Small but mighty, Santa Barbara is a philanthropic juggernaut. With an estimated 1,500 nonprofit organizations (last time I checked), there is something for everyone to get involved in. Giving back to the community is what we do.
Kristi Marks, marketing director at Saks Fifth Avenue, is one of those people. Each year she chooses to partner with a local nonprofit to donate a portion of sales from the store’s annual fall beauty event. This year, Saks is partnering with Girls Rock Santa Barbara.
“It is a special opportunity to highlight one of the local organizations in our community,” she said.
Girls Rock Santa Barbara was started in 2012 by Jen Baron, a Santa Barbara High School and Antioch University grad who had been writing songs and playing music most of her life. Although her professional background was in marketing and public relations, she decided at her father’s suggestion to get herself out there as a musician.
“Music is meant to be shared,” went the reasoning.
Baron took her dad’s advice at a time when he had been diagnosed with an advanced stage of cancer. She went to work in a studio and eventually recorded her own music with the help of Robinson Eikenberry. Two of her songs were purchased for a Sharon Stone film.
Zeroing in on her true calling, Baron decided — without knowing much about the nonprofit world — to create a program that would help instill self-confidence through music in girls aged 6-17. The seed for Girls Rock Santa Barbara was planted.
After a year spent researching everything she could about how to start a nonprofit, the now-34-year-old Baron launched the first summer program in 2013. It attracted 100 girls.
Since then, the organization has grown to a community of more than 600 students, and now boasts an after-school program running five days a week.
Girls Rock Santa Barbara differentiates itself from other community arts programs by using music to deliver its messages of self-empowerment and mentoring. As part of Baron’s research, she discovered some startling statistics that plague young women with low self-esteem. They tend to underestimate themselves academically, she found, and are prone to eating disorders, cutting, bullying, smoking, drinking and early sexual activity. Any and all of these conditions can negatively affect their future endeavors.
“The goal of GRSB is to help change these statistics,” Baron told me. “Girls Rock is doing that in a lot of different ways within the programming — from female-to-female mentorship built into their curriculum, to their bands of diverse backgrounds that bring girls together as a group to write songs that represent their unique vision.”
While leadership, team building and life skills are important individually, perhaps the biggest impact the Girls Rock has is its continued investment in diversity.
“We bring girls together from all different backgrounds, and together they learn to tell their group story,” Baron said.
Girls Rock Santa Barbara created an environment that fosters self-confidence, creativity and teamwork. Under Baron’s leadership, Girls Rock challenges gender stereotypes, encourages collaboration and tolerance among peers, and provides comfortable space for girls of all backgrounds to express themselves.
Through music lessons, workshops, group activities and performance, girls learn skills that will help guide them throughout their lives. Baron and her staff and volunteers — among them chief cheerleader Sandy Stahl, a Realtor who met Baron through her involvement with the Santa Barbara Bowl’s community education outreach program — make sure that young girls have a forum for their music.
“The emphasis has really nothing to do with nailing that chord or drum solo,” Baron said. “It’s that these girls … are given the forum and freedom and encouragement to create art without perfection, permission and without peer pressure.
“We are not just teaching girls to play an instrument, we are teaching them to find their voices.”
Girls Rock Santa Barbara’s annual performance is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23, at SOhO Restaurant & Music Club, 1221 State St. Click here to purchase tickets, which also are available at the door.
Meanwhile, Saks Fifth Avenue’s annual fall beauty event takes place from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the store, 1001 State St. Local singer-songwriter Jamey Geston will be playing live music, and free champagne and appetizers will be served. The Saks staff will be providing beauty makeovers and henna tattoos. Girls Rock of Santa Barbara will have an information table and live-streaming video.
Rock on, ladies.
Click here for more information about Girls Rock Santa Barbara, or contact executive director Jen Baron at 805.861.8125 or girlsrocksb@gmail.com. Click here to make an online donation.
— Judy Foreman is a Noozhawk columnist and longtime local writer and lifestyles observer. She can be contacted at judyforeman@noozhawk.com. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.
