For the last several years, the Council’s Ad Hoc Goleta Community Center Subcommittee has focused on management alternatives for the Community Center. As part of that effort, in 2020 the City contracted with a consultant to conduct a facilitated stakeholder and public outreach process to better understand the community’s desires for programming at the Community Center and to discuss how the facility can best meet those needs. The consultant’s report recommended the creation of a strategic plan for the Goleta Community Center through a process guided by a small working group of stakeholders.
On February 24, 2022, staff returned to the City Council and proposed to work with the Ad Hoc Committee to develop a Request for Proposals (RFP) for professional facilitation of a Strategic Planning Process, and the creation and implementation a Strategic Plan.
At the April 8, 2022, Ad Hoc Committee meeting, staff received direction to release the RFP for a Community Center Strategic Plan. Staff released the RFP on April 25, 2022, and on May 31, 2022, the City received three proposals. Staff conducted a comprehensive review of all three proposals, interviewed consultants, conducted reference checks and recommended a consultant team for award of the contract at the July 25, 2022, Ad Hoc Committee meeting. The contract for the Strategic Planning Process was awarded on September 6, 2022.
The process of creating a strategic plan for the Community Center spanned seven months and involved numerous workshops of a working group of community leaders, a citywide survey, a student survey, and a provider survey. The completed plan, adopted by the City Council on April 18, 2023, establishes a vision for the GCC as a “welcoming, safe, inclusive, and accessible place where everyone can go to gather, learn, and play” guiding its purpose in the community over the short- and long-term. The mission for the GCC recommended in the Strategic Plan is to provide “programs, services, activities, and a safe space for social, cultural, educational and recreational offerings in an inclusive and welcoming way.”
The Plan outlines specific steps that will be taken to reach identified goals to achieve that vision. It also sets the expectations for future management and purpose of the GCC, defining operational strategies and tactics, aligned with established City policies and procedures.
The Plan identifies five overarching goals to achieve the proposed vision. The five goals have a total of 14 objectives, 25 strategies, and 98 tactics which guide specific actions that will be implemented over a three- to five-year period. Upon completion of all seismic and ADA construction and when the GCC is fully reopened, it is expected that the operator would then begin to carry out elements of the plan over the following three- to five-year period. View the final plan here.
