{"id":24932,"date":"2026-11-02T12:19:55","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T20:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/?p=24932"},"modified":"2026-11-02T12:26:06","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T20:26:06","slug":"vccf-power-of-purpose-october-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/es\/vccf-power-of-purpose-october-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"VCCF Power of Purpose – October 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Estimada familia de la Fundaci\u00f3n Comunitaria del Condado de Ventura,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, I invited you to think about your lollipop moments,<\/strong> what Drew Dudley in his TED Talk \u201cEveryday Leadership<\/strong><\/a>\u201d calls seemingly small interactions that make a lasting difference in someone\u2019s life,<\/strong> often without the person responsible ever realizing what they have done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The many responses we received warmed our hearts.<\/strong> We heard a story from decades ago about a young woman about to leave for college to pursue her dream, who discovered at the last moment that the funding she thought was there did not exist. A neighbor told her, \u201cJust go. It will all work out.\u201d She did. Years later, she passes on the gift of higher education to so many young people by volunteering with your community foundation\u2019s scholarship program<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Another reader shared that she was struck by the depth of the response when she shared her picnic lunch with a stranger who was hungry. Since then, every time she can, she buys coffee for others and shares what she has.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And one reader said we need to start a Lollipop Brigade to remind one another that we are all in this together. Her lollipop moment was about a friend and fellow grantee who provides food for area colleges\u2019 food pantries and hygiene products for students experiencing homelessness. I was moved to tears by the beautiful exchange between these two marvelous women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This month I want to stay with that idea a little longer, because I have been reading a book that explains why those moments matter so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Book of Joy\u201d is a record of a week the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu spent together, two old friends trying to answer a simple question: how do we find joy in a world that holds so much hardship?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their answer surprised me. Joy is not something that happens to us. It is a way of approaching the world.<\/strong> And the surest path to it is not chasing our own happiness. It is seeking to do good for others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both men say we are wired this way. We are built to care for one another. Archbishop Tutu describes it with a word from his own South African tradition: ubuntu. A person is a person through other persons.<\/strong> We depend on each other to become fully ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I read that, I thought about lollipop moments again. The neighbor who said, \u201cJust go.\u201d The woman who shared her lunch. They were not trying to find joy. They were paying attention to someone else. And joy found them anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is what I see at your community foundation every day. A donor who sets up a scholarship fund in memory of a parent. A woman who lost her home in one disaster and shows up for a family she has never met when the next one strikes. A volunteer who stays late to make sure every family is served. None of them would call it leadership. All of them would say it brought them joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

October is also Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and I want to pause to honor the advocates, shelter team members, and survivors in our county who live ubuntu in its hardest form. They show up for people on the worst days of their lives, and they keep showing up. We were honored to support the Ventura County Family Justice Center this past month with a grant of $100,000<\/strong> as part of our efforts to address incidents of violence from a public health perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am also proud to share that 805 UndocuFund is the latest grantee of the Ventura County Neighbors Support Fund & Coalition,<\/strong><\/a> in our seventh round of grantmaking. Their executive director, Primitiva Hernandez, was recently quoted in The New York Times about the organization\u2019s work helping our neighbors through a frightening time. You can read the article here.<\/strong><\/a> I hope you will. It is a portrait of what it looks like to be a person through other persons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So here is my invitation: let us keep remembering our lollipop moments and let us create new ones, together. If you are looking for a way to start, please consider donating to the Ventura County Neighbors Support Fund<\/strong><\/a> to get our eighth round of grant funds started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Con gratitud,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vanessa<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vanessa Bechtel, Presidenta y Directora General de la VCCF<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Meet VCCF Board Member, Jack Edelstein, in a new video interview!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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