During the holiday season, people hurry around buying gifts, cooking feasts, and gathering with friends and loved ones. As individuals are focused on holiday happenings and plans, Food Forward is searching for fruit trees hiding in backyards and waiting to be harvested. Many homes in Ventura County are blessed with abundant fruit trees, and residents can only eat a fraction of what their trees produce. On the other hand, numerous residents do not have access to local, fresh produce and lack basic nutrition that many take for granted. One in five Ventura County children will be food insecure at some point during the year. Food pantries offer what they can in the way of fresh food, but much of what they receive for distribution lacks the freshness and vitamins offered by backyard fruit.

That is where Food Forward comes in. Food Forward strives to bridge that gap between neighborhood excess and community need, by mobilizing volunteers to harvest fruit from backyards and delivering directly to local food pantries. These fresh fruits are distributed to families and individuals within a few days, providing produce more fresh than can be purchased at the grocery store to those in need.

Food Forward is looking for trees in Ventura County that have extra fruit.  Owners or renters can make an in-kind donation that is tax deductible and a creative way to share during this season of giving. If residents do not have trees, they can refer their neighbors or volunteer to help harvest fruit. Donors and volunteers can sign up at foodforward.org or call at 630-2728. Share abundance and give back this winter.

The Housing Authority of the City of San Buenaventura (HACSB) supports the November 10 resolution adopted by the County of Ventura Board of Supervisors calling for an end to veteran homelessness. The HACSB is an active participant in the local affordable housing continuum as both a provider of affordable housing as well as an administrator of housing assistance subsidies. The HACSB is committed to doing its part to reach “functional zero” veteran homelessness as soon as possible by committing resources to the effort. Through U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) funding in the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) program, the HACSB provides direct rental assistance subsidy to ninety-five homeless veterans that are supported by U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs professionals with case management services.

The HACSB’s VASH program, however, is only effective in supporting our homeless heroes where we have an adequate supply of rental housing units available to VASH participants. Currently, more than thirty percent of our VASH clients are searching for units to lease, many for longer than six months. Without a unit to lease, these veterans will continue to live in shelters, on the streets, and in unstable situations unbecoming the service they provided our country. The HACSB estimates that more than $20,000 in VASH funding could be enriching Ventura’s private rental market, if units were to be made available soon.

“These veterans served our country and it is time for our community to serve them,” said Denise Wise, Chief Executive Officer of the HACSB. “We applaud the support of the County Board of Supervisors and encourage all owners and managers of rental property to consider leasing to a veteran before the end of 2015.”

The HUD-VASH program is administered in the same manner as Housing Choice Vouchers, also known as Section 8. This means landlords and property managers can rely on a monthly housing assistance payment and professional annual inspections, but unique to VASH, residents come supported by the VA. Interested landlords are encouraged to market your rental housing units as “VASH Welcome” today. Visit hacityventura.org/landlords for more information about being a Housing Choice Voucher landlord and serving veterans through VASH. Questions about VASH can also be directed to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Since 2010 thousands of veterans and their families have walked into the Reins of Hope arenas and found the only safe space they know. Today, service men and women face serious re-integration challenges and traumas that can lead to tragic consequences.  22 veterans a day, on average, take their lives.

Reins of Hope is a local non-profit offering equine-assisted mental health services throughout Santa Barbara and Ventura County. The H.O.P.E. for Warriors program addresses the challenge of treating the effects of trauma by using qualities and sensitivities of the horse in an alternative therapeutic form.

Because horses are prey and herd animals, they are highly attuned to subliminal energy and hyper-alert to their environment, similar to those suffering from PTSD.

Like horses, veterans on the battlefield experience extra anxiety and awareness of threats that can be a lifesaver. When veterans return home, many can’t leave that mindset and their instincts prevent them from living in the civilian world.

Michael, an Army captain who did two tours in Iraq, was one of them, he stated.

“Resilience is not just a buzzword, it’s a way of life. Equine therapy saved my life. I was broken and depressed and after 6 years of gradually going downhill physically and mentally, I had no idea what to expect from therapy. I figured I was going to wash horses and do farm work. If you have never been hugged by a horse, I highly recommend it.  I don’t know what happened in that arena, I just know it works.”

Support those still living with the effects of combat and donate to H.O.P.E. for Warriors Program online at www.reinsofhopevc.org or  633-9199.

The Rotary Clubs of Ventura and Ventura South and Four Seasons Cleaners plan to collect and distribute 6,000 coats and jackets of all sizes until December 31 to keep children and adults warm and dry this winter.

Collection boxes were distributed to businesses, schools, government centers and public parks in Ventura County the week of November 1. Members of the Rotary Clubs of Ventura (Downtown), and Ventura South, collect the donated coats and jackets, deliver them to Four Seasons Cleaners for cleaning and then distribute them to service organizations and schools in the community. Some of the beneficiary organizations include Boys & Girls Club of Oxnard and Ventura, Project Understanding, The Rescue Mission, The Salvation Army, local churches, the county Sheriff’s Departments and Casa Pacifica.

Last year over 5,000 coats and jackets were given to children and adults in the greater Ventura community. Last year over 70 needy elementary school students were able to select coats for themselves. The students’ entire families will feel the warmth of the Rotary Club’s project. This year the club will again distribute coats and jackets to children from local schools.

For questions, donations or more information, please contact Kristin Taylor at 643-3800. Coats, jackets and heavy sweatshirts are welcome donations. Information and collection sites can be found on www.venturarotary.org.

The Ventura Police Department has been awarded a $97,000.00 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) for a year-long program of special enforcements and public awareness efforts to prevent traffic related deaths and injuries. The Ventura Police Department will use the funding as part of the city’s ongoing commitment to keep our roadways safe and improve the quality of life through both enforcement and education.

After falling dramatically between 2006 and 2010, the number of persons killed and injured in traffic collisions has been slowly rising. Particularly alarming are recent increases in pedestrian and bicycle fatalities, the growing dangers of distracting technologies, and the emergence of drug-impaired driving as a major problem. This grant funding will provide opportunities to combat these and other devastating problems such as drunk driving, speeding and crashes at intersections.

“Overall, California’s roadways are among the safest in the nation,” said OTS Director Rhonda Craft. “But to meet future mobility, safety, and accessible transportation objectives, we have to reverse this recent trend in order to reach our common goal – zero deaths on our roadways. The Office of Traffic Safety and the Ventura Police Department want to work with everyone to create a culture of traffic safety across Ventura and the state.”

Activities that the grant will fund include:
Educational presentations
DUI checkpoints
DUI saturation patrols
Distracted driving enforcement
Bicycle and pedestrian safety enforcement
Speed, unsafe lane changes, and right of way enforcement
Warrant service operations targeting multiple DUI offenders
Compilation of DUI “Hot Sheets,” identifying worst-of-the-worst DUI offenders
Specialized DUI and drugged driving training such as Standardized Field Sobriety Testing (SFST), Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE), and Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE) and training in using drug kits like you’ll be able to find such vendors like test country providing.
Court “sting” operations to cite individuals driving from DUI court after ignoring their license suspension or revocation
Stakeout operations to observe the “worst-of-the-worst” repeat DUI offender probationers with suspended or revoked driver licenses

Funding for this program is from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.