Dan La Berge is the executive director of Mothers’ Helpers, a nonprofit that provides baby accessories to families in need.
Now, he’s running for the Santa Barbara Unified School District Board of Trustees in District 1.
La Berge is a parent of three children and believes his experience as a father provides him with a lens to understand the important issues facing the Santa Barbara Unified School District.
LaBerge in this podcast talks about why his decided to run for the seat. He said if elected, he wants to improve early literacy rates for students.
“We have a large population of students that have either been stuck in an ESL certification or needs unique assistance to help them get out of that,” LaBerge said. “So much of everything we are going to do in school comes back to literacy. If their literacy is challenged, how are they going to apply that to other subjects.”
La Berge also shares his compelling personal story of how he and wife Robin Unander-La Berge have raised their family and talks about Mothers’ Helpers.
At the nonprofit organization, “we focus on giving a gift, unrestricted, do what you want with it, sell it, give to someone else when you are done with it,” La Berge said. “It’s really just an open-handed gift. Many services require you to jump through a lot of hoops, but we’re pretty superficial. If you express that you have a need, have a child or one you are about to give birth to, we’re going to be there for you.”
Gabe Escobedo, chair of the city’s planning commission, is also running for the Santa Barbara Unified School District board seat. The election is Nov. 8.
Consider a contribution to this podcast by clicking here. Subscribe to this podcast by clicking here. Josh Molina has been a journalist in Santa Barbara for 20 years. He also covered City Hall for the San Jose Mercury News. In addition to working as a reporter at Noozhawk, he teaches journalism at Cal State University, Northridge and Santa Barbara City College. Please subscribe to his You Tube channel for more content.