Ground was broken in 1953 for the new Veronica Springs Road complex then known as Hillside House, a facility serving residents with intellectual and physical disabilities. Cecil Cooprider, center, the first administrator, helped a young resident at the ceremony. 
Hillside executive director Craig Olson is mindful of the experience the facility provides its residents with intellectual and physical disabilities. “There is a feeling of being part of a home,” he says. “That’s always special to me.” 
Hillside House opened in 1955, and was one of the first residences in the Veronica Springs Road neighborhood. 
Residents were transported to their new Hillside home on moving day in 1955. 
Parents of Hillside residents host a party in the early 1980s. 
Physical therapy is among the many services that Hillside provides its 59 residents.
[Noozhawk’s note: First in a series sponsored by the Hutton Parker Foundation.]
For more than seven decades, Hillside in Santa Barbara has been helping adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities gain independence and meaningful opportunities.
The 59 residents of the leafy 24-acre property at 1235 Veronica Springs Road receive support, pursue their passions, discover their abilities, express themselves and live life to the fullest as integrated members of their community.
The nonprofit Hillside has long provided critical services, including around-the-clock nursing care, physical therapy, independent living skills, learning and recreational opportunities, individualized treatment programs and more.
There are times when families alone are no longer an option or might not have the means to assist their loved ones with specific physical, medical or behavioral needs.
That’s when they choose Hillside for quality and empathetic caregiving, and community integration and independent living. Most Hillside residents are nonambulatory, and levels of disability range from severe to moderate.
Supportive staff members and caregivers at Hillside provide 24-hour nursing and residential services, and the organization aims to foster a healthy environment where residents can maximize their physical, cognitive, social and emotional abilities.
With friendships and connections, the positive impact extends far beyond the bucolic setting.
“There is a feeling of being part of a home,” executive director Craig Olson told Noozhawk. “That’s always special to me.”
People are greeted by hugs, waves and friendly hellos inside the complex.
Several people spend most of their lives living at Hillside.
“Welcome home,” operations director Gail Metzger tells a smiling resident in the hallway leading to the dining area.
On a recent Friday afternoon, some residents were arriving back home after daytime activities in Santa Barbara.
Inside, the walls of the dining room are lined with colorful artwork that Hillside residents have created.
“They are inspiring,” Metzger said of residents. “This is a great place.”
Alternative residential options for Hillside residents are virtually nonexistent, Olson explained. The organization has been serving the developmentally disabled in Santa Barbara County for more than 70 years and there are no viable alternatives if Hillside were forced to close its doors, he said.
Hillside History
In the late 1930s, Hillside House was established in Ojai with the help of Hollywood filmmaker George Cukor, whose niece was born with cerebral palsy. Quality care for people with disabilities was limited in the United States at the time, and Hillside was one of the few of its kind.
Cukor recruited Muriel Evans, a professional nurse from London, to work in Ojai with his niece. She specialized in caring for individuals with developmental disabilities.
Joan Flanders, a physiotherapist from New Zealand, also began working with Evans, and their efforts developed into an institution to help people with cerebral palsy.
In 1945, the center opened at 501 N. Ontare Road in Santa Barbara. Fifteen residents were served at the time.
That same year, Hillside incorporated as a nonprofit organization, one of the earliest providing cutting-edge efforts to serve individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities, and recognize their rights.
In an era when people with disabilities were almost entirely hidden from society, Hillside’s example would become a national movement to bring them out of isolation and reduce some of the social challenges for families of children with disabilities.
State and federal laws were enacted to protect the rights of people with disabilities. Over the years, additional legislative changes and public acceptance of people with disabilities have made the work at Hillside a little easier.
Cecil Cooprider was named director of Hillside shortly after World War II. He and Hillside’s board of directors began to explore options for establishing a facility where they could house more residents and provide a wider variety of therapeutic services.
A two-year fundraising campaign begun in 1947 allowed them to purchase a Veronica Springs Road parcel that had been used as a rehabilitation facility for the nearby general hospital during the war.
Alice and Fred Cole, the property owners, felt the site served well in a therapeutic capacity, so they sold it to Hillside House for $55,000, paid in installments.
The purchase was completed in 1951 and construction wrapped up in 1955, with costs kept low through in-kind donations like labor, materials, furnishings and supplies.
Hillside, one of the first homes in the Veronica Springs neighborhood, opened the doors for Santa Barbara’s early leaders in giving and philanthropy, led in many ways by Cooprider’s wife, Loretta.
“It became a community project to get the current Hillside built,” Olson said.
Hillside made the transition to serving adults with cerebral palsy and intellectual disabilities in 1978.
Looking to the Future
Decades later, the outlook for independent living in Santa Barbara is a little brighter because of Hillside.
The organization primarily serves people from Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties.
“One of the ideas is to keep people in their community,” Olson noted.
Residents benefit from a variety of services and programs, both on campus and in the surrounding community.
Hillside offers medical and dental care, physical therapy, occupational and vocational therapy, speech therapy, sensory motor training and recreational therapy.
It also has special dietary and nutrition services, independent living skills training, basic health and hygiene assistance, expressive therapy and counseling, and specialized equipment and medical services.
Maintaining family and personal relationships is vital, and Hillside provides adaptive equine therapy, on-site activities and classes, volunteer and visitor connections, events, performances and entertainment.
“There is always something going on,” Olson said. “You never see someone alone.”
Hillside’s success depends on generous community contributions.
“Without our donors, we wouldn’t be here,” Olson said. “It certainly wouldn’t be Hillside without our donors.”
When asked about the future of Hillside, he said, “I hope we continue to have the heart that we do.”
Developing friendly neighbor and community connections while “being able to have interactions that are natural,” is tremendously important, Olson emphasized.
“The idea of separating our people from the rest of the community is archaic,” he said.
Click here for more information about Hillside. Click here to make an online donation.
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
