Start the giving season off strong by donating to a local nonprofit organization in Santa Barbara County on #GivingTuesday, November 29th!
With your support these nonprofits can continue to thrive and serve those who need their services the most. This is why Noozhawk has re-launched its annual Good for Santa Barbara Section, so that finding a cause you connect with is made easy and donation information is readily available!
In this interview, Noozhawk spoke with Loretta Johnson, Executive Director of Villa Majella of Santa Barbara to learn more about how they equip and empower pregnant women for the future by offering them pregnancy care, education, and guidance.
Villa Majella of Santa Barbara
Question: What is the name & mission of your nonprofit?
Answer: Since our doors opened in 1982, Villa Majella of Santa Barbara has supported hundreds of women 18 and over in their decision to carry their babies to term under difficult situations, whether they choose to personally parent or lovingly select an adoptive home.
Q: How long has your nonprofit been in service and whom was it started by?
A: Villa Majella has been in service for 39 years. The founding board of directors included Mary Craig, Peter A. Da Ros, Barbara Die Bold, Teresa Grant Kimbell, Mary Klink, Colleen Kirst, Frances Morehart, Mercedes Roux, Linda Saucedo, Alex Saucedo, Miles S.
Q: How is your nonprofit primarily funded and what are your greatest needs?
A: Villa Majella is primarily funded by the dedicated support of local foundations, the generosity of individuals and families, and the commitment of monthly pledge donors. Participant program fees and contributions from businesses and community organizations also make our work possible.
Villa Majella operates 365 days a year. Our home hosts between 4 and 8 mothers and infants on any given day. Like all maternity homes, we provide 24 hour staff support which increases our overall operating costs. At Villa Majella we know that staff support is invaluable.
Medical literature demonstrates that a lack of social support during pregnancy is associated with adverse health outcomes. Our broadest goal is to help pregnant women create and participate in healthy social support networks during pregnancy and delivery. We facilitate client enrollment in a variety of key social support services and provide a supportive community living environment. Doing so, we help prevent adverse health outcomes for both mother and child.
Villa Majella’s most pressing needs include salary support to ensure that staff are available to implement the personalized programming created for each program participant, and to meet the day-to-day health, safety, physical and emotional needs of program participants 24 hours a day. All of the women we serve are experiencing socially complex pregnancies. Most of the women we serve have cut ties with prior social networks because of various forms of abuse and dysfunction. Our staff accompany women through the day-to-day physical and emotional changes involved in pregnancy. They provide emotional support and respond to women’s immediate needs and questions. They transport women to medical appointments, to the hospital in case of emergency situations, and to the hospital for delivery (often in the middle of the night!). Our staff team supports our program participants by sharing information and resources that encourage healthy habits.
During their time at Villa Majella, through the support and care provided by staff, pregnant women stabilize their lives, make healthy decisions, and develop vital parenting skills. Aided and accompanied by our staff, program participants get connected to the medical and mental health resources that support them during pregnancy, and as they grow toward healthy independent living and self-sufficient parenting.
Q: In what ways does your nonprofit utilize it’s funding?
A: Funding ensures that our doors remain open so that pregnant women in crisis situations are supported according to their individual needs. Villa Majella provides essential services – which starts with having a stable home – for all the women who come through our doors. Many of these women have experienced homelessness and are fleeing domestic violence or abusive situations. We are the only organization in the county that provides a Maternity Home Program to women in crisis. We work to connect pregnant women to a wide range of services and resources for in-crisis mothers-to-be and we aim to set each woman up for long term success.
Villa Majella manages a four-bedroom, two-bathroom residential home located in the suburbs of Santa Barbara, which provides temporary shelter for women during the duration of their pregnancies and up to six months after their babies are born. Our home can house up to eight pregnant women at once, although capacity depends on how many infants are in the house at any given time, and more recently, COVID-19 health and safety protocols.
Foundations provide 80% of the total cost of residential and program staffing. Pledge Donors provide 91% of the total cost of weekly counseling services and hot family meals. Program Participants and Alumnae provide 80% of the total cost of home utilities.
Q: How do people get involved/volunteer for your nonprofit?
A: Pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum needs are unique to each woman. There are many ways to contribute! To care for our infants, supporters donate diapers, wipes, baby wash, baby shampoo and baby thermometers. They also volunteer to babysit. To care for our mothers, volunteers create labor and delivery hospital care kits, decorate a mother’s door on her delivery day, and participate in a mother’s labor light community in the weeks prior to delivery as a form of support and encouragement. To care for our whole community, volunteers provide hot nutrient rich family meals or snacks, teach classes, and get involved in event planning. Volunteers also lead our organization by serving as members of the board of directors. To get involved, fill out the volunteer application on our website at https://www.villamajella.org/volunteer.
Q: What makes your nonprofit different from others?
A: Villa Majella has supported over 600 pregnant women experiencing socially complex pregnancies by offering a safe home, weekly meals, counseling services, pregnancy care, parenting classes, education, guidance and support. Villa Majella also provides access to outpatient drug programs, the SPARC program at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC), life skills classes, AA and other 12 step programs, and services as our program participants repair connections with family and friends and plan their futures. Women are referred to Villa Majella by social workers, homeless shelters, counseling and rehabilitation centers, faith-based institutions, and individual community members. Many women are referred from within Santa Barbara County, while others are referred from elsewhere in California or out of state. No matter the specific circumstances of their arrival at Villa Majella, each pregnant woman receives the safe shelter, individual care, material items, counseling and individualized program support that is needed to get their life on track. The women we support made the decision to have a child before they arrived at our door. We support each woman to make sure that their pregnancies are healthy and that their lives can move in the direction that they want them to. We provide a safe and healthy place for these women to grow into motherhood with grace and dignity.
Q: What is one best kept secret or fun fact about your nonprofit that not everyone knows?
A: On average each year Villa Majella serves 24 women and infants, provides over 2000 total nights of safe shelter and over 200 warm nutritious meals. We provide every woman with information and access to over 25 community programs and services.
Q: Can you share one or two stories of individuals whose lives have been changed because of your organization?
Jan gave birth to her daughter Elizabeth while living at Villa Majella. During her stay, Villa Majella introduced Jan to City College’s Single Parents Arriving Ready for College program. While living at VM, Jan participated in SPARC and later went on to complete an associates degree in Economics and a second in Science & Mathematics. She then went on to UCSB where she completed her bachelors degree in accounting this past May!
Jan reached out to share how life is going for her and her daughter: “Elizabeth is healthy, full of life, and has the best sense of humor! Her favorite thing to do after school is snuggle, and I look forward to it every day. We have a happy, safe, stable home full of love. Elizabeth attends the same daycare program that she started while we were living at Villa Majella. I am so thankful for this second chance in my life and for the stability I have been able to give to my daughter. The sanctuary that Villa Majella gave me during my pregnancy me made all of this possible.”
Q: Can you tell us one short-term goal AND one long-term goal that your nonprofit has for the next year?
A: One short term goal we are working towards is the completion of critical modifications to our service site in order to ensure that our program participants and staff have ample outdoor spaces for programming. We will be continuing a series of improvements to our outdoor spaces so that we can welcome more volunteers and also host programming and classes in private outdoor spaces.
A long term goal we are working towards accomplishing is to provide material support to meet ongoing basic needs of our alumni mothers and their children. We are working to increase the total number of alumni moms and infants that we are able to connect with and give to annually. We also have alumni moms who want to give back. We are currently working to develop and implement new ways of connecting these families to one another and to ongoing supportive services and resources.
Click here to support Villa Majella Santa Barbara’s mission to support women 18 and over in their decision to carry their babies to term under difficult situations.
Check out Noozhawk’s Guide to Giving for a full list of nonprofits to donate to this giving season.