Support Us!

Thanks to you, our supporters, Families ACT! is changing the way people with complex mental health conditions are treated in Santa Barbara County.

Our staff, advocates and board have been able to effectively ACT- to Advocate for Compassionate Treatment - in ways that are helping to transform both our criminal justice and our behavioral health systems.

 In 2016 Families ACT!
 -Helped our County Behavioral Wellness department admit it to the County Board of Supervisors that it needed hundreds more treatment beds and supportive housing units for mental health clients. - Persuaded Santa Barbara County to create a new Grievance Coordinator position to oversee the unmet health-related needs of inmates in our jail.

 - Inspired Sheriff Brown to create a Community Corrections Input Committee to help the new Jail Health Grievance Coordinator improve jail health.

 - Provide the impetus for Disabilities Rights California to inspect our jail, issue a ground-breaking report, and initiate long-overdue reforms in how people with mental and physical disabilities are being treated in our jail.

 - Received funding from the Santa Barbara Foundation to create a pilot project that enables friends and families who are visiting their loved ones in jail to report health-related concerns on their behalf. 

- Worked with NAMI to implement a Laura’s Law Trial to reach out to the most severely ill people on our streets and in our community.

-Trained a dozen people with lived experience to become effective advocates for innovative, effective and compassionate alternatives to the “revolving door” of repeated incarcerations, ER visits and periods of homelessness for people with mental health conditions.

-Provided the opportunity for dozens of family members to help each other navigate a patchwork of services to help their loved ones recover their health.

Please help us to continue to work with the Sheriff and Behavioral Wellness departments, and to extend our influence to law enforcement in 2017. With your help, we will continue to transform our streets, our cities and our entire county to a place where people with mental health conditions can live with dignity, self-respect and well being.

Families ACT! does more with less. We don’t need an expensive office, as our meeting space is donated. Your tax-deductible donations go directly into service and advocacy and are paying off big-time for our community.

Please give generously so that we can continue our invaluable work!

To make a tax-deductible donation to Families ACT! Click the DONATE NOW button on the homepage or send a check made out to Families ACT to PO Box 2152, Santa Barbara, CA 93120 

Thanks for all our supporters!