$5,000, Coastal Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE): to support the Arts for Action Media Justice program and/or the Paint Not Prison project, both located in South Oxnard. The Media Justice program provides under-served youth with training and access to media production tools so they can document social justice issues and solutions affecting their community. Paint Not Prison is a public art project that engages youth on probation for graffiti violations in mural production, leadership development and community organizing. Coastal Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE) is the fiscal sponsor for Arts for Action.
$8,530 to the El Centrito Family Learning Centers (ECFLC) for the Padres Promotores Education Project, a community effort to engage and organize parents to deliver a message around the key steps needed for students to advance into higher education. The goal of this project, which will train and empower parents to be community educators, is to provide Latino parents in Oxnard with the knowledge and tools to advocate for their children’s educational needs and increase the college-going rate of Oxnard’s Latino students.
$5,000 to The Foundation for Educational & Employment Resources Development, Inc. (FEERD) (Café on A/CORE) for the Grow Green Oxnard project. This project recruits, mobilizes, trains and organizes youth and their families around environmental and economic social justice efforts in Oxnard through awareness of the green collar economy. The project will result in a cadre of local ‘green’ organizers who will help community residents and businesses reduce energy consumption.
$5,000 to support the Kids vs. Global Warming Sea Level Awareness Project (SLAP), located in the cities of Ventura, Oxnard and Port Hueneme. Grant funds will support the formation of a leadership team comprised of youth ages 13-17 who will advocate for more sustainable energy and global warming policies through youth-directed public awareness projects and peer-to-peer training of other youth activists. Earth Island Institute is the fiscal sponsor for Kids vs. Global Warming.
$9,970 to the Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project (MICOP) for the Indigenous Women’s Voice in Oxnard/Port Hueneme program. This program, which has been modeled successfully in the El Rio area, will recruit, train, mentor and support a group of indigenous women leaders to advocate and organize for social change. This project focuses on empowering the women to identify target issues facing their community and implement actions that will create long-term impacts for themselves, their families and the Mixteco community.
$9,000 for Santa Barbara Channelkeeper (SBC) for the Halaco Superfund Community Education and Engagement Project, which will facilitate understanding around the environmental conditions and cleanup activities surrounding the Halaco Engineering Company’s metal smelting factory on the Ormond Beach wetland. The project will expand community participation in the Superfund process and empower people to identify and communicate their desires around cleanup levels and future uses of the site.
$7,500 to Ventura County Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice (VC CLUE) to support efforts in educating, mobilizing and training leaders and members of Ventura County congregations and religious associations to advocate for social justice issues in the county. These issues include health care access, affordable farmworker housing, human rights, and discriminatory policies with regards to employment.
