Community Service

At Providence Hall we view service as integral to our life as Christians. We endeavor to carry out the biblical principle of stewardship of our time, talent, and resources in service to others in the larger Santa Barbara community and beyond. “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12:48). 

Students are encouraged to examine their hearts, interests, and gifts and match these with needs in the community. Most of our students give time to one or more of these local agencies: tutoring at Notre Dame or Cesar Chavez, Alpha Resource Centerʼs Teen Extreme, the Unity Shoppe, serving lunch for the Blind, Hearts Adaptive Riding, and Transition House.

Providence Hall also empowers students to recognize that God can use them (their specific talents, gifts, abilities, and passions) to positively impact the world through service in the Talents Project. Students work in teams to identify a need in the world in which they can use their talents to meet that need. Students then write a business plan to gain the financial support needed to fulfill this need. The project culminates in their senior year when students take a trip to complete the project and celebrate what God has done in and through their lives.

The Talents Project promotes student leadership. To successfully complete the project, students use leadership skills such as goal setting, creative thinking, problem solving, organizing, fund raising, budgeting, public speaking, and managing time to benefit other people. Students have the opportunity to be entrepreneurs as they plan this project. These skills will help them in whatever career path they choose.