$50,000 grants offered to support social change

The Ventura County Social Justice Fund will be awarding its first grants of $50,000 to seven local organizations whose work focuses on community organizing toward systemic social change.

The awards will be presented during a reception for grantees, donors and interested persons on March 8 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ventura.

The fund is a grantmaking program created by community donors and hosted by the Ventura County Community Foundation.

The fund seeks to strengthen social justice in Ventura County by providing financial grants and other support to grassroots efforts.

Grants awarded this year include:

+Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ventura County for One Step A La Vez Teen DropIn Center, providing a safe space and community organizing training for youths working to promote safety, tolerance and teen wellness.

+Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation for Empowering Neighborhoods Through Systems Change Program, to form and empower grassroots coalitions in the Meta Street/Five Points and El Rio neighborhoods to identify areas for improvement, particularly concerning safety, crime and environmental health.

+CAUSE (Central Coast Alliance for a Sustainable Economy) for Women's Economic Justice Project, to support Centro Mujer, a women's community organizing center for social change, and to provide leadership development training to low-wage working women in Ventura County.

+The Foundation for Educational and Employment Resources for CORE Leadership Project and South Oxnard Tenant Rights and Youth Organizing Projects, to empower the south Oxnard community to address the Oxnard gang injunction and to organize residents living in substandard housing to advocate for rent control, landlord accountability and community quality of life.

+Parents of Murdered Children for My Son Was Murdered: A Community Education and Violence Prevention Project, to create a video presentation on the effect of a child's slaying on the surviving family members, with the goal of changing youth attitudes and behaviors regarding violence and homicide.

+Ventura County Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice to organize interfaith, nonpartisan community leaders to respond to immigrant rights, healthcare reform, intercultural understanding and affordable farmworker housing.

+Veterans for Peace for Military Recruitment: Alternatives for Youth, to provide information to high school youth and their parents regarding student rights to privacy of their personal information, ability to opt out of sharing information with military recruiters, and non-military career options. For more information about the fund, call Tina Knight at the Ventura County Community Foundation at (805) 988-0196, ext. 120.