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CALM is Founded
In 1969, Claire Miles (in the photo on the wall), a local nurse, learned that an overworked and emotionally stressed father had, in a moment of desperation, shaken his infant son to death. Claire took immediate action, put a phone in her living room, then took out classified ads in the Santa Barbara News-Press urging parents in need to call for help. The phone rang almost 40 times that first month. Claire's daughter, Honorary Board Member Susan Miles Gulbransen is pictured next to the photo. -
Original Logo (?)
At least the earliest on record. -
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Odile Robinson Serves as CALM Executive Director
Served as ED in the 1970s. Exact dates unknown. No photo available. -
Cecilia Rodriguez Hired as CALM's Child Abuse Prevention Educator
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Mike Long Hired as Executive Director
Served 1986-1988. Exact hire date not known -
Proposal for Latina Group Denied
Cecilia Rodriguez, who was working as a Child Abuse Prevention Educator, proposes that CALM start a group for Latinas to be co-facilitated by her and Luz Palacio. The Executive Director at the time said no because neither of them were credentialed. Cecilia decides she needs to go to graduate school and does so despite the fact that she found it "hard to fight the internal messaging telling her 'who did she think she was? Brown women don't go to graduate school." -
Begin Strategic Focus on serving Latina/o/x/e Community Members
After moving from the Midwest and becoming ED of CALM, Anna Kokotovic started to get to know the community and asked, "what does CALM need to do?" She realized that CALM was not serving the Latino community so wrote grants to increase funding.
Worked closely with the City and County to develop relationships.
Focused on reaching out to and meeting the needs.
Got grants from the City and County specifically for working with Latino community. -
Recognize the Need for Bilingual/Bicultural Staff
Up to this time, CALM's therapists were primarily white women who were in private practice and working with CALM was a "side gig." Recognizing that if CALM were to effectively serve Latina/o individuals and families, they needed bilingual/bicultural therapists who were fully dedicated to CALM. As a result, they let go of many of their part-time therapists and hired people whose primary focus was CALM and who were bilingual/bicultural. At the time, CALM's budget was about $250,000/year. -
CALM Hires a Bilingual Receptionist in Santa Barbara Office
Wanted to make sure the person answering the phones - the very first person people came in contact with - could answer in Spanish and in English -
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CALM Seeks State Funding Specifically to Serve Latina/o/x/e Community Members
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New Logo
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Continued Push to Hire Latina Interns & Therapists
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CALM Begins to Conduct "In-Home" Therapy Sessions
This is an important step forward in Cultural Proficiency: meeting people where they are instead of only providing services on-site. -
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CALM Launches Initiative to Serve Chumash Members of the Community
With a grant from the state office of Criminal Justice Planning (OCJP) CALM launched a program in collaboration with the Chumash Reservation in SYV. This challenging project involved Cultural training for CALM staff and prevention and therapy based on Native American traditions for Chumash children and families.
Faith Cavalier, part Native American, hired to oversee the project worked with Colombia Quintero on the initiative. -
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Living Wage Campaign
Anna joins the Santa Barbara Living Wage Committee, over the objections of the CALM Board, to represent CALM and try to encourage other Nonprofits to join and support the campaign. There was a lot of resistance among nonprofits to the campaign, fearing they could not afford it. Anna had committed sometime earlier to pay all CALM staff a living wage. -
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CALM Begins Providing Services in Lompoc
No office exists, so staff work from their cars. -
United Way's The Face of Caring Event - CALM Assistant Director Cecilia Rodriguez Attends
About 25 ED’s in attendance. Celia looks around the room and "it hit her like a block" that she was the only person of color. This was a seminal moment, where she realized she had to “walk her talk” about taking the risks of moving up in her career. She had not wanted to be ED, but felt she needed to push herself to apply for this job. Same time Obama was running for office. “If that black man is audacious enough to run for president of the US, I can do this little piddly job." -
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Laying the Foundation for CALM to Expand County-Wide
Cecilia Rodriguez and Anna Kokotovic begin doing forensic interviews in Santa Maria and realize there was no place to refer people to and no services for traumatized children. Utilized interpreters to interview Mixtec community members because they had no one on staff who could speak Mixtec. -
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Deepened Commitment to Cultural Relevance
Concerted effort to promote and develop people of color. Encourage and support them to return to school. Even encouraged and supported them to grow outside of the organization. Had a number of success stories.
Focus on making CALM a culturally inclusive environment, where Latina/o/x/e staff and clients can hear their home language spoken and where the smells out of CALM's kitchen were familiar. This is how Cecilia "sold" CALM to potential Latina/o/x/e staff. -
Cecilia Rodriguez becomes Executive Director of CALM
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CALM Opens a Santa Maria Office
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Heart Logo Adopted
Adopted in 2012. Exact date unknown. -
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Challenges with Board Diversity
During this time, it was very difficult to recruit and keep people on the board who would add diversity.
A Latino Board member was recruited but lasted only one term. Hard to be the only person of color. Didn’t feel comfortable or like he fit. Inclusion issues - especially around socio-economic class.
Recruited a young man to board but he was very unhappy, didn’t feel like he was taken seriously. -
"CALM fights child abuse, extends services to North County"
CALM moves into a new Santa Maria office as part of its commitment to expand services. The new office provides a bigger space with more therapy rooms, a reception area, and a more professional and permanent feel.
Headline from Santa Maria Times Article: https://santamariatimes.com/news/calm-fights-child-abuse-extends-services-to-north-county/article_10e15965-4018-58a7-b60c-b65967ee9ec1.html -
Cecilia Rodriguez Retires
Noozhawk Headline: "CALM CEO Prepares to Retire From Long-held Post After 31 years with nonprofit..."
During an interview in September 2021, to help with the creation of this timeline, Cecilia reflected on her time as ED and shared that it was sometimes hard as a woman of color ED to traverse the walk between the class and color difference of the board and the clients we serve. Celia loved her board, but shared that it can be tricky, at times feeling like a chameleon. -
Alana Walczak Hired as CEO of CALM
Recognizes a lack of diversity on the Board and strong diversity among the staff, but wondered about the level of inclusion and equity within the staff. -
CALM Drops "child abuse listening mediation" From Its Logo
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Beyond Names & Numbers: Building a Diverse, Inclusive, AND Effective Board of Directors
Just Communities is brought in to help the Board of Directors develop a common language around DEIJ issues and a sense of urgency for increasing their own levels of diversity and inclusion and supporting DEIJ as an organizational value. Judy Guillermo-Newton & Jarrod Schwartz facilitate the workshop. Outcomes: increased North County representation on the Board; DEIJ becoming part of the Strategic Plan/Guiding Principles; impacted Committee Goal-setting; Diversity goals for Board established. -
CALM Senior Management Team & Leadership Team Restructured
Adolfo Garcia becomes Director of Clinical Services (2018); Yvonne Nelson becomes Regional Manager, South County (2019); Gabriela Hanson Lopez becomes Regional Manager, South County (2019); and Rachel Hopsicker becomes Senior Manager, CQI & Doctoral Training (2019) -
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CALM Partners with Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians
To provide clinical services County-wide to Chumash families county-wide regardless of tribal affiliation -
Continued Work with Board to Link DEIJ Efforts to Strategic Plan
On-going support from Just Communities -
CALM Celebrates its 50th Anniversary
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Professional Interpretation for School-Based Services
CALM hires Bridging Voices-Uniendo Voces to provide professional interpretation for its School-Based Services -
DEIJ & Cultural Proficiency Training for Staff
Bridging Voices-Uniendo Voces (Lena Moran-Acereto) and Equity Praxis Group (Jarrod Schwartz) are brought in for a series of workshops with the full CALM staff and several Board representatives. Focus is on developing a common language and identifying DEI issues, concerns, strengths, gaps, needs, and opportunities. 09/22/21 & 09/9/21 -
DEIJ Training for CALM Board
Bridging Voices-Uniendo Voces (Lena Moran-Acereto) and Equity Praxis Group (Jarrod Schwartz) facilitate a workshop with the full CALM Board on developing a common language and identifying DEI issues, concerns, strengths, gaps, needs, and opportunities. -
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Compensation Overhaul
Hired external compensation consultant to assess compensation for competitiveness and equity issues. Looked at bilingual pay as an equity issue & how CALM paid differently for certain positions. -
Salary Increases Budgeted
CALM adds $500,000 to budget to support salary increases, mostly for base rates. -
DEIJ Committee Charter Established
CALM’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Justice (DEIJ) Committee will work closely with CALM’s Senior Management Team (SMT) to guide the organization’s strategic efforts related to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. The Committee will guide and inform these efforts, and recommendations made by the Committee will be reviewed by CALM’s SMT for consideration and implementation.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u7bADMhvc2elFarM-nYqLfEE3J6FG4f1/edit -
Inaugural DEIJ Committee Meeting
CALM's first official Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Justice Committee holds its first meeting.