By Karen Delaney, Executive Director

Here at the Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County, we are approaching 60 years of serving our community, creating a growing movement to connect people for good through acts of service across every issue and in every part of our county. We are proud to receive a number of federal grants to support our work, directly to our agency and through many valuable partnerships with local and state agencies. This year, that includes home safety and fall prevention for elders; Mental Health services for Transition Age Youth so their disability doesn’t hold them back from success in school, work and life; an award-winning partnership with the Sheriff’s Corrections Department to increase success of women leaving the jail and not coming back; supporting people with a mental health diagnosis find and retain work; adult education ESL tutoring; and AmeriCorps Seniors — connecting 300 seniors to meaningful service.
We continue to receive conflicting and troubling demands and instructions about Federal Fund requirements, and we have great clarity about our Mission and Values that transcend politics or money. We want our community – volunteers, service recipients, donors, staff and partners – to understand what they can expect from us, always. To steal a line from a song I sing with my grandkids frequently and joyfully: We know where we are, We know who we are!
Here’s WHO we are:
- We are great stewards of funding – practicing transparency, delivering measurable results and meeting or exceeding goals.
- We partner with, celebrate and connect volunteers to all types of causes and events that celebrate the beauty of all our history and current community opportunities, so expect to hear from us about MLK Day, Cesar Chavez Day, 4th of July, Black History Month, Juneteenth, Memorial Day, Pride Month, the Fungus Festival, Earth Day, Veteran’s Day, National Night Out and every other chance to meet people in our community who share your beliefs and passions! And, it’s ok if we don’t all agree all the time.
- We treat every person with dignity, welcome and respect. We will never describe a person as an alien, use a name or pronoun that makes someone feel uncomfortable or tell them which restroom to use.
- We want everyone to have the benefits of meaningful connection to community and work hard to make it easy for everyone to reach us, enroll with us and feel at home in our programs and services. We hold ourselves accountable by asking people what language they would like to receive services in and using demographic data to make sure that everyone is getting equal access and equal services from us, and that our staff and leadership reflect the beauty of the diversity in our community.
- We’re about people taking actions that make the world better in measurable, local ways like cleaning up beaches, parks and homes; delivering food and clothes; helping teach people to read and write, stay out of jails and institutions, eat healthier, complete their homework. We are not about political winds or memes of the day.
Here’s WHERE we are.
In our 60 years we have learned this is a generous, active and caring community. You want to show up for each other. You want to make the world better. You love to learn and celebrate while you are doing good. You are hopeful, enthusiastic, creative, practical and compassionate. Us too!
SO, we plan to continue to spend our time and resources doing powerful, meaningful good for all people in our community together, and will ignore the demands to treat some people differently, change our language, drop some partners and activities that are meaningful in this community based on political whims of people far from us. If we get into trouble for that choice, we hope you will stand with us and continue to support us.
In service and with a hopeful heart,
Karen Delaney
Executive Director