education
Safety
Families
Environment
Community
Contact Us to Learn More
Santa Barbara Foundation mobilizes collective wisdom and philanthropic capital to build empathetic, inclusive and resilient communities.
LegacyWorks Central Coast California, is a 501(c)3 non-profit consulting group based in Santa Barbara. Moving forward, together.
Contact: Melissa Fontaine, melissa@legacyworksgroup.com