Sen. Dodd: Fairfield Homeless Advocate is Solano County Woman of the Year

FAIRFIELD – Dawn La Bar, who leads Fairfield’s homelessness relief effort and has devoted her more than 20-year career to social policy and advocacy in Solano County, has been named Solano County Woman of the Year for 2022 by Sen. Bill Dodd.

“Dawn’s dedication to helping the homeless and our most vulnerable populations is nothing short of outstanding,” Sen. Dodd said. “She’s had a huge impact on reducing homelessness in Fairfield and providing services for those in need. I’m proud to recognize her for her significant contribution to improving our community.”

“We live in the best place on earth and work with the most amazing organizations and people,” La Bar said. “It makes my job so much easier. It's incredibly humbling to be recognized this way. I don't take this honor lightly. There are so many other women doing extraordinary things for Solano County who deserve this as well.”

Dawn La Bar has worked for the city of Fairfield for more than 10 years and is currently its homeless services manager. She has been instrumental in several key initiatives including securing a new operator for the city’s homeless shelter, creating a temporary shelter permit program and developing a homeless-to-work initiative to provide job skills. She also collaborated with local businesses to create the “Hand Up, Not a Hand Out” public education campaign to encourage donations to service providers, and she created a COVID-19 emergency shelter program in collaboration with a local church to protect homeless people who are at high-risk of getting infected.

Previously, she was a city legislative analyst and has worked as a field representative in both the state Assembly and Senate. She chairs the Community Action Partnership Joint Powers Authority board and has served on the Solano Family Justice Center Foundation board and the Vacaville Planning Commission. She began her career as a child support case worker for Solano County.

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Senator Bill Dodd represents the 3rd Senate District, which includes all or portions of Napa, Solano, Yolo, Sonoma, Contra Costa, and Sacramento counties. You can learn more about the district and Senator Dodd at www.sen.ca.gov/dodd.