Quick Take
Karen Delaney has passed the torch to Shawn Peterson as leader of the Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County, leaving a legacy of impact and big shoes to fill. Peterson is already launched on his own plans for carving out new goals and moving the organization forward.
When longtime Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County Executive Director Karen Delaney began preparing for retirement, the organization knew it had big shoes to fill. So big, in fact, that the board kicked off an 18-month strategic planning process to help chart the organization’s next chapter.
Key to those efforts was Shawn Peterson, who was officially announced as executive director in July. Peterson has been serving as interim director since January, and has been with the organization for a decade.
Peterson and Delaney worked closely together over the past few years, especially once Delaney began planning her exit after 44 years with the organization. She officially stepped down in July, after publicly announcing her retirement in January.
Leaving the organization she gave so much of her life to was hard, she said, but she is confident it’s in good hands.
“What I love about seeing the way Shawn works is that he has the ability to be a leader in a way that’s very welcoming and super inclusive,” said Delaney. “He sees his leadership as a way to really understand what a team can do together … to bring people together. That’s a rare talent in my experience.”
Delaney said she sees the transition as something of an intergenerational handoff.
“Shawn has really taken the lead on what to modernize and change,” she said. “For me, that was a joyful and hopeful process. … I’m excited about the next generation.”
While Peterson represents the next generation of the Volunteer Center in many ways, he’s no newcomer. A native of Livermore who moved to Santa Cruz as a teenager, he first got involved with the organization as an intern and became a full-time employee a few years later.
In between, he gained extensive experience working in behavioral and mental health services, paving the way for his role as the center’s South County manager of behavioral services and then soon took over as director of the program. A few years after that, he became director of impact and programs, and since 2020, he’s overseen all of the programs the Volunteer Center operates.
The Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County currently runs more than 20 different programs, operates four facilities, employs 59 people and works with an estimated 15,000 volunteers annually.
From the vision of three women in 1967 to develop volunteer programs and give the community’s most disenfranchised residents a voice, the nonprofit has grown into a community powerhouse that includes specialized mental health and restorative justice programs. It’s become a nationally recognized model for community engagement, and Peterson is excited to continue that work – and more.
“We’re a pretty unique type of organization, and that’s really the legacy of Karen Delaney, who really created the model,” he said. “Data shows that volunteering is also one of the healthiest things you can do.”
Continuing Delaney’s vision remains core to Peterson’s work as executive director while he also looks to carve out new goals and move the organization forward.
Those goals include raising more awareness of the organization’s programs in neighboring San Benito and Monterey counties, working more with organizations focused on environmental concerns and expanding the work of the center’s Court Community Service Program, which helps those convicted of certain crimes participate in community service hours in place of court fees.
“I don’t think most people really realize the power of that,” Peterson said of the program’s impact on helping prevent recidivism.
Another goal is expanding funding for and services around disaster preparedness. The organization has been a key player helping with recent local disasters, including the CZU Lightning Complex fire and the flooding in Pajaro Valley.
“Our county is already in debt from previous disasters – we aren’t ready for the next one,” he said. “[So] that’s a big initiative.”
Peterson has applied for a grant that would help the organization bolster disaster preparedness in South County, which encompasses the most underresourced parts of Santa Cruz County. The area is prone to flooding, more rural (and thus harder to reach during disasters) and is home to some of the county’s lowest-income residents.
That region has also faced some of the biggest fears around U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity, and Peterson wants to help spread the word of the resources the Volunteer Center offers and to serve as a safe space for that community.
Next month, the Volunteer Center will launch another new initiative as the county-designated provider of CalFresh employment and training, a statewide program focused on increasing the employment and earning capacity for those who receive food assistance from the state. The Volunteer Center’s work will serve multiple purposes, including helping connect people to employment opportunities, providing volunteering opportunities and providing English as a second language (ESL) education, which is a really big part of this, said Peterson.
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