Community Affairs Board
Introduction
Starting the school year in Fall, one of the best ways to become involved in campus life and community service is by checking out Associated Students Community Affairs Board. CAB is an on campus, student run non-profit organization that is dedicated to connecting students with volunteer opportunities. CAB members or “CABbies”, help to enhance the educational experience of all UCSB students by providing information and easy access to community service work. Through a wide range of projects and community programs, CAB seeks to augment classroom experiences, create opportunities for career exploration, connect UCSB to the community in a meaningful way, and promote the ethics of public service. Many of these project are ongoing from year to year and they can be found on the CAB website. Here in Flashback, you’ll find some projects that illustrate the range of community service experiences CAB provides.
Living the CAB Life on Tumblr
CABbies are talking on Tumblr! You can now keep up with where CAB participants are doing their work and having fun — often one and the same when it comes to volunteering and serving our communities! Check it out by clicking here.
Spring Break Volunteer Trip
Each Winter and Spring Break CAB invites students to spend a week volunteering somewhere outside California. In past years this has taken students to New Orleans to be part of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts and Florida. This Spring 14 enthusiastic student volunteers traveled to Tucson to work at the Tucson Wildlife Center and Hoofprints of the Heart Horse Sanctuary. They spent 4 longs days weeding, cleaning up poop, cleaning out mouse poop covered sheds, and burning up in the dry heat. And at the end of it all, everyone came out with smiles on their faces and new friendships! Volunteer leader Kori ??? had this to say about the week’s endeavors: “This was my second time leading an alternative break trip and I always am so inspired by the participants who are willing to do any job or task thrown at us and they do it wholeheartedly. I felt like a proud mama :).”
Volunteer Week and Festival
During the week of April 29 to May 3, CAB celebrated volunteers with a variety of events.
The week was capped off Friday with the CAB Volunteer Week Festival, which included free T-shirts for the first 100 attendees,
First 100 attendees get free shirts, a live DJ, ice cream, pancakes/waffles, fruit kabobs, a photo booth, games, prizes, and performances by: Vocal Motion, ITO Dance Team, and The Fire Department. It all took place on the Lagoon Lawn!
You Matter!
Each quarter before finals CAB hosts You Matter! The event is basically about having folks feel good about themselves. It includes opportunities to be creative, relaxing massages, and encouragement to help students do well on their upcoming finals!
Care Expo
Once again this year CAB hosted the Care Expo in Corwin Pavilion. The event invites local and national non-profit organizations to provide information for students. It is both a career fair for work in the non-profit sector and a way for student to find out about volunteer opportunities. Ultimately, it’s about encouraging community service as a lifelong practice.
Sandra Fluke Speaks
In partnership with the UCSB Departments of Sociology and Feminist Studies, Womyn’s Commission, Take Back the Night, and the External Vice President, Local Affairs, Community Affairs Board, co-sponsored a talk by women’s rights activist Sandra Fluke. The The daughter of a conservative Christian pastor, Sandra Fluke, 31, became a women’s-rights activist in college and continued her advocacy as a law student at Georgetown. In February 2012, after being denied a chance to testify at a Republican-run House hearing on insurance coverage for birth control, Rush Limbaugh called Fluke a “slut.” Democrats and many Republicans reacted with outrage, and the left made Limbaugh’s slur Exhibit A in what they called a GOP “war on women.” Fluke, meanwhile, weathered the attention with poise and maturity and emerged as a political celebrity. In 2012, Democrats turned the national spotlight on Fluke again by giving her a national-convention speaking slot as part of their push to make reproductive rights a central issue in the presidential campaign.
Sandra Fluke joined the Women, Gender, and Sexual Equity Department and the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee for a presentation on February 28th at 7:30 pm at Campbell Hall to discuss what’s next in the political war on women and how women of all ages can stay energized and active now that the election is over. The lecture was open to students, faculty, staff and community members.
Make Your Own Granola Bars and Trail Mix Workshops
In collaboration with the A.S. Commission on Student Wellbeing (COSWB), Food Bank, Environmental Affairs Board, Health and Wellness Interns, and Student Food Collective, CAB co-sponsored a free food demo on how to make granola bars using just a few healthy ingredients. Before Winter Quarter finals they also co-hosted a make your own trail mix gathering in front of Davidson Library.
Lean on Me
CAB cohosted an evening “Lean on Me” program with A.S. Finance Board during Spring Quarter.
Many students, staff, and faculty at UCSB have dedicated themselves to the service of others and to serve as leaders of their organizations, departments, and a variety of groups.
This service bears with it immense responsibility and it is crucial to remain engaged with not only each other but also with themselves.
The Lean On Me program provided participants time to not only recenter their core, but also to connect with the core of others, and in essence with the core values of UCSB. Lean on Me was an evening dedicated to APPRECIATION. It was an opportunity for leaders to be uplifted and re-centered in order to continue to do GREAT community work.
The evening included a fully catered dinner and a keynote address by Dr. Calvin Mackie, whose biography can be found at: http://www.channelzro.com/
Chilla Vista
CAB worked with IVCRC to produce IVCRC’s biggest public event of the year, the annual Chilla Vista festival in Anisq ‘Oyo’ Park. The festival is a celebration of all things IV. Over 20 campus and local organizations staffed information tables and there was music all day.
L.A. based Radical Something headlined, while Adventure Dogs and Ultraviolet also gave the event a rockin’ groove playing on the solar powered stage, with Program Board Special Events Assistant Chris Cubbison manning the mixing board .
The IV Food Coop gave out free fresh produce and scoops of Luna & Larry’s Organic Bliss Vanilla ice-cream, but only if attendees participated in games at the various information tables.
In the words of IVCRC External Chair and event organizer Elizabeth Akman, as quoted in the Daily Nexus, “It was a great turnout. All the bands were really great. We started out a little late, but it wasn’t really an issue. Most of the day went pretty smoothly.” Smooth indeed and very very chill!
Isla Vista GIVE Drive
As a fitting end to a year of serving the IV community, several A.S. groups, including CAB, CAB Foundation, IVCRC, Business Services Committee, Finance Board, and IVTU, participated in the annual IV GIVE drive.
The event, which is also sponsored by GIVE Isla Vista, Housing & Residential Services, Office of Student Life, Marborg Disposal, Inc., Goodwill Industries, and The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF), is the culmination of a week of collecting items ranging from furniture to non-perishable foods from students moving out at the end of the year. These items are sold and all proceeds benefit local community service agencies. Items left over from the sale are donated to local community service organizations.
The food goes to stock the shelves of the A.S. Food Bank. This year GIVE raised $37,260.24. 138 volunteers worked 1,314.5 hours collecting about 30 tons of student donations.
This included over 1289 pounds of food for the A.S. Food Bank, and hundreds of pounds of E-waste for A.S. Recycling. 100% of the proceeds were distributed to 14 IV community non-profits, including:
Adopt-a-Block Program: Isla Vista Recreation & Park District
Associated Students Food Bank
Breakfast Optimist Club of Goleta
Isla Vista Elementary School Science Camp Scholarship Fund
Isla Vista Initiatives Fund, i.e. Isla Vista Community Network
Isla Vista Teen Center
Isla Vista/UCSB Liaison Scholarship Fund at the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara
Isla Vista Youth Projects
Optimist Club @ UCSB
St. Brigid Outreach Program
Santa Barbara Student Housing Coop
St. Michael and All Angels Church
THRIVE Isla Vista
Viva el Arte de Santa Barbara/Isla Vista