The Social Justice Fund for Ventura County (SJFVC) hosted its second 2018 grantee convening on October 12th, and all six grantees attended. This two-hour meeting was a chance for each organization to share an update on their project as well as identify opportunities for collaboration.

At the conclusion of the meeting, there was consensus that these sessions are valuable and the It was a very engaging two hours with a lot of sharing and new ideas. In fact, several ideas emerged that the group thought provided them an opportunity to work together. One example is a "Know Your Rights Training".  Each grantee either needed a rights training or wanted to develop one, so the idea came forward to do it collaboratively or in some way share versions of trainings that were already developed. The grantees identified another intersection in their work: internship opportunities for high school and college-aged students. For example, the Westminster Free Clinic is looking for interns and CLU is interested in promoting those positions with their students.

grantee partners would like them to continue on a quarterly basis. The Social Justice Fund’s role as a convener is a unique and important role. Today there are limited resource and increasing needs when it comes to issues of social justice. This requires us to maximize efficiencies and identify ways to accelerate the work that benefits communities. Around the table with our 2018 grantee partners, the Social Justice Fund provided a forum for those exact conversations.

Grantees were:

• Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation (CEDC), 
• Ventura County Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE), 
• Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project (MICOP), 
• Westminster Free Clinic (WFC), 
• California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI), 
• California Lutheran University (CLU)