The corral area of the main ranch at Santa Rosa Island is now open to the public following a short-term closure that was established due to contaminated soils found in the area.

The contaminants, which were associated with historic fuel storage tanks and other features in this area, included residues of petroleum, metal, and chemical pesticides.

A risk management consultant conducted a thorough and conservative review of the environmental testing results and determined the level of contaminants in the soil at the site would not result in any adverse health effects to the visitors or employees.

 “Out of an abundance of caution, we closed this small section of the main ranch area on Santa Rosa Island in mid-March,” said Channel Islands National Park Superintendent Ethan McKinley. “We are pleased to report that the area is now open to the public in time to enjoy the summer season on the island.”

First 5 Ventura County (F5VC) is pleased to join Interface Children & Family Services (ICFS) in announcing 13 Neighborhoods for Learning (NfL) locations scheduled to open in late August. Services will be provided across the county with locations in Camarillo, Fillmore, Moorpark, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Santa Paula, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, and Ventura. The sites will help provide essential learning opportunities and services for Ventura County’s nearly 60,000 children prenatal – 5 and their families.

This announcement marks another milestone achieved as part of F5VC’s newly redesigned NfL model. First 5 Ventura County will be investing $2.9 million annually in the First 5 Neighborhoods for Learning, powered by Interface, with classes beginning in late August and early September 2019.

“We are committed to continue delivering Parent and Child Together (PACT) Classes and family support services throughout the county and in neighborhoods where our most vulnerable families and young children reside,” said First 5 Ventura County Executive Director Petra Puls. “Together with ICFS, we have thoroughly reviewed and selected 13 easily accessible locations to serve as neighborhood hubs for early learning and family support services. Many of the sites are in familiar locations, like schools.”

The centrally located NfL locations will offer programs including Parent and Child Together (PACT) classes to help parents and caregivers enhance their knowledge of child development and positive parenting practices to support their children’s learning and development. Parent education classes provide a venue for parents to connect with peers and benefit from social support. Families will also have access to developmental screenings, assistance with care coordination and referral to services such as housing, dental, and Cal Fresh programs.

“We’re excited to partner with F5VC in establishing these prime NfL locations,” said Interface Executive Director Erik Sternad. “The carefully selected NfL sites will allow us to work collaboratively to ensure our Ventura County children and families are served in the best and most cost-effective manner possible.”

“To help us best serve the families with young children, F5VC and ICFS will be hosting a series of local open house events in early August offering opportunities for parents to enroll in classes and engage with the community,” said Puls. “We hope our neighbors will come out and explore all we have to offer and meet our NfL staff.”

The first of these events will be on Tuesday, August 13 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Justin Early Learner Academy in Simi Valley and Sespe Elementary in Fillmore. All those interested in joining the F5VC and ICFS family to learn more about classes and programs are encouraged to drop by.

Additional locations will be announced in the next few weeks. To view a current list of locations and open house opportunities, please visit www.First5Ventura.org

Avenue Library in partnership with Ventura Unified School District and Ventura County Public Health Agency, is offering free lunches to children and teens on the west side this summer. The Lunch at the Library program is sponsored by a grant from the California Library Association

The Lunch at the Library helps ensure no child or teen in the west side of Ventura goes hungry during their summer school break. The program is open to all children and teens up to 18 years of age. There is no sign-up or income verification necessary. Children and teens are offered a healthy lunch along with fun activities at the Avenue Library.

The lunch continues through Thursday, July 25. Lunches are first come, first served, and are served at 11:30am, Mondays through Thursdays before the library is open to customers. Fun activities like crafts and story times follow immediately after lunch along with the summer reading program in the afternoon.

The Avenue Library is located at 606 North Ventura Ave. See hours of service at https://www.vencolibrary.org/locations; 805.643.6393.

During the past few weeks four Ventura residents have fallen victim to rental scams. The scammers have listed home rentals on Craigslist and Zillow. In one case the victim toured the home they intended to rent and then sent the deposit and first month’s rent. The home was for rent, but the scammer was not the owner of the home. The scammer used the empty home to con the victim into believing they were the property manager.

Please use caution when looking for a rental! As you consider issues like size, cost, and location of the rental, also consider this: that rental listing could be a scam. Scammers often advertise rentals that don’t exist or aren’t available to trick people into sending money before they find out the truth.

Scammers know that finding the right rental can be hard work, and a seemingly good deal is hard to pass up. They’ve been known to game some home or vacation rental websites.

Some scammers hijack a real rental or real estate listing by changing the email address or other contact information and then they place the modified ad on another site. The altered ad may even use the name of the person who posted the original ad. In other cases, scammers have hijacked the email accounts of property owners on reputable rental websites.

Other scammers make up listings for places that aren’t for rent or don’t exist and try to lure you in with the promise of low rent, or great amenities. Their goal is to get your money before you find out.

Being savvy when you’re in search of a rental is well worth the effort. Here are some signs you may be dealing with a scam:

They tell you to wire money: This is the surest sign of a scam. There’s never a good reason to wire money to pay a security deposit, application fee, first month’s rent, or vacation rental fee. That’s true even if they send you a contract first. Wiring money is the same as sending cash — once you send it, you have no way to get it back.

They want a security deposit or first month’s rent before you’ve met or signed a lease. It’s never a good idea to send money to someone you’ve never met in person for a home you haven’t seen. If you can’t visit an apartment or house yourself, ask someone you trust to go and confirm that it’s for rent, and that it is what was advertised. In addition to setting up a meeting, do a search on the owner and listing. If you find the same ad listed under a different name, that’s a clue it may be a scam.

They say they’re out of the country: But they have a plan to get the keys into your hands. It might involve a lawyer or an “agent” working on their behalf. Some scammers even create fake keys. Don’t send money to them overseas. If you can’t meet in person, see the home, or sign a lease before you pay, keep looking.

If you find yourself the target of a rental scam please report to the Ventura Police Department at 805-339-4400 and to the Federal Trade Commission www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov.

The Housing Authority of the City of San Buenaventura applied for and secured $8,370,651, the largest California award from the National Housing Trust Fund, for construction of the Willett Ranch senior affordable housing development.

The Willett Ranch community will make 50 new construction homes available to income-eligible senior households (ages 62+), including 15 homes for formerly homeless seniors. The development, located in the Solana Heights area of Ventura, is designed to GreenPoint-rated standards with regard to energy efficiency, water conservation, indoor air quality and environmentally preferable materials. The community will consist of 46 one-bedroom and four two-bedroom units, a community room, a reading or craft room, a common laundry room and office space and landscaped courtyards where seniors can enjoy the outdoors or visit with family.

At the newly constructed development, low-income seniors will pay no more than 30 percent of their income towards rent. Construction is expected to be completed by March 2021. Seniors at the new community will access a wide variety of services provided by the HACSB Community Services Department and by way of the HACSB partnership with the Area Agency on Aging.

The National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) assists in the new construction of permanent housing for extremely low-income households. The Project was awarded under the first Notice of Funding Availability issued in 2018. All NHTF projects must maintain affordability for a period of 55 years.

“We are thrilled to receive this generous National Housing Trust Fund award that enables the Housing Authority to help address the growing need for safe, accessible and affordable housing for our low-income seniors,” said Denise Wise, HACSB Chief Executive Officer.

The Housing Authority of the City Of San Buenaventura (HACSB) is the largest residential landlord in the City of Ventura, currently managing 295 public housing units, 705 nonprofit affordable rental units, and more than 1,500 Section 8 vouchers. The agency is actively working to increase the supply of affordable housing and to improve the quality of life for hundreds more of the low-income residents of the City of Ventura.http://www.hacityventura.org/.

Ventura County’s READY TO STOP Initiative launches campaign distinguished by a blue check mark to raise awareness about the commercial sexual exploitation of children.

Just when you think your county and your home are safe, your child can fall victim to exploiters and predators in the blink of an eye. Ventura County’s Commercially Sexually Exploited Children’s (CSEC) READY (Respectfully Empowering and Defining Yourself) Program is stepping in with their first campaign, READY TO STOP Child Trafficking in Ventura County, to ensure our children and our community stay protected, informed and vigilant around increased levels of exploitation here in Ventura County.

The READY Program is a program within the County’s Children and Family Services Agency. The program provides support to social workers as they seek to identify and offer assistance to children and youth within the child welfare system who are experiencing commercial sexual exploitation or are at high risk of such. The program liaisons with stakeholder agencies, non-profits, law enforcement, and other partners to build a network of response to address child trafficking.

The commercial sexual exploitation of children is one of the largest criminal industries in the world. According to the Child Welfare Council CSEC Action Team, the FBI has determined that three of the nation’s thirteen High Intensity Child [Trafficking] areas are located in California in the metropolitan and surrounding areas of San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles.

It is crucial to understand this is taking place right in our own backyards. In Ventura County alone, an average of 1.4 referrals per week have been made to the child abuse hotline in 2019. In 2018, there were 17 identified youth in care at high risk of CSEC.

The READY TO STOP campaign aims to raise awareness by educating the public about the warning signs surrounding sexual exploitation of children. The campaign will inform members of the community about existing hotlines for those who need immediate assistance, as well as what resources are available for survivors.

“The people of Ventura County have proven their compassion for one another many times.  It is time for the Ventura County community to learn about and acknowledge the vulnerability of our children and youth to predators,” said Ronna Bright, READY Program Coordinator. “It is time for all of us to come together to protect our kids and to stop trafficking and exploitation in our neighborhoods.  We are READY TO STOP.”

In addition to raising awareness, CSEC’s READY Program works closely with local initiatives and nonprofits to amplify the businesses and organizations who are already fighting for the protection of our children in Ventura County. These organizations include, Forever Found, Interface Children and Family Services, Coalition for Family Harmony, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA of Ventura Co.) and Casa Pacifica.

For more information about the READY TO STOP campaign, visit http://fostervckids.org/ready-to-stop.