We got new playground equipment!

Last fall, heavy winds severely damaged the outdoor play structure at Interface’s Safe Haven domestic violence emergency shelter, making it unsafe for use. The damaged structure was removed, but due to budget constraints new play equipment could not be immediately purchased. We recognized that the replacement equipment needed to be commercial grade to withstand the wear and tear it sustains by the nearly 100 children who stay in our shelter each year. Interface worked with community partner Jill Upson, the Executive Director of ACTION (Area Christians Taking Initiative on Needs) to identify possible sources of funding to purchase the play structure, as well as coordinating more than 15 ACTION volunteers who came and helped prepare the backyard for the new play structure.

Through support from Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Simi Valley and the California Office of Emergency Management, Interface was able to purchase the new play equipment along with a safe and durable ground covering.  Both the equipment and ground covering are being installed this week by Swink’s Creation Inc. The new equipment is extremely durable and will serve as a safe and fun outlet for the children residing in our shelter for years to come.

You can help too!  If you are interested in donating to our Safe Haven domestic violence emergency shelter, all you have to do is click here. Your donation will help to offset costs just like this play equipment and other items necessary to help our families feel safe, relaxed and at home in our shelter. 

Why would I go without food for 24 hours?

by Erik Sternad
Executive Director, Interface Children & Family Services

In my 48 years on the planet, I’ve never gone without food for 24 hours. That seems amazing now that I have put it in writing. So what would compel me to go without food all day on Tuesday? 

I have been supporting the Ventura County Together (vctogether.org) fundraising blitz week and been part of the planning committee for this effort for several months. VCT is a group of 40 local non-profits all focused on addressing the unmet basic needs of so many across our county – the hungry homeless, sick and disconnected.

One morning last week as I woke up, this idea hit me:  I needed to devote one day for each of the areas that VCT supports (food, shelter, healthcare, 2-1-1). So Tuesday was a day of fasting, a small sacrifice to “join” those who were also hungry yesterday in our community.

After skipping breakfast, I was fine until about 11:45am when I started to notice the food in my office, and the food that my colleagues were eating here at Interface. I realized what it must be like for kids who went to school hungry on Tuesday, seeing their friends with their Lunchables and sodas, and getting that tight feeling inside – a quiet humiliation, of going without.

At about 1:30pm, I put a sticky note on my “snack drawer” in my office just in case I got distracted and reached for one of the snacks. I didn’t dare look inside the drawer! How could it be that in our country, in one of the wealthiest counties in our state, we have kids hungry this afternoon? What are we doing wrong as a society that we keep plowing forward without stopping to pick up the little ones? I remember that someone once said as a society we are measured by how we treat those who are most vulnerable amongst us. We’ve got work to do.

I received a few encouraging Facebook posts in the afternoon, and the couple of donations that came in that day were especially uplifting. At those moments I didn’t mind being a little hungry – it’s working!

By dinner time I was watching the clock. I always grab a cookie or a bite of something as soon as I walk in the door from work, so I was feeling lost and realized four times that my body had walked over to the snacks on the counter. “You can do it, you only have until 10:30pm,” I told myself. “Why did you eat so late yesterday evening? If you last ate at 6pm we’d be done by now…” Yes, I was actively arguing with myself.

I kept myself busy with a project at home, but when I sat down to read at 9:00pm, I was actually having a hard time concentrating! It took extra effort to focus my thoughts and track the text. My thoughts again went to that hungry child who I imagined at the same time staring at her homework – “got to think, think, think…” What a horrible extra burden to lay on a hungry child.

By the time 10:30pm rolled around, I was so ready to savor that first bite of an Austrian pastry that my wife had made the day earlier. I usually give thanks for my food, but this time, I was sobered by the opportunity to eat.

Maybe that’s what we’ve done, is we’ve forgotten that eating is a gift, an opportunity and a blessing. I hope many join the VC Together effort to raise funds for our local food providers today – they have more mouths to feed these days and without a whole lot of money to do it with. In the end, I just want to find a way to assure that that young girl in my imagination two days ago has food for tomorrow.

(You can learn more and donate online at VCTogether.org or text VCT to 27722. Thank you!)

Education For Action

After 35 years as a 501(c)3 nonprofit in Ventura County, Interface Children & Family Services' has a duty to provide the highest quality of services for children and families in our community.
  
Our goal is to educate our readers about the programs and services we provide, while spotlighting our Board of Directors, our donors, employees, volunteers, and most importantly, our success stories.
 
We hope each of you will be touched by the humility, strength, and passion of our many friends who make the work that we do possible.  Because for us, it is your generosity that makes us one of Ventura County's leading nonprofit agencies.

In the words of Herbert Spencer,  "The great aim of education is not knowledge but action."