About
Wide Horizon is dedicated to building better lives for children in Santa Barbara through tutoring, mentoring, and training in the arts and aviation. These children have transitioned from homelessness, and this support is invaluable. Children who are struggling with personal and academic challenges can get the help they need. Our program is now in its eighth year. We started with four years of summer camp with children from Transition House, and for the past four years, we have provided year-round services to twelve children who now range in age from twelve to eighteen years old.
Our tutors and learning specialists work one-on-one to strengthen academic skills and to develop broader life skills including perseverance, attention, and self-esteem. Trusting relationships help the students to flourish.
Mentors and teachers inspire children to dream big. Artists, dancers, and pilots build the children’s confidence and foster creative and interpersonal skills. The words of Eleanor Roosevelt have given us our camp motto, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” The key to the long-term success of these children is a sense of engagement with the world and its promise.
Our tutors and learning specialists work one-on-one to strengthen academic skills and to develop broader life skills including perseverance, attention, and self-esteem. Trusting relationships help the students to flourish.
Mentors and teachers inspire children to dream big. Artists, dancers, and pilots build the children’s confidence and foster creative and interpersonal skills. The words of Eleanor Roosevelt have given us our camp motto, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” The key to the long-term success of these children is a sense of engagement with the world and its promise.
Testimonial
My name is Anna. When I was a child, my family was going through a really tough time. My family was new to the United States, did not speak English, and we did not have anyone. My parents had a difficult time finding work and a safe place to live. We ended up at Transition House. I was confused. While at Transition House I met Linda who ran a program. I slowly started to attend the events. I never had an opportunity to participate in activities like painting, dance, tutoring, or field trips. They saw something special in me....something I did not see in myself.
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The Wide Horizon Team
Linda Locker
Linda Locker is Director of Wide Horizon. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of California Los Angeles and her Master of Arts in Special Education from California State University Dominguez Hills. Linda served as an Educational Specialist for a Title 1 Chicago Regional Program developing interventions for students with special needs. Later, she worked as an Educational Therapist in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara for many years teaching reading, math, and study skills to students with learning disabilities with a focus on building their self-esteem, attention, and resilience. Her desire to help homeless children succeed in school led to her founding a tutoring program for Wide Horizon, a unique summer program for children transitioning from homelessness. The camp engaged the students in tutoring and enrichment activities in the community. She became Director of the camp, and later she expanded the program to year-round services for these students. The program, now called Wide Horizon, has at is core Linda’s mission to empower these students to fulfill their potential in school and to realize their dreams for a successful future.
Annabel Meza
Annabel Meza was born and raised in East Los Angeles. She graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and a Master of Education along with a multi-subject teaching credential. She is a teacher at Adelante Charter School and a Cooperating Teacher for the UCSB Teaching Education Program. Annabel loves working with youth of all ages, but she feels the most gratification working with at-risk youth since she had a similar background. In her tutoring position at Wide Horizon, she feels fulfilled seeing growth and success in her students.
Brandi Freeman, MA, MFT
Brandi Freeman, MA, MFT is an Educational Therapist in private practice in Santa Barbara. She provides individual educational therapy sessions to youth that include interventions related to reading and writing skills and strategies, vocabulary development, attention, memory, organization, self-regulation, and academic anxiety and self-esteem. Formerly, she was the Coordinator of Clinical Services for the Substance Abuse Treatment Program at the Division of Adolescent Medicine, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. In addition to individual and group counseling, she provided direct supervision of program staff, instructed program development, and oversaw many of the grant’s administrative responsibilities.
Brandi received her Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology at Pepperdine University in 1992. She has worked with high-risk youth for fifteen years. The inspirations to Brandi’s life are her two daughters and her husband, who bring a never-ending supply of love and laughter.
Brandi received her Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology at Pepperdine University in 1992. She has worked with high-risk youth for fifteen years. The inspirations to Brandi’s life are her two daughters and her husband, who bring a never-ending supply of love and laughter.