Querencia
A Santa Barbara Neighborhood Partnership
Our Story
We are a non-denominational faith-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that seeks to connect with children and families in our community through Kids Club and other programs that offer physical, social, emotional, educational, and spiritual support. Our mission is to empower children and families to thrive by holistically sharing God’s love on Santa Barbara’s Lower Eastside.
Many of Querencia’s founders have been working with youth in the Eastside community for 30 years! Throughout our time working and living in this community, it became clear that the most effective way to steer kids away from destructive choices and gang involvement was to reach them at a young age and help them to see that they are loved and appreciated for exactly who they are, God's masterpiece! By building relationships with elementary school children and involving their families in the process, we seek to support children and teens until they graduate from high school and beyond. For the past 19 years, we have done this primarily through Kids Club, our weekly after-school outreach program, summer Day Camps and through our community partnership.
Focusing on children
& youth
We believe focusing most of our efforts on young people gives us the best opportunity to break the cycle of poverty while making it possible to build relationships with parents and families. We believe young people are a vital part of the community, full of intelligence, creativity, and potential to bring positive change. From this idea we draw our motto: "Restoring Youth, Restoring Community."
Community development & Incarnational ministry
Evangelism, Discipleship, & Leadership Development
Promoting education & Partnering for Progress
We are convinced that education is a key factor in ending the cycle of poverty. We strongly emphasize education and make every effort to support children and families as they navigate a complex and unfamiliar educational system. We also know that we won’t be successful without close partnerships with organizations that have resources to make a difference for families in our community. We value strong collaborative partnerships with local churches, the local school district, and other nonprofit organizations.
We seek to empower our neighbors so they can increasingly take coordinated and effective action and bring positive change to our community. Rather than trying to bring change from outside, we live right in the Eastside community. This allows us to build authentic relationships with our neighbors and gives us an intimate knowledge of the challenges they face so that we may love and support them with greater intentionality. By approaching community development in this way, rather than imposing solutions and actions from the outside, we ensure that solutions rise up from within the community in a way that maintains and increases dignity.
In everything we do we seek to share the love of God and develop servant leaders. We do this by building intentional mentoring relationships with young people and their families, and by modeling unwaivering love, a healthy spiritual life and responsible decision-making. As part of our commitment to discipleship we are passionate about developing effective leaders from among the Latino youth we work with. These young leaders are already making a difference and 19 years later, we now have passionate young leaders who are positive role models and advocates for others in the community.