The Museum of Ventura County is launching an initiative aimed at supporting history students and the writing of diverse historical research articles about Ventura County. The Museum is partnering with local colleges to request submissions for paid internships for the Fall 2020 semester. Applications will be evaluated by museum staff and a panel of 3 history faculty from area colleges and universities. Students will each be responsible for one original research article 2,200 to 3,500 words in length covering a topic related to groups underrepresented in current local historical writing. The student must secure an academic advisor for the project who is willing to act as project mentor.

In order to apply, students should prepare the following:

• Research Proposal
• The proposal should be no more than 300 words and should include:

Your topic and the need for studying it. Specifically note any known research on your topic. Topics should relate to underrepresented groups.

The sources critical to your proposed research, demonstrating that they are adequate for your project.

Discuss the issues and questions which you foresee your paper addressing.

• Current Resume
• Letter of Agreement and Recommendation from Project Mentor
• Recent School Transcript with full legal name on it (unofficial transcripts will be accepted)

Examples of appropriate topics include stories of immigration, migration, segregation, labor and entrepreneurial trends:

• Patterns of Mexican American immigration and settlement in Ventura County from 1900 to 1930
• The Bracero Program
• Philippine Immigration to Ventura County in the early 1900s

Requirements

• Interested candidates must be enrolled in a degree granting program at the time of their internship and selected interns will need to provide a letter from their school verifying enrollment.
• Selected interns must submit to a full background check.
• Internships are positions with the minimum requirement of 15 hours per week for 8 to 12 weeks. However, not being able to work within these parameters will not exclude a potential applicant from being considered.
• Stipends will be paid for this Historical Research Internship.  5 stipends for $2000 each are available.

Please submit all application materials in PDF or Word format (no other formats will be accepted) to Deya Terrafranca at [email protected].

This opportunity application period opens May 15th and closes July 15th. All interns will be selected and notified by August 15th, 2020. This opportunity is part of the Museum of Ventura County’s Art and History Stimulus Initiative, a series of activities designed to financially support student historians and local artists during the uncertain times created by the Covid-19 Pandemic.

• Deadline to submit proposals – 7/15/2020
• Proposals selected and notified – 8/15/2020
• Articles due – 12/15/20

Application Checklist:

• Research Proposal – no more than 300 words, including topic, need, sources, and issues and questions to be addressed.
• The proposal should be no more than 300 words and should include:
• Current Resume
• Letter of Agreement and Recommendation from Project Mentor
• Recent School Transcript with full legal name on it (unofficial transcripts will be accepted)

For additional information or questions, please contact:
Deya Terrafranca Research Library and Archives Director
[email protected]. 805.653.0323 ext. 320

by 42 local high school teachers, counselors, and para-educators

Because we cannot see you and speak to you face-to-face we, your teachers and counselors, hope to reach you now. We feel we cannot remain silent. If you have been paying attention, you may have learned more in the last twelve weeks than you would have learned in the classroom.

Faced with challenges, do we flee to find a safe place, abandoning those who are suffering around us? Or do we play our part and help in the changes that drive society? Do we resist in the face of injustice, even at the risk of suffering? Do we act, engage, change? Or do we ignore injustice and ignorance with excuses of “that’s life,” “life’s not fair,” “that’s how it goes,” and “that’s not our problem?” In the future, we hope that we will be proud of the things we did rather than feel shame at the things we did not do in these difficult times.

The current crisis about race in our nation and pandemic have exposed monumental challenges. We must acknowledge that many of us benefit from the inequalities and inequities that plague friends and classmates. Call to mind the representations of peoples from textbooks, the euro-centric maps, the emphasis on United States’ history through many years of school, the many English language books you read and the few translations, the restrooms that matched your biological gender, the discrepancies in the ethnic make-up of AP, honor, regular classes and school sites. Privilege has embedded itself into our political system, corrupted it, and robbed us of our democracy.

We, as teachers, recognize that we have come up short. We have not sufficiently looked inward to ourselves, our classrooms, and our schools; we have not addressed the inevitable but fatal subconscious biases that infect our practices and our interactions with you, our own shortcomings, our own privilege, our own racism. We have not always engaged in the uncomfortable conversations that must be had. We are part of a system within a system that perpetuates and reinforces inequality, inequity, and injustice. Often, it has been you who has taught us and, often, it was we who were wrong not to listen.

We acknowledge that, in our days of confinement, we all had reason to stay safe, that the situations were frightening, that we were right to feel danger. Yes, we love you, but we cannot assure you that you will always be safe. No longer can we hide from you the harshness of our world. We cannot protect you from all things. Instead, we call on you to step up or to reach out, that we might help you step up and that you may help us learn, grow, and serve.

We pledge our good will, positive thoughts, help and hope; we pledge our commitment to action, resolve to respond, and we promise to provide learning opportunities to work through these challenges together.

The annual Walk for Tender Life Maternity Home will be held on Saturday, July 11, 2020 at The River Community Church located at 889 E. Santa Clara St. Registration begins at 8:30 am, and each walker or family of walkers will be released after they register to begin their walk allowing for social distancing between groups.

This two-mile walk will take participants on a route around Ventura, from Thompson Boulevard to the Ventura Beach Promenade, with a returning stroll along downtown Ventura’s surrounding streets and returning to its starting place.

The annual Tender Life Maternity Walk is one of the main fundraisers they have during the year. Alumni, donors, current residents and the community come together to support Tender Life and the mission of helping these ladies get back on their feet and care for their child.

Proceeds of the Walk will be used to help operate this incredible organization. For over three decades, Tender Life Maternity Home has been devoted to serving abandoned and at-risk pregnant women and babies by providing food, shelter and personal growth opportunities in a caring home where “Courage Meets Compassion to Build New Lives.”

Tender Life currently houses up to six homeless, pregnant women, who receive pre- natal care, learn life skills and training, which all help to prepare them for motherhood and independence. Over the past two and a half years, Tender Life has been the home for 22 newborn babies.

by Visit Ventura

Of late you may have noticed a strange and wonderful thing. People are out walking in our neighborhoods. We are talking about Ventura, because those are the neighborhoods we see, but if you’re not from Ventura, you might be seeing the very same thing in your town too. After recent decades characterized more by frantic rush than stroll, it is somewhat soothing to see young parents pushing strollers, young children beelining on scooters, corporate financial officers holding hands with their husbands, and old neighbors talking (at a distance) in the cooling shade of a maple. A few months ago, it seemed like everyone had to be somewhere yesterday. Now many of us don’t.

We all know the reason behind the current stay-close-to-home slow down, and, yes, there is ungraspable sadness and difficulty attendant with COVID-19. But this increase in neighborly walks, it is good medicine. For one thing, there is something peaceful about strolling through a neighborhood, and, in these chaotic times, we can all use a few moments of quiet and relaxation.

But maybe there’s something bigger afoot here too. We are meeting each other. And now that the world has slowed for a moment for many of us, we are also pausing in the shade to listen to each other, and the simple act of listening to our fellows can change so many things. Stopping and listening isn’t just a physical act on a neighborhood sidewalk. Stopping and listening is a fine life skill too. Listening — real, attentive listening — is learning. About different viewpoints. About different lifestyles. About different needs. About differences — and why they matter so much to those whose lives, whose pasts, whose experiences, whose skin color may be different from ours. Listening brings awareness — and awareness can foster better things.

Listening is also a fine counter to shouting. It is so very hard to hear when we are shouting.

In Ventura’s neighborhoods — and, very likely, neighborhoods around the world — not all neighbors are acquainted. Often, neighbors are strangers. Sometimes the word stranger

carries with it the tint of fear and distrust. We sometimes fear what we don’t know. In this new world of neighborhood walks, neighbors are getting to know each other. Maybe they are sharing a thought or a story. Maybe they are sharing a laugh. Maybe they are just trying to stay six feet away from each other.

But maybe they are finding pieces of common ground. And those pieces of common ground, they can be pursued further. Sharing conversation for five minutes on the sidewalk is a fine thing. Pursuing that further is better still. Though the time might currently not be right for dinners at each other’s homes, or playdates with the kids, those times will come. And when they do, and we get to know each other well enough so that your neighbors watch your home while you’re on vacation, or walk your kids to school when you’re sick, or take out your trash when you lose track of the days, well that will be a very find thing — for our neighborhoods, and, maybe, for the world.

It would be overly grand to say the small encounters we are experiencing now are erasing great swaths of fear and misunderstanding in our world. But it would be fair to say they may be helping in little bits and pieces.

And when you add up a lot of little bits and pieces…

by Venturans for Responsible & Efficient Gov’t (VREG)-Part 1 of 2

Eight years ago, Ventura Water, faced with a City Council decision to settle a federal lawsuit seeking to halt putting wastewater into the Santa Clara River estuary, started a pilot project to use our wastewater for drinking. The project was called VenturaWaterPure—the purest and safest quality water. They continue to pursue this course today in the face of data that demonstrates it’s not in the best interest of citizens cost-wise or health-wise.

How Things Began To Go Wrong

Ventura Water based its decision on a faulty premise that Ventura needed additional water. The Wishtoyo Consent Decree provided an opportunity for Ventura Water to select Direct Potable Reuse (DPR) as an integral part of VenturaWaterPure. Costs were not even a factor in the original thinking – Ventura Water would just increase the water bill rates.

Ventura Water will do anything to pursue this goal, even when confronted with facts to the contrary. In June 2018, a group of concerned citizens went to each Councilmember to show them a state expert panel report to the state legislature that DPR was not safe. The Council and Ventura water then changed course and announced that Indirect Potable Reuse (IPR) was the new method to treat the wastewater. They did not change the name VenturaWaterPure or challenge their assumptions.

More recently, when Ventura Water presented to the Water Commission, they asserted that State Water was unreliable, and they can only count on water 33% of the time. Commissioners pointed out 40 years of historical data that showed State Water was reliable 50%-75% of the time. Ventura Water backtracked again and said they’d upgrade their data, but they never questioned their assumptions.

What These Decisions Cost You

A September 12, 2019 report titled Ventura Water Supply Projects and Alternatives, commissioned by Ventura Water, shows estimated project costs of another $320 million plus the annual operating expenses of $29 million for VenturaWaterPure. The added expense could saddle Ventura’s citizens with another $260 per month in water rates unless Ventura Water takes an alternative direction.

Spreading $320 million over ten years, divided equally among the 32,000 water ratepayers in Ventura, will cost about $83 more per month on your water bill. An extra 20-27 employees are required to operate the new facility, adding to the Ventura Water’s payroll, benefits and pensions. If Ventura Water adds the minimum number of new employees, using an average annual cost of $100,000 per person, plus benefits, will add $29.1 million annually. Dividing $29.1 million by 32,000 water ratepayers adds another $76 per month to each water bill.

Assume the average monthly water bill in Ventura is $100 per month ($200 every two months) when adding another $83 for building and $76 for operations and maintenance, the new average total is $260 per month. The amount could be even higher if Ventura Water hires more than 20 new employees.

Known as the Carollo Report, this September 12, 2019 report looks at the high price of the VenturaWaterPure project. It also attempts to provide alternatives that would be much more cost-effective and allow Ventura to meet its three primary water goals. Ventura Water has rejected all lesser cost alternatives.

Ventura’s goals remain: 1) remove tertiary treated wastewater from the Santa Clara Estuary, 2) increase the water supply and 3) improve the water quality in the east end of Ventura.

The Driving Force Behind VenturaWaterPure

Ventura Water has already spent eight years to meet the demands of a Federal Consent Decree. Ventura must fully comply with removing tertiary treated wastewater from the Santa Clara Estuary by 2025. The questions asked then were, “What will we do with it, and how will we pay for it?” Their answer was, “We will just have to drink it and raise the rates.” Thus VenturaWaterPure was set in motion.

In 2012, there was no idea what the costs of VenturaWaterPure would be or whether it was safe. The ideation sounded good – make the recycled water drinkable and justify it on the basis that we have a dwindling water supply. The idea of ‘toilet to tap’ originated on the premise that ‘if the astronauts can drink it, we can too.’

Call or email your City Councilmember to tell them you want to save $270 million and not have your water rates nearly triple.

Food Share has appointed Kevin Drabinski as its new Chief Operating Officer. Drabinski replaces Susan Haverland who retired on June 12 after seven years with the organization.

Prior to his appointment at Food Share, Drabinski served as CEO of the Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo County where he oversaw fiscal and operational growth for three years. Before that he served six years as senior field representative for California’s 35th State Assembly office where he led constituent engagement and policy outreach with business, agricultural, public safety, and educational interests.

Commenting on her seven-year tenure at Food Share, Susan said, “As I transition away from the frontlines of this work, I realize how powerful Ventura County’s social service organizations and county entities are when we work together to advocate for a just, healthy, and vibrant Ventura County for everyone who lives here. Together, we have made Ventura County a better place to live.”

Monica White, Food Share’s President & CEO expressed her appreciation saying, “While we are thrilled to welcome Kevin Drabinski as our new COO, Susan’s departure will be felt by all of us who have had the pleasure of working with her. We thank her for her kindness, her compassion, and her commitment to advocacy on behalf of those experiencing food insecurity in Ventura County. “

Speaking about his appointment Kevin said, “It is an honor to join the team here at Food Share who hold a singular focus to lead the fight against hunger in Ventura County. As a team of hunger relief workers I look for us to strive for excellence across the board in operations, and to push for greater efficiencies and effectiveness, so that we can even better live out our mission that no one should go hungry.”

Since 1978, Food Share has been feeding the hungry in Ventura County. It all began when eight friends banded together to provide food to those in need in Ventura, CA. The early philanthropic movement started in a family garage, quickly outgrew a donated fire station in Saticoy and now operates in Oxnard, CA with two warehouses with a combined 36,000 square feet. Today, staff and volunteers distribute over 13 million pounds of food, or over 11 million meals, annually through its 190 pantry and program partners.

As Ventura County’s food bank, Food Share provides food for 75,000 hungry friends and neighbors monthly. Food Share is a member of Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief.organization, as well as the California Association of Food Banks. For more information about Food Share, visit www.foodshare.com.

You can make a donation in support of Food Share at foodshare.com/give