Hillside House Hosts 2nd Annual “Friend-raiser”
The Hillside House organization held its 2nd Annual “Friend-raiser” event to bring their work out to the community in an open program event on Sunday afternoon, October 29, at the Carousel House at Chase Palm Park.
There were mini-info tables all around the rotunda with staff members providing information on the various programs of the center. At the event were President & CEO Michael S. Rassler, Director of Operations Gail Metzger, Director of Programming Quinn McCormick, Administrator Rosemary Rice, Chief Development Officer Cheryl Sweeney, Development Assistant Elizabeth Arendt, and Marketing and Events Manager Angela De Bruyn.Also mingling with guests were Board Vice-Chair Norris Goss, and board member Hady Izadpanah with his wife, Jana. There was live music and refreshments.
The attendance of CA Assembly Member (37th Dist.) Gregg Hart was widely welcomed by the organization as his support is important to their latest proposal on the books – Hillside’s Community Project. The website states this project “will transform our model of care by creating a new, integrated, mixed-abilities neighborhood on our property – the first of its kind in the Santa Barbara area. A key component of this initiative is building homes, town homes, and apartments for seniors and the general public, alongside residents’ new state-of-the-art, adaptive homes.”
It will also support Hillside’s financial future. In discussing this with Hart, De Bruyn and myself, Goss asked Hart for his support to get it approved at the State level, as it is still pending approval by the Department of Social Security, which deals with institutional housing. She pitched, “The former model of building large institutional housing for disabled people is ‘so passé.’ Our project will build actual house-like structures that have six apartments in them, so the people will be in actual homes. This supports the quality of life for them. We’ve made the changes the neighboring community has asked of us, now we just need the support at the State level to get it done.”
Hart agreed and promised he would act on it. He mentioned that his CA Assembly Bill, AB 590, was signed by Governor Newsom on October 8, who wrote, “I am signing Assembly Bill 590, which authorizes state agencies that administer grants to or contracts with nonprofit organizations to advance a payment of up to 25 percent of the total grant or contract amount awarded to the nonprofit organization, subject to specified eligibility, reporting, and accounting requirements.”
Hillside House’s residences are 100% live-in and include day programs on site and in the community. Residents come from the tri-county area of Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo by referral who have developmental disabilities, including intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, autism, and epilepsy.
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