2011 Grantees

$8,000 to The Abundant Table (AT) for the Rooted Futures project. Rooted Futures’ goal is to engage and equip Ventura County youth – primarily youth of color and low-income youth – to become active in addressing food-related inequalities in health, nutrition and living environments. This grant will allow Rooted Futures to work in Santa Paula to support healthier school lunches and encourage the Santa Paula Elementary School District to serve meals from local farms and ranches.

$9,000 to One Step a la Vez (OSAV) for the Next Step Adelante program. This program will develop leadership skills and raise consciousness of youth and adults in Piru, Fillmore and Santa Paula to empower them to identify issues of environmental concern and social inequity – such as cleaning up the Fillmore Toxic Waste Superfund site and improving transportation in the Santa Clara Valley. The fiscal sponsor is the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Clara Valley.

$6,000 to the Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation (CEDC) for the Youth Organizing for Change in Oxnard project. It will provide a forum for youth to engage in dialogue with policymakers who are responsible for development of youth violence-prevention programs in Oxnard.

$7,500 to the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE) for the Ventura Avenue Community Organizing Project. This project will develop the leadership of Ventura Avenue residents and create the Ventura Avenue Leadership Team who will take action to influence the land-use decisions that will shape the future of the west side of Ventura for the next 30 years. Areas most likely to be addressed are: public transportation, the need for park space, affordable housing and combating gentrification of the neighborhood.

$7,500 to the Coalition for Sustainable Transportation (COAST) for the Developing a Lifeline Transit Plan project. This project is designed to help transit-dependent riders address inequalities in funding and access. The effort will produce a document by which county transit agencies will be held accountable.

$4,000 to The Multicultural Community Ventures Initiative (MCVI) for The Black and Brown Alliance for the Oxnard Plains to begin a candid dialogue and search among Latinos, African-Americans, Native Americans, Filipinos and Samoans to form a coalition that would address contentions of these communities in Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme. Fiscal sponsor is the Foundation for Educational and Employment Resources Development Inc.

$5,000 to the Mixteco/Indígena Community Organizing Project (MICOP) for the Tequio Youth Group project. The project will mobilize indigenous immigrant youth to eliminate bullying against indigenous children and youth and to end the use of the pejorative term “Oaxaquita” to refer to indigenous children.

$8,000 for Organizacion en California de Líderes Campesinas (OCLC) for the Ventura County Campesina Policy Institute. Through the Institute, farm worker women (campesinas) will learn the hands-on skills needed to develop and put in place strategy, mobilize the community and bring the campesina voice to the public realm to  help create social change to better protect farm worker women in Ventura County and beyond.