Read a featured story about the program in The Current.
Community in Action
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
The IHC Community in Action program is designed to reinforce in K-12 students a key component of participatory democracy: the right, power, and ability of all citizens–understood in the broadest sense–to shape the stories that represent the shared public history and identity of their local community. To do so, each summer the IHC runs a workshop for educators from across the Santa Barbara Unified School District. Working with UCSB humanities Ph.D. students, the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, and, beginning in summer 2025, the UCSB Library, the K-12 teachers gather for a three-day professional development workshop in the summer. They engage in research around a local monument, annual celebration, or work of public art to understand how it reflects the entangled histories of the diverse communities that inhabit Santa Barbara and the Central Coast region.They then use their research to develop lesson plans for their classrooms in the upcoming school year.
In 2023 and 2024, the workshop was The Making of Monuments. It was organized around the statue of Carlos III, King of Spain, installed at the El Presidio de Santa Bárbara State Historic Park in downtown Santa Barbara. 4th-6th grade teachers developed lesson plans that prepared their students for a field trip to the Presidio, where they viewed the statue and discussed all they had learned. Read more about the program here.
This year, the IHC Community in Action program welcomes the UCSB Library as its newest partner. In this year’s upcoming summer workshop, Finding Fiesta, junior high and high school teachers will examine the celebration of the City’s cultural heritage during Old Spanish Days – Fiesta. They will conduct research into the history of the official celebration as well as into the diverse forms of local community festivities that have not been a central part of the official program. This year’s program includes planning for a public exhibition to be based on classroom projects. The exhibition will be displayed at the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation during Old Spanish Days – Fiesta 2026.