Coming Together, Again

Originally published as a guest commentary in the Santa Cruz Sentinel on March 30, 2025.

Over the past five years, we’ve learned how to navigate successive disasters in Santa Cruz County. We fill sandbags, dig ditches, clear fallen trees, clean up debris, distribute food, and help folks cover critical expenses when they are out of work due to shutdowns, floods, storms, and fires. We mobilize to evacuate seniors and medically fragile people. We translate public health information into Spanish, Mixteco, and other indigenous languages. We travel with disaster survivors down the long road of rebuilding or relocating.

We've also prepared for disaster to reduce harm caused by sudden and drastic changes to our daily lives. We've minimized fire fuels in the mountains, helped build retaining walls to guard against debris flow, ensured adequate flow for emergency water, and fire hardened homes. Now, a different kind of storm is on the horizon—one we don’t have a forecast for. But we know that nonprofits across the country and here in Santa Cruz County are continuing to accomplish their missions and serve neighbors as they adjust to shifting federal policies and budget uncertainties.

Local nonprofits provide essential services to support the health and well-being of youth, seniors, and families. Our arts and culture organizations fuel much needed joy and connection to the world around us. And our local environmental nonprofits work to protect our precious region and promote equitable access to the outdoors.

We can each do our part by giving what we can to help local nonprofits prepare for these changes. Let’s focus on generosity in all its forms—donating dollars, volunteering our time, listening with attention and kindness. Please consider the following ways you can help.

GIVE LOCALLY. Local nonprofits address the specific, unique needs of our community. By giving locally, you deepen your sense of connection to the well-being of those around you and help build a community that recognizes our interconnection and cares for each other. As the federal government delays or cancels food shipments to food banks, supporting Second Harvest—and their partner food pantries in almost every neighborhood in our county — will help combat local food insecurity and hunger.

GIVE FLEXIBLY. Providing flexible, unrestricted funding allows nonprofits to remain responsive, resilient, and effective in their work. As health care for low-income communities is jeopardized by potential federal cuts to Medicaid, local providers like Santa Cruz Community Health, Dientes, Salud Para La Gente, and Planned Parenthood Mar Monte need general operating support to meet the needs of their patients.

GIVE REGULARLY. Consider making your gifts monthly to provide a reliable source of income and allow organizations to meet immediate needs while still planning for the future. The recent lifting of environmental protections, freezing of funding for the arts, and cuts to staffing at the Department of Health and Human Services directly affect local organizations working in environmental education and conservation, arts and culture, and senior services. Additionally, LGBTQ+ serving organizations like The Diversity Center need consistent funding to provide comprehensive support, including multi-generational mental health resources and programs.

GIVE COLLECTIVELY. You can pool your generosity with others by giving to community funds stewarded by the Foundation. The Supporting Immigrants Fund helps with ongoing efforts to educate, protect, and serve immigrant families in Santa Cruz County. The Greatest Needs Fund enables us to quickly respond to our community’s most critical and emerging needs by providing grants to trusted nonprofit partners who can do the most good right now.

Thanks to our community’s generosity, we come together again and again to make Santa Cruz County a place where we help each other, protect our landscapes and watersheds, and nourish our arts community as it nourishes us. Again and again, we take heart that there are places in our county where we come together across political divides, putting aside opinions and rhetoric. Because at the end of the day, we are neighbors, and we care about each other as we take care of each other. Thank you.

Photo caption: Jacob Martinez, Founder and CEO of Digital NEST and Cat Willis, Founder of Tannery World Dance & Cultural Center and Santa Cruz County Black Health Initiative