Center for Nonprofit Leadership
Helping nonprofit leaders do better at doing good

Community Update: Ways to give, be of service and be part of the solution.

The past few days have been heartbreaking, frightening and exhausting to so many in our community. 
 
However, as is always the case, the nonprofit community and our allies have already stepped up in truly inspiring ways.  This email update serves to summarize the important information that has been shared with us with the hope that you will find ways to give, be of service and be part of the solutions our community will need. 
 
Dena & Leanne

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Update #1: Key Information on Borderline Shooting Response
Vanessa Bechtel, President & CEO
Ventura County Community Foundation

Regarding the Borderline Shooting

  • By 8 a.m. the morning after this horrific event, the Ventura County Community Foundation, in coordination with the City of Thousand Oaks, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Amgen Foundation, California Community Foundation, Edison International, Bank of America Charitable Foundation, and others, had set up a specific fund to help support the victims, families, law enforcement community, and organizations providing first and second line support.
     
  • By Friday evening, we granted the first $70,000 that came in through immediate grassroots donations to Interface Children and Family Services so they can utilize their case management expertise and provide immediate and direct grants to those impacted in the shooting over the weekend.
     
  • The type of support provided to victims includes:Food money, rent money, groceries, travel expenses (gas, hotel, flight), money to help get their drivers licenses back if lost in the chaos, cellphones which were lost, clothes and shoes, baby supplies for those with young children, etc.

Important Message for Those Offering Support
If you are working on assisting victims as well, please consider collaborating with VCCF and 2-1-1 Ventura County so we can all work collectively together. This type of case management is very complicated and we are best served by working collectively together.
The intake form is available online here: http://www.211ventura.org/hill-fire-woolsey-fire/ in English and Spanish. ** This is also important in relation to all fire relief efforts.
 
Convening our Community to Discuss Underlying Factors and Ways to Best Support Those Impacted
Dena Jenson, Director of the Center for Nonprofit Leadership at Cal Lutheran University, and Vanessa Bechtel are working together to convene a meeting on strategic ways we can address the underlying factors and address the immediate and long-term support needed during this time in our community. If you would like to join this effort, we welcome you. Please reach out to Dena directly and she can get you plugged in (djenson@callutheran.edu). More information will follow in the next days.
 
Employment for Out of Work Survivors
Because Borderline Bar & Grill is closed currently, many of the employees are looking for part-time and immediate work. If you know of any opportunities, please contact 2-1-1. Bruce Stenslie, President & CEO of the Economic Development Collaborative and I connected this morning to see what else might be done and he is working with his key partners on this issue as well.

Hill and Woolsey Fires
Less than 24 hours after the horrific mass shooting, our community was struck by a second tragedy. I’m meeting with Kimberly Coley, Executive Director for the Pacific Coast and Ventura County Chapters of the American Red Cross this afternoon to discuss sudden and urgent needs that have arisen as a result of the Hill and Woolsey Fires. The Ventura County Community Foundation activated a Sudden and Urgent Need Fund as a vehicle to collect the generous donations from our community. We will keep you abreast of these efforts as well.
 
A quick shout out to Emily Barany with Thomasfirehelp.org and Abundance Networks for getting online access to our community yesterday. They have also once again activated their volunteer pilots to help fly families of victims and urgent situations of both tragedies that are within 300 miles of Ventura County. Learn more at www.thomasfirehelp.org.

  • If you wish to contribute to the Conejo Valley Victims Fund to support those affected by the Borderline shooting, please click here.

If you wish to contribute to the Hill and Woolsey Fire Sudden and Urgent Needs Effort, please click here.


Update #2: Red Cross
Kimberly Coley, Executive Director
American Red Cross, Pacific Coast & Ventura County Chapters
Update #4: Fire Support Group
Lisa Lopez, California HOPE of Ventura County

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