March 10, 2025 at 12:36 pm by Grace Medecki
Local organizations came together last week with one joint mission: beautify Isla Vista. Joined by UC Santa Barbara students and community members, volunteers and event organizers redeveloped areas of Isla Vista through art, gardening and cleanups.
Each day, volunteers tackled a different aspect of I.V.to enhance community well-being. Courtesy of Sydney Castañeda
Isla Vista Community Services District (IVCSD), the non-profit Habitat for Humanity (HFH) of Southern Santa Barbara County and the Edible Campus Program (ECP) collaborated last week to host the first ever Community Care Project to beautify Isla Vista. From Feb. 22 to March 2, volunteers organized every day at four sites throughout I.V., including Saint Michael’s University Church, Greek Park, Friendship Manor and the utility boxes in front of Tropicana Del Norte.
Each day, volunteers tackled a different aspect of I.V. to enhance community well-being. Approximately 300 volunteers worked on different events throughout the week, according to an IVCSD press release. These events included packing hygiene supplies and socks in resource kits for distribution to the unhoused population, building composting stations, Adopt-A-Block and mural painting.
“We were so glad we were able to coalesce our volunteers over the last nine days to achieve all these amazing impacts that we are celebrating today,” Susan Renehan, the HFH’s director of philanthropy and external affairs, said.
According to Renehan, the project was made possible by a grant received in November from the Alice Tweed Tuohy Foundation. The funding helped the organizers of the Community Care Project purchase building supplies and materials needed for the beautification process.
Renehan said this specific project has been part of the nonprofit’s program for neighborhood revitalization. She said this includes neighborhood clean-ups, helping people restore public areas and creating safe and walkable neighborhoods. Seeing the opportunity for community building and beautification in Isla Vista, she said HFH wanted to implement this in the Community Care Project.
“We encourage our volunteers to come together to assist in projects like this to make our communities more enjoyable,” Renehan said. “When people get to know each other while working on a volunteer project, they don’t just accomplish something beautiful, but get to accomplish something as neighbors.”
IVCSD Assistant General Manager Sydney Castañeda reported in a press release to the Daily Nexus that volunteers collected 57 buckets of trash. These efforts were made through the Adopt-A-Block and Sweep the Streets events that were included in the Community Care Project.
The project has been in the works since November, when HFH and the ECP first approached the Isla Vista Recreation & Park District (IVRPD) to get the project off the ground, according to General Manager Kimberly Kiefer. She saw it as a way to improve one area the IVRPD had ambitions for: the volleyball courts at Greek Park.
“Our budget is pretty limited, so we thought when this opportunity came up, one of the things we could do would be to add better volleyball sand to the courts,” she said. “We were able to receive funding through Habitat for Humanity to purchase specialized volleyball sand for our courts so that they are much easier to play on.”
While the IVRPD has been focused on part-time stewardship, the broader focus of this project was able to help broaden the scope of their work, she said.
Courtesy of Sydney Castañeda
Her department provided the three organizers with information about the areas of greatest need in Isla Vista. The IVRPD hoped to address areas such as volleyball courts, where students could enjoy a new space that they created together.
“I think it’s really important in this day and age that people understand what goes into maintaining public space. You can’t do it alone. You have to do it with volunteers and professionals. People that want to give back to the land are so important,” Kiefer said.
Saint Michael’s University Church offered its space for many of the events included in the Community Care Project. They offered their community garden and church space to the organization to hold events, including the Community Block Party. Members from the church on Picasso Road got involved in the work as well.
Vicar Chaplain of Saint Michael’s University Church Tim Black said that he and other members of the church joined in activities such as shoveling dirt and building boxes for the community gardens. The church also donated redwood for the community garden and gave the space for the three organizers of the Community Care Project to hold events.
“I don’t want to leave this space empty,” Black said. “It’s a beautiful church and people ought to do something with it.”
Black emphasized that he wants to continue community-building efforts and building partnerships with these organizations in the future.
“I feel like with God’s help, the very talented congregation I have and the relationships that we are building in the community, I believe there’s a lot that’s going to reveal itself to us,” he said.
IVCSD Community Programs and Engagement Director Myah Mashhadialireza said she looks forward to continuing the Isla Vista Community Care Project.
“We want to do all of Isla Vista, one block at a time,” Mashhadialireza said. “We are starting with neighborhoods that have a lot of intersection in the community. Whether that be intergenerational, different cultural and interfaith groups and building out from there.”
While she says that her department is focused on continuing beautification in Isla Vista specifically, she hopes that government and local entities can continue this work in surrounding counties as well.
“I just love the idea of bringing the community together through any circumstance. Whether it be celebrating each other, supporting improvements to your community or just trying to give back in some way,” Mashhadialireza said. “It’s just so beautiful, the outcome of this, and it’s just something the whole neighborhood can enjoy.”
A version of this article appeared on p. 7 of the March 6, 2025 edition of the Daily Nexus.
