{"id":23268,"date":"2025-08-08T12:02:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T19:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/?p=23268"},"modified":"2025-09-05T11:29:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T18:29:40","slug":"fund-offers-hope-through-hard-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/pt\/fund-offers-hope-through-hard-times\/","title":{"rendered":"New fund offers hope through hard times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Este artigo foi originalmente publicado pelo Thousand Oaks Acorn.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ventura County Community Foundation\u2019s newest emergency fund is built on the simple idea that no one should face a crisis alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to recent events that include ICE raids, government budget cuts and growing pressure on social safety nets like SNAP and Medicare, a new initiative has been created to help Ventura County\u2019s most vulnerable residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ventura County Neighbors Support Fund\u2014hosted by the foundation and backed by a wide coalition of local nonprofits, education groups and civic leaders\u2014will provide emergency assistance to low-income families; immigrants, including those in the country legally and illegally; and students and small businesses experiencing sudden hardship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted to make sure we could better support our community,\u201d said Vanessa Bechtel, foundation CEO. \u201cOur goal is to keep businesses open, keep employees employed, keep students in school and to keep families secure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fund will provide grants to trusted local organizations that offer services such as food assistance, rental assistance, transportation and childcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A streamlined application for nonprofits and educational partners is now open. VCCF has stated that 100% of donations will go directly to aid efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Launched two weeks ago, the fund has already garnered more than $105,000, with contributions mainly coming from individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting donations of $10, $15 and $100\u2014it\u2019s really beautiful what people are doing to support our community,\u201d Bechtel said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be publishing every single dollar that goes out the door and where it goes to the penny, so people can really see how they\u2019re directly helping.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, at least one of the county\u2019s cities is considering contributing public funds to the cause. Thousand Oaks\u2019 city staff anticipates bringing an agenda item regarding the topic to the city council for consideration in late August, said Thousand Oaks Mayor David Newman as part of the foundation\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reached for further comment, Newman declined to discuss the matter prior to the council\u2019s vote but said he\u2019d be happy to discuss the matter afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, it appears Newman supports the creation of the fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI applaud VCCF for establishing this fund to support our community during these challenging times,\u201d Newman said in the announcement. \u201cWe encourage corporations, institutions and individuals to consider making contributions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the organizations backing the fund are the Ventura County Credit Union, League of Women Voters of Ventura County, Museum of Ventura County, Social Justice Fund for Ventura County and Montecito Bank & Trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The assistance comes on the heels of a summer of ICE raids throughout the county; a federal budget, passed three weeks ago, that is expected to cut SNAP by $863 billion and Medicare by $300 billion over the next 10 years; and a state budget, passed in late June, cutting funding to Medi-Cal for undocumented immigrants, cutting mental and dental services and completely eliminated the The Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the Neighbors Support Fund, backers hope to help those affected weather the storm. Bechtel and VCCF see the fund as an ongoing solution for the community that goes through any humanitarian crisis.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published by the Thousand Oaks Acorn. Ventura County Community Foundation\u2019s newest emergency fund is built on the simple idea that no one should face a crisis…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-coverage"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}