Children’s Resource & Referral of Santa Barbara County is a nonprofit organization established in 1970 as a mobile parent/ child workshop delivered at local parks in the city of Santa Barbara. Through the Adult Education Division of the Santa Barbara City College, a teacher and teacher’s aid offered an outdoor preschool experience to Latino children while parents participated in parenting classes. Speakers were invited to provide information on Early Care and Development as well as information on community resources that support families.

In 1971, the First United Methodist Church of Santa Barbara offered church space to continue the program and a highly innovative parent/child preschool program was formally developed and evaluated with funds from a Federal Demonstration Grant. The resulting program incorporated and grew into the existing Children’s Resource & Referral of Santa Barbara County, literally a “grass roots” nonprofit organization.