About
We are a collaborative of professionals with experience as teachers and tutors in academics, business, social enterprise, civic engagement, music, art, theater, athletics, and media.
We formed a group called Santa Barbara Creative Education (also known as The D'Arezzo Center) to offer support to families in the Santa Barbara Area. We are just that... a resource center for tutoring in academics and the arts.
In the past 3 years, we have supported families from all areas, Public Schools, Private Schools, Charter Schools, and Homeschoolers. Our approach is to help children succeed in their academic classes and offer enrichment in the arts and humanities.
The Founder and Director, Joseph Natale holds a Master of Science in Education (and also in Business). The focus of SBCE is to assist students to attain academic excellence in Education and experience the Humanities and Arts. The "Learning Coaches" of SBCE have extensive experience in community service working with children who are out of the box, want to move faster or are on an individual track than is offered in traditional public schools, are struggling, survivors of abuse, human trafficking and human rights violations worldwide and locally.
When the Pandemic hit, we decided to offer our services to families who had to work (Health Care Workers, single parents, those who have zero experience overseeing education, and non-English speaking).
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We offer both a day program AND an after-school program. We have been Public Health Certified to offer in-person Learning Stations, primarily outdoors. Our Learning Stations have been about 1 Learning Coach to up to 7 participants.
We have had no direct incidents of COVID generated from our program due to our stringent protocols.
We contract directly with parents, charter schools, the Children's Resource Center, and in some cases with Public Schools-for example when a child is injured and cannot attend regular school. We have also offered services for programs such as residential services for those suffering from trauma (Hope Refuge Center for local trafficked teenage girls).
Moving forward, we are happy to continue to support students from all walks of life. We try to say "no to no one," who needs support. We have been able to raise Scholarship Funds (tax-deductible through a local nonprofit SBACT Youth Advocacy Fund ) for families who qualify, as well as those registered with the Children's Resource Center.
All our Learning Coaches (tutors) and volunteers are Live Scanned through the Department of Justice. We also put our Learning Coaches and volunteers through ongoing training to learn our methods and to stay current with all the current rights and laws associated with children's programs.
We have had great success, including
integrating the Public School Students this year!
I hope this has helped you to understand better who we are and what we do. We are here to support any families who need our services
for either day or afterschool programs.
A Message from the Founder
Welcome to
Santa Barbara Creative Education
I am so honored at your interest in our program!
My name is Tony Joseph D'Arezzo Natale. All 4 of my grandparents immigrated from Italy, and yes, they claim to be related to Guido D'Arezzo! Perhaps it is true because I began writing music on manuscripts as a child before I had any music lessons. Creative expression is in my DNA. I love to love people and inspire young people to discover their inner creativity and strategically discover their individual gifts and share them in a way that meets their personal vision and dream. Once youth are fully equipped we can then guide them to look outside themselves and contribute to their local and global community through the expression of their individual gifts, skills, and talents.
How did SBCE's Vision Begin?
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I have lived in Santa Barbara since 1965, went to Hope School, La Colina, San Marcos, SBCC, and UCSB, and finally graduated with both business and education Master of Science Degrees from the University of San Francisco.
I have 4 biological, 2 adopted children and 15 grandchildren. Our family is integrated and our colors are like the rainbow. My roots are Italian from both sides of my family. My grandparents on both sides immigrated from Italy at the turn of the Century 1900. I am a Social Entrepreneur. I create businesses, consult to business, and develop programs worldwide with a focus on education for victims and survivors of human rights violations and human trafficking. As I move towards my senior years, I have decided to open a program for youth here in Santa Barbara. We have completed 2 years now and our program is strong. We are called "D'Arezzo Creative Education," named after my mother's side of the family. I chose D'Arezzo after Guido D'Arezzo, the founder of Modern Music. Guido developed organized music, (the octave) otherwise known as solfeggio.
Our approach to education is to discover the learning style of each student, and then together we discover learning. We incorporate the 4-core subject areas, English, History, Science, and Math into creative learning, project-based methods. In the end, students produce their learning through creative expression such as music, art, plays, poetry, film, and video productions. We focus on Social Enterprise and Civic Responsibility. The children are each voted in as stock-holding members of our for-profit company, D'Arezzo Creative Productions (DCP). Through DCP, we produce events, products and now offer tours to raise funds for local conservation and social needs. We have developed a non-profit fund called the Youth Advocacy Fund where people can donate funds used for scholarships for local children.