At SBCS, we’ve never been afraid of a challenge. In fact, our organization was founded in order to address our community’s most daunting and persistent issues head-on, a longstanding commitment we continue to uphold through our work every day, now more than 50 years later.

Still, as we celebrated our 50^th anniversary of strengthening communities in 2021, the year brought us challenges that tested our strength and our capacity. I’m proud to say that our dedicated staff rose to the occasion and delivered the programs and services our community needed.

Among many highlights of 2021, a few stand out;

• Our reach: In 2021 not only did we serve more children, youth and families than ever before; we served them more frequently.
• Rental assistance protected families: In 2021, our team at SBCS distributed $34,969,285 in rent and utility assistance through Chula Vista Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) in partnership with the City of Chula Vista, as well as the state and federal governments.
• SBCS served over 3,000 migrant youth at the Convention Center, reuniting 2,408 with family and friends within the US.
• We fed our neighbors: In 2021 we increased our weekly food distribution ten-fold in order to meet the surging need for nutritional assistance due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

These numbers are a testament to what we can accomplish as we continue to address the needs of our most vulnerable neighbors, as we look towards a stronger and more resilient future.

As we look forward to a new year, we’re grateful for the strong, collaborative relationships, both new and longstanding, that we strengthened and expanded over the past year. We’re also looking forward to a big project that will expand our capacity to serve our community; in 2022 we will begin work on our new agency headquarters. We have much work to do and many positive milestones ahead!

Thank you to the staff, partners, and community members who made our successes in 2021 possible and cheers to all we will build together in 2022.

Happy New Year,

Kathryn Lembo

President and CEO

SBCS