Earlier this year, Aera Energy challenged our community to support health and wellness programs in VUSD schools by matching donations totaling $5,000 to VEP for teacher grants. The challenge was a success and combined with funding from Mountains 2 Beach Marathon, Ventura Education Partnership made grants totaling $21,000 for 7 individual grants and 7 group grants.

“During COVID VEP has offered grants in a streamlined way. Individual teachers were able to apply for $500 for health/wellness projects. Groups of educators working together to impact larger numbers of students were able to apply for $2500,” said Madhu Bajaj, President of Ventura Education Partnership.

Funded projects include culinary explorations to teach good nutrition and healthy eating, mindfulness activities, physical exercise equipment like yoga and pickleball, sensory gardens and much more.
Sierra Meyers, Ventura High Physical Education Teacher applied for and received funding for hoola hoops to social distance, jump ropes, fitness bands, and other fun PE equipment that can be used outdoors. Meyers said, “Receiving the grant means that my physical education students have an opportunity to try equipment & innovative activities outside the normal tradition sports. The grant gives my students a fun, safe, creative & health benefiting workout in a socially distanced environment.”
“As a member of the review team, it was exciting to see the innovative ways VUSD teachers are looking to engage students to improve the health and wellness,” said Michele Newell, Aera public affairs. “During the pandemic Aera has focused greatly on employee mental and physical health. It is part of our exceptional care for people. So, partnering with VEP and local teachers in this effort is not out of the norm for us. These grants provide VUSD students the means to get exactly what they need to be healthier inside and out. That is a wise investment in our future.”

More information on VEP and the complete list of grant recipients can be found at: http://www.venturaeducationpartnership.org/Health-Wellness

by Jill Forman

Bookstore and Book Sale News!

The Ventura Friends of the Library is very excited to announce that all our venues will be back within a month.

Foster Library

Our Ventura Friends of the Library bookstore will be reopening on July 1st.  The bookstore is moving to the front left corner of the library’s first floor (former magazine area). We will start out with partition walls and eventually have a more permanent structure. This will triple the size of the store so more books will be available for purchase. VFOL office will be moving into the old bookstore room.

A plus to the move is it should be cooler than the former bookstore. There are many details to be planned and put into place before the opening.

As always, the store will be staffed by volunteers. Some of our folks have left for other activities. If you would like to help out, contact Sandy at [email protected].

Online Bookstore

Our online website store will continue but the curbside pickup will be changing as of July 1. Tuesday’s online orders will be picked up at the Foster Library VFOL bookstore. Saturday’s orders pickup we would like to continue at Hill Road Library but inside where our book Nook is.

We am looking for a volunteer who would like to be at Hill Road on Saturdays from 10-12pm with the paid purchases. Contact Sandy at email in previous paragraph.

Hill Road Library Used Book Shelves

We will have access to the “Nook” area in mid-June. It will take us a while to stock and organize the area but will definitely be back in business by July 1. These will be gently-used books in many categories with many children’s and young adult titles, priced from 50 cents up to about $2-$3. They will be paid for by the honor system.

Save the Date(s) for Open-Air Book Sale

July 31and August 1, there will be a book sale at the Dudley House (on the corner of Loma Vista and Ashwood.) It will be a “Category Sale” with all genres organized by type. We are happy to co-ordinate this sale with the Dudley House’s monthly plant sale on Saturday and their house tours on Sunday. A lovely setting, plants and books and one of Ventura’s historical treasures. What a treat!

Warehouse and Donations

Many of our bookstore volunteers have been helping out at the warehouse, keeping it at four volunteers per day per pandemic protocol. As a result, the warehouse has been up and working five days a week. With those folks returning to the store, and the COVID restrictions easing, we will be changing the warehouse day to Fridays only.

Donations can be brought to the warehouse Friday 9 a.m. – 11 am. The donation boxes will be back at the libraries but please limit those to small donations. If you need to make special arrangements, you can email us at [email protected].

An opinion by Mary Haffner HAFFNER LAW GROUP Ventura

The Civil Rights Movement was led by advocates courageously confronting the erroneous belief that some of us are more valuable and important than others.  They marched in protest to challenge the racial segregation that had been eloquently defended by politicians and enforced by police. The neglect and criminalization of people with mental illness is the civil rights and social justice issue of our time. People with mental illnesses continue to face stark inequities borne from stigmatizing beliefs about their worth. You won’t see them marching in protest.

Marginalized groups share histories of systemic oppression, segregation, and a denial of basic human rights.  But the distinctive feature of mental illness discrimination is that it causes impairment.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”

The inhumanity these individuals and their families face goes unquestioned by leaders because this is a voiceless population. When those with the power to do something stand-by, support the status quo, and place arbitrary restrictions on rights and freedoms – when they tolerate this injustice through silent complicity and fail to work toward providing the same quality of healthcare enjoyed by persons with other health conditions – this is evidence of structural stigma.

Structural/institutional stigma embedded in the status quo of local governments has created vast disparities and is the most significant barrier to the wellbeing of people with mental illness. These inequities are evident in their disproportionate overrepresentation in our jails and on our streets and in the failures of decision makers to plan for their care, forcing them to remain untreated or waiting for days in emergency rooms only to receive substandard care.  For any other health condition, these injustices would never be tolerated.

We waste millions on anti-stigma campaigns aimed at changing society’s attitudes, but it is the leaders with the power to do something who must commit to the principles of equity and justice to exercise their moral and ethical responsibility to bring change.

 I spent 6 years on Ventura County’s mental health board witnessing structural stigma. I observed the lack of investment in wellness and recovery; I watched millions of dollars approved by Supervisors for programs focused on people with mild mental health challenges, while the population most in need kept cycling, untreated, through restrictive environments. I watched top leadership display a belief that some people’s basic human rights are open for debate when they stated, “we are doing more than we have to” for this population.  I listened to countless families whose loved ones were passed from law enforcement to hospitals, to out-of-county facilities, to jails, and to homelessness. 

Appropriate levels of care are not available- people who are unstable and acutely ill are placed in the wrong environments – sober living homes or board and cares.  And those who are not acutely ill stay in intensive settings because there is nowhere for them to go.  

Leaders who are responsible for making decisions about mental healthcare should know that their silence and inaction is influenced by structural stigma. They should work toward solutions instead of continuing to endorse an inhumane status quo.   
 

In a previous issue Marsha Moreland inquired about the status of the hotel being built behind the shuttered Golden China. Happy to report that framing has finally started.

Parking lots provide excellent opportunities for expanding Ventura’s urban forest. This city-owned lot off Loma Vista, next to the Community Memorial Hospital parking structure, had no trees for decades. As part of a paving project, the city recently installed eight new Australian Willow (Geijera parviflora) trees, which will provide shade as their canopies spread. They are evergreen and will grow to 35′ high and 20′ wide. Their non-invasive roots make them a good fit for street and parking lot trees, and their water-filled leaves are fire resistant.

Ventura Tree Alliance, www.venturatreealliance.com