OVYF takes stock
by Jesse Phelps

The Ojai Valley Youth Foundation needs your help. It has just completed its five-year mission to instill improved social health in the community and has exhausted the grant that launched that mission. Executive director Caryn Bosson says she thinks the citizens of Ojai are ready to take the next step.
"Where the Youth Foundation fits in is providing a solid layer of prevention activity," said Bosson, "while continuing to activate our entire community and collaborating together so we are woven so tight no child can fall through."
But Both Bosson and OVYF board member and Nordhoff 10th-grader Caitlin Smith say they love watching the foundation's accomplishments grow wings in the forms of lives changed and a community awoken.
"It just changes the way people think. And it doesn't have to be done by us, it just changes how the community thinks," says Smith.
OVYF was born in 1996, when a collaborative made up of the Ojai City Council, the Ojai Unified School District and the Ventura County Sheriff's Department created the Ojai Youth Master Plan.
"At that time," says Bosson, "there were a lot of youth issues. 1995, '96, there were racial tensions, fights. Gangs were simmering even more than they are now. There was a lot of pressure on some different areas."
More than 1,000 local residents contributed to the formation of the plan, which outlined goals including working together to support a safe, healthy, nurturing environment for families and the community, to increase valley-wide enrichment activities, to prepare youth for the future through educational and employment opportunities, to foster respect and communication among people of all ages, races and backgrounds and to locate and create resources.
It was "a way that the community could sort of systematically address what the youth really need," said Bosson. "People were so ready. It was really neat, it was so grassroots. And out of it came these goals and objectives and 90 percent at this point now have been met. Because, this was like this, it just blasted us off."
In the beginning, the twin challenges of funding and the logistics reared their ugly heads. "We had this fabulous plan at the end of 1996 and then came the hardest moment," remembers Bosson. Money was hard to come by. "I mean, we cleaned out closets at Chaparral High School."
Yet because "all kinds of good things were happening in the community with volunteer effort," the OVYF received a million dollar grant from the California Health Foundation.
"We had all these committees," Bosson laughs. "We had a planning committee and a marketing committee and a leadership committee. And we had to follow their guidelines and it was about health." After taking a good hard look at the needs of the community, OVYF focused on social health and the idea of bridging social gaps.
"The social health issues that we addressed were the divides among people of different ages, backgrounds and ethnicities," Bosson said. "But especially, and the main point was, that young people were resources. In being involved and improving the community's well-being, they were improving their own well being."
Bosson says people don't see the whole effect of the foundation because each child takes from it what he puts in. "People want to see the building," she laughs. But the foundation didn't spend its money on construction. It is housed in a modest three-room office on Church Street and the money has gone to programs and projects.
The One-on-One Mentoring Program matches responsible adults with youth in the fourth through eighth grades, aiming to create matches which benefit both mentor and mentee. The mentor serves as a role model, gives encouragement and support, and helps the mentee become more involved in positive activities. The matches meet on their own schedule for at least two hours a week, after school, in the evenings or on weekends for a period of at least a year.
Generation Communications (GenCom), an in-house but now self-supporting graphic design company, has a long-time professional at the helm and the staff is rounded out by three students. It takes independent contracts and is fully self-funded.
OVYF's Youth Planning Group instituted the youth fitness center at Sarzotti Park and the foundation reinstated Ojai's Youth Employment Service. Student participant Wendy Velasquez coordinated student diversity days, which inspired the insertion of diversity studies into the curriculum of Ojai's schools.
Smith says the formation of the "ABC" or Anti-Bias Club was another offshoot of the foundation's focus on diversity. Smith also lauds the Action Club as a positive opportunity for kids to work together across age lines. An after-school program in which Nordhoff students act as mentors to kids from Matilija, action gives the kids role models and opportunities to engage in community service projects as well as artistic endeavors such as the suitcase project, an activity where the kids "are fixing up, decorating and making works of art out of old suitcases."
In January, 2002, seven youth and two adults were sworn in as the City of Ojai's first Youth Commission. The commission is funded by the city and training is provided by the foundation. Modeled after the City Council, the commission provides an outlet for Ojai's budding politicians to practice their chops.
Bosson says, "We make it fun. We just get people into a frame of mind where they feel comfortable."
Intern programs include graphics, writing, Web, video, drama, GenEvents and photography. As an example of activities undertaken, graphics interns are trained to design and produce a wide range of materials including posters, invitations, brochures, ads, logos and greeting cards. Youth participants are mentored by experienced professionals and in many cases are launched on professional paths.
GenCom has a client list that includes Ojai Rotary, the City of Ojai Department of Public Works and the Ventura County Department of Public Health Anti-tobacco Fund.
Former participant Severo Lara, Bosson says, was in danger of becoming a victim of gang violence before he tried expressing himself through the foundation. Now he's a successful inspirational speaker.
In the last year, more than 1,000 community members directly participated in OVYF programs and events. The list of donors to the foundation reads like the Ojai phone book. The foundation truly is a community-wide phenomenon and Bosson is excited that Ojai has become a model for other towns looking to begin youth programs of their own.
"If you go to the conferences, you'll see we're way out ahead," she said. The foundation will continue on but without the aid of grant money, the need for community donations is at an all-time high."This wonderful grant money that came from outside of the community funded five years of research and development," says Bosson. "Now, we are looking more and more for community contributions." In 2001-'02, community contributions made up only 22 percent of the total budget, while the now-defunct grant accounted for 47 percent. This year, that money will have to come from other sources. The foundation's goal is to raise $40,000 by year's end and they are within about $8,000 of reaching it. Interested community members can contact the foundation for information about becoming a patron.Bosson says the loss of grant money can be looked at as a positive because the foundation can now determine its own direction more and listen to the needs of the community without a predetermined focus on health.But OVYF's mission to promote positive and creative connections between youth and adults for the well-being of the community isn't likely to change. Career and job exposure and mentoring will continue. Bosson says the foundation is all about working "with youth, not just for youth." In her view, it's very important for teens to connect with adults, "not necessarily their parents, but community adults. There's the adult world and there's the teen world and there's a really important interlocking point, and that's where health happens," she says.Smith agrees. "There's a completely different way that you can relate with your peers. It's a different world. And we need to see what comes after this."

© 2002 The Ojai Valley News

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