Community Engagement
The Initative is leading a comprehensive community engagement effort to support a resilient and equitable future for the Goleta Slough. Working with local partners and Tribal communities to engage residents, stakeholders, and organizations, this work centers community ownership, builds trust, and elevates local knowledge to identify values, needs, and priorities that can inform a resilient and equitable future for the Goleta Slough and surrounding coastal area.
Through workshops, listening sessions, surveys, and public events, this effort builds shared understanding of climate impacts and elevates community priorities to inform actionable, community-driven projects. Special emphasis is placed on reaching underserved and disadvantaged communities through accessible, culturally responsive, and flexible engagement approaches.
Resources
Learn more about the Initiative, the goals of RCC and its local partners, and the approach to advancing resilience implementation in the Santa Barbara Coastal area.
This plan will identify local community members, businesses, non-profits, government officials, and tribal entities to understand their needs, challenges, and dream for the future to inform a shared vision for a more resilient Goleta Slough.
See who the Initiative team has engaged with since the project began in October 2024. This is a living directory, that is updated frequently. If you would like to speak with the team, or think someone is missing from this list, please contact us.
Coming soon!
Meetings & Events
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RCC and partners has met virtually with an array of stakeholder groups with diverse priorities throughout the region, including:
GSMC Quarterly Meetings
SLR Subcommittee Monthly Meetings
Isla Vista Community Services District Meeting — January 12, 2026
Equity Advisory Subcommittee Meeting — December 3, 2026
Meeting with Santa Barbara County's Regional Area Grantmakers Association — December 8, 2025
Meeting with Friends of the Santa Clara River — December 5, 2025
Watershed Alliance Meeting — November 21, 2025
Environmental Defense Council Meeting — September 15, 2025
Tribal Engagement Coordination Meeting — September 11, 2025
Strategic Earth Meeting — September 4, 2025
Coastal Chumash Foundation Meeting — July 16, 2025
BeachSMART / Flood Control Meeting — May 16, 2025
Meeting with Supervisor Capps’ Office — May 7, 2025
Meeting with LoryAnn Velez — May 7, 2025
Coastal Chumash Foundation Meeting — May 6, 2025
Meeting with County Parks — May 5, 2025
Promotores Meeting — April 14, 2025
Meeting with LoryAnn Velez — February 24, 2025
Meeting with CA Department of Fish and Wildlife — February 13, 2025
Meeting with City of Santa Barbara Planning Department — February 10, 2026
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The Goleta Slough Management Committee's (GSMC) Resilience Working Group gathered to review and advise on the progress of the Goleta Slough Area Coastal Resilience Project. Working group members discussed the preliminary findings of the plan review, sharing what resonates, what differs from expectations, and what might be missing. The group also participated in a session to collaboratively envision a more resilient region in 30 years and identify current and future projects to achieve that long-term vision.
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RCC, with support from local partners, Tidal Influence, UCSB, and Heal the Ocean hosted their first public workshop on Tuesday, October 14th from 5:30-7pm at the Goleta Community Center, 5679 Hollister Avenue. The event launched the development of a shared vision to advance coastal resilience for communities and systems across the Goleta Slough in the face of increased impacts of climate change and other challenges. The workshop provided an overview of coastal resilience and the complex Goleta Slough ecosystem and engaged attendees in interactive activities for gathering inputs and ideas, elevating priorities for the region, envisioning a resilient future for the slough and its surrounding assets like Goleta Beach and the Santa Barbara Airport, and identifying how climate change and environmental considerations related to the Slough may impact local communities.
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Building resilience along a coastline requires profound collaboration between jurisdictions, landowners, residents, and more. The south coast of the Santa Barbara region is no exception—there is a complex web of actors who must be engaged and empowered to contribute to more resilient natural and human landscapes. In response to the multiple efforts seeking to address coastal resilience challenges in the region, including the Goleta Slough Coastal Resilience Project Acceleration, the BEACHSMART Regional Sediment Management Project, the UCSB Shoreline Adaptation Project, and the Santa Barbara Airport Climate Adaptation Plan, project leads introduced their projects, identified the challenges and opportunities within the built and natural environments that the projects are responding to, and highlighted the geographic and tactical synergies between the efforts. The project goals are varied, spanning from elevating a pipeline of prioritized resilience projects to exploring opportunities to reuse sediment to adapting infrastructure to sea level rise and coastal erosion. These projects are seeking to model a collaborative approach, sharing learnings and building on one another to get more out of the work. Their presentations followed with an interactive activity that engaged the audience in visioning for the region and gave them the opportunity to provide perspective and feedback to inform the direction of the projects.
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On December 9, the California State Coastal Conservancy facilitated an in-person meeting with Santa Barbara–area Chumash community members to learn about and discuss multiple coastal resilience and climate adaptation projects underway across the region. The event included presentations from project leads, and was followed by an open-house discussion to ask questions, share perspectives, and explore opportunities for ongoing involvement.
In addition to the resources shared under each event, you can access our general catalog of resources for all meetings.