Wastewater Surveillance Dashboard
During 2020-2021, LegacyWorks partnered with Santa Barbara County to develop the Community Data Dashboard to provide residents and leaders with timely access to trustworthy data on COVID-19. In 2022 our partnership expanded COVID-19 monitoring and reporting through implementing wastewater surveillance.
Community Wellbeing Dashboard
Last year we partnered with the Santa Barbara County CEO’s Office and six County departments to develop and launch a Community Wellbeing Dashboard that reports on an array of metrics across nine key focus areas. Together we developed a community wellbeing framework that allows us to identify and report on key factors that contribute to community wellness, creating a tool to inform decision making and track progress over time.
Resilient Santa Barbara County (RSBC), PACEs Connection and Network of Care
Resilient Santa Barbara County (SBC) is a countywide network dedicated to preventing and reducing the impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in Santa Barbara County. It is overseen by the ACEs Steering Committee, a group of volunteers who are shaping the vision, purpose, principles and objectives of this emerging network.
Network of Care and FindHelp
The LegacyWorks team worked alongside Cottage Health to help provide support for community organizations to implement FindHelp. FindHelp is the platform chosen by the Network of Care to implement a standardized referral system and resource directory throughout the county social sector.
Library Ad Hoc Committee Facilitation
The Santa Barbara County Library Ad Hoc Committee was established by the Board of Supervisors to find a sustainable and equitable model for county libraries. Members of the committee include two County Supervisors, four Library Directors, one member of a library Friends group, one Library Advisory Committee member, and the Director of the County Community Services Department.
Bill Leahy Announcement
LegacyWorks is pleased to announce Bill Leahy as the newest member of our Santa Barbara team. Bill joined LegacyWorks in the Fall of 2022 after living up the coast on the 25,000-acre Jack & Laura Dangermond Preserve, where he served as Deputy Director for several years.
LegacyWorks Santa Barbara 2022 Wildfire Resilience Portfolio
Wildfire affects every person and every sector in our community; the scale and complexity of this problem requires every one of us to take action to advance our region’s resilience. We must learn to adapt and develop new strategies for learning and working together.
Wildfire Incident Dashboard
In consultation with diverse stakeholder groups, including Santa Barbara County Fire and community stakeholders, the LegacyWorks team developed a Wildfire Incident Dashboard prototype.
Prescribed Herbivory
Prescribed herbivory and grazing is a unique tool that can reduce fire fuels, create mosaics of open space in thick brush, reduce invasive species, improve soils and native habitat, and reduce the risk of high-severity fires.
Indigenous Cultural Burning Practices
Indigenous people traditionally used low intensity fire to shape landscapes, ensure the abundance of culturally important plants, create clearings for wildlife and open understories for access to foraging areas. Today, Good Fire has functionally been removed from our landscape due to the loss of cultural burning traditions combined with more than 100 years of aggressive fire suppression.
Goleta Riparian Corridor Wildfire Risk Reduction & Restoration Project
The Goleta Riparian Corridor Wildfire Risk Reduction & Restoration Project was funded by a California Coastal Conservancy Grant and builds on initial planning work by the Environmental Defense Center that identified wildfire risks and restoration opportunities in numerous sites within twelve watersheds.
Wildfire Resilience Collaborative
Santa Barbara is rich in natural communities that are specifically adapted to its Mediterranean weather patterns. These include coastal scrub, chaparral and foothill woodland plant communities, some of the world's most imperiled ecosystems.
Teton Program Update
Ten years ago we began working with the LOR Foundation to help assess the opportunities, threats and challenges facing the region and to outline a strategy to invest in regional wellbeing and resilience. Community leaders identified dozens of opportunities for deep impact that fell outside of the reach of their organizations, highlighting a critical need for greater collaboration.
Adapting to Our Changing Hydrology
Wyatt Penfold is a lifelong Teton Valley farmer, just like his father and grandfather. He grows potatoes, quinoa and other grains in the fertile soil that abuts the west slope of the Tetons. Wyatt is feisty and entrepreneurial and struggles to sit still. He lights up when he talks about water. With a combination of flood irrigation and center pivot sprinklers systems, Wyatt can produce amazing crops even in our extreme conditions.
SBC Water Quality Dashboard
Our Santa Barbara team has the great pleasure of living and working in the Santa Barbara region, while also interfacing with our teams working in the northern Rockies and in southern Baja California Sur. While far apart, all the communities we work with are facing the worst drought in the historical record, exacerbating long term challenges around water quality and water supply. Frustratingly, it can be remarkably difficult to get straightforward data on the state of our water.
Baja Team Update
LegacyWorks group is pleased to announce the newest member of the Baja Team, Alina Breceda-Martos. Originally from Sinaloa, Alina studied Environmental Engineering in Guadalajara and received her Masters in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science from Lund University in Sweden.
Weaving the Fabric of Regeneration in Mexico
We recognize that the good of the land can’t be achieved without the good of the people. And we work, hand-in-hand with local people, to address the inter-related web of issues that drive scarcity, or alternatively, can create abundance in a place.
Chumash Good Fire Project
Since our last letter to you, December rains have rejuvenated the hillsides and provided a brief respite from the concern of wildfires. Yet with such a dry, hot January and February and the continuing drought, we’re rapidly headed into a long season of very high fire risk. The question of how we learn to live with this new wildfire regime is at the forefront of our minds.
Our Growing Team!
At LegacyWorks Group we catalyze and facilitate collaborations that meet critical community needs. We’re always on the watch for promising opportunities and for the resources and partners necessary to move them forward. All three are fundamental to the work we do.