Los Prietos Boys Camp Scholarship Program

 

The Rotary Scholarship program for juvenile boys and girls under court supervision was initiated 19 years ago by Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Timothy J. Staffel and Senior Deputy Probation Officer Jim Clark as a way to provide scholarship stipends to the young men detained at the Los Prietos Camp facility in a way that would greatly assist their personal development into productive members of society. In 2013 the scholarship program was expanded to include the Theresa & Richard Brody Scholarship program, a female component to provide educational and vocational assistance to young women in the juvenile court system. The scholarship program is jointly sponsored by the Goleta Noontime and Santa Maria Breakfast Rotary Clubs.

 

The program offers stipends to boys sentenced to the Los Prietos Boys Camp, the juvenile detention facility operated by the Santa Barbara County Probation Department and to girls placed under probation supervision by the Court.

 

Since the inception of these programs in 2000, approximately $90,000 in scholarship proceeds have been awarded to more than 150 individual recipients. Goleta Noontime Club member Michael Bennett, serves as the Goleta program liaison.

 

The program is structured so that $500 stipends per recipient are placed into a special fund with the Santa Barbara County Probation Department which then administers payments from the fund to pay education and vocational expenses directly to the vendor of those educational/ vocational services to assist the scholarship recipients.  The criterion for the expenditure of the funds to assist the recipient is left to the discretion of the Probation Department. Items funded have included tuition, books, apprentice laborer fees, tools, contractor union card membership and other items that the Probation Department determines will assist in the pursuit of an educational or vocational goal.

 

The program has been directed by Senior Deputy Probation Officer Jim Clark (now retired) since its inception.  Mr. Clark has been awarded two Paul Harris Fellows, which is the Rotary Club’s highest honor, in recognition of his leadership of making a difference in youthful offenders’ lives by giving them the skills and confidence to turn their lives around and become productive members of society.

 

“We’ve had tremendous success with this program since it first began, it has provided the financial means to fund educational and vocational assistance to individuals who are given an opportunity to demonstrate that they can become responsible adults,” said Mr. Clark.

 

The connection between the Santa Maria and Goleta Rotary Clubs is strong. In addition to years of involvement in the scholarship program and other projects, each club has dedicated its scholarship program to individuals who have a long association with the Los Prietos Boys Camp and Rotary.  The late Dr. William Tibbs, a long time member of the Santa Maria Breakfast Club, was the Los Prietos Boys Camp physician for many years. Theresa Brody, the late wife of Goleta Noontime member, Richard Brody, served as the Registered Nurse at Los Prietos for many years.  Each of them held a fervent belief that the boys assigned to the Camp deserved an opportunity to demonstrate that given a chance, they could succeed. The Rotary Clubs of Santa Maria and Goleta proudly fund these programs each year in their honor.

 

The Rotary Scholarship program has been strongly supported over the years by Presiding Juvenile Court Judge, Arthur Garcia, who presents the awards and offers a message of hope and encouragement.