by Admin | Nov 25, 2019 | News (home)
Please note: Recycling Soft/Film Plastics By Mark Mendelsohn and Celia Ortenberg It’s easier than we thought!
The Mendelsohn family will no longer be collecting your soft, otherwise known as film, plastics to take them to Santa Paula’s curbside recycling program. Santa Paula’s recyclables are now taken to Oxnard’s Del Norte transfer station, that does not recycle the film plastics.
The bin in the church kitchen will be removed as of December 1 because every one of us can now simply drop them off on our regular shopping trips! Sprouts, WinCo, Vons, Target and Kohl’s send them on their journey to become outdoor decking, fencing and furniture products manufactured in the USA by the socially and environmentally responsible company, Trex.
Of course, reducing and reusing is always preferred to recycling, so do that first, but when you find yourself ready to recycle, know there are many film plastics that can find a new life with Trex.
- These include grocery bags, bread bags, case overwrap (e.g., around toilet paper rolls), dry cleaning bags, newspaper sleeves, ice bags, wood pellet bags, produce bags, air pillows, bubble wrap, shrink wrap, salt bags, and cereal bags.
- Zip-top bags are acceptable only if they do not have a lining, Plastic shipping envelopes, padded or not, are acceptable but not combos of paper and plastic.
- All film plastics should be 99% dry and clean. Rinse out and dry zip-top bags, but with all others it’s more like a shake out the crumbs level of cleaning.
Trex explained a good way to feel for the HDPE #2 and LDPE #4 types of plastic that are accepted, is to stretch the plastic with your finger. If it leaves a finger dimple, then it’s good. Some items NOT acceptable are biodegradable/compostable bags, frozen entree wrappers and other plastics that are shiny, crinkly, and rip easily/straight, as well as foil-lined chip/snack/energy bar bags/wrappers, and pet food bags.
Trex is counting on us to properly sort and only submit these accepted film plastics! Other types slow down their process, cost more to burn off of the correct plastics, and jeopardize the entire film plastic recycling program of the submitting store!
Check out the posters in the church kitchen to help you get used to this new way of caring for the Earth!
by Admin | Sep 29, 2019 | Children's Curriculum, News (home), Religious Ed News
After a lovely summer, it has been powerful to come back together as a community for ingathering and fall classes. One parent said it’s amazing to see how comfortable her son is in this community after he stood and volunteered to speak in a worship service. We seek to provide a space for children to feel a sense of safety and belonging, and also learn and grow in a community that holds us all accountable when we see injustice.
One community I have belonged to for over ten years is the young adult camp at De Benneville Pines, a Unitarian Universalist campground in the San Bernardino mountains. The theme this year was radical resilience, and I experienced the value of centering joy to promote resilience, as collective joy disrupts oppression, and is a revolutionary act. With all that each of our hearts is holding, and as our hearts break with all that we see, may we not take this community for granted. May we offer a meal, a cup of tea, a warm hug, a listening ear, a smile, and center joy, as we work, despite it all.
The Religious Education team is excited about our fall course offerings! The youth are undertaking the longstanding tradition of Unitarian Universalist teens visiting other faith communities within our city. Crossing Paths is the latest rendition, which uses the lens of analyzing what problem each religious notices, and which solution they provide. The upper elementary students will use Sing to the Power, a Tapestry of Faith curriculum that affirms our Unitarian Universalist heritage of confronting “powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love.” Participants experience their own power, and understand how it can help them to be leaders. The lower elementary will use the Soul Matters theme-based ministry packets for religious education to deepen the connection to the monthly themes with age appropriate activities, including a wonder box! I’d love to speak more with you about these classes if you have questions or comments.
With Armfuls of Love,
Emily Carroll
Director of Religious Education
by Admin | Sep 29, 2019 | Committees, News (home), Support Group News, Volunteer
This Task Force is rolling out a series of initiatives to provide practical help for UUCV members. The formal rollout took place at the UUniques potluck in September. The Task Force is in response to concerns about the needs of church members, especially those who are older and/or who live alone. The initiatives include the following five programs:
1. Life Crisis Form: For members who want the church to have information on file in case of an emergency, a Life Crisis Form can be completed online at the church website. This information will be secure, confidential and accessible only by Rev. Dana or her designated assistant. An optional hard copy will be kept in a locked file cabinet.
2. “File of Life:” A personal medical home file prepared for emergency first responders. It consists of a medical card with emergency contacts, insurance information, health problems, medications, allergies, and other relevant medical information in a magnetized red plastic pocket designed to be put on the outside of the refrigerator.
3. Skills Exchange Program: UUCV members have many skills that can be shared; computer knowledge, handyman services, tailoring skills, house and pet sitting. This program will promote the sharing with church members:
• Shared Skills Barter (no fee): members can trade skills through negotiation.
• Skills Exchange for fee: members can offer services to other members.
Interested church members can list their skills for barter or fee exchange on a bulletin board in Berg Hall.
4. “Buddy System:” Church members who live alone can have a “calling buddy” check in with them on a regular basis to ensure they are safe. Senior members, especially, may be vulnerable if they fall and are unable get up. A calling “buddy” who is unable to reach a member could ask someone who has a key to check on the person. The UUCV Buddy System will help match up mutual buddies who call each other or arrange for a volunteer to make regular calls to those wanting to be contacted.
5. “Warm Line:” A dedicated phone line for church members to leave a message for a non-emergency concern to discuss with a caring listener. A Pastoral Associate would return the call within 24 hours. A Pastoral Associate, in partnership with Rev. Dana, is a church member who responds to pastoral needs and provides a confidential, compassionate, and listening presence. The Warm Line is not meant to address emergency situations more appropriate for a 911 call.
Task Force members include Corine Barksdale, Kent Brinkmeyer, Susan Franzblau, Yukio Okano, and Sylvia and Duane Wikholm. Gudrun Eastham provided assistance for the Skills Exchange Program. Questions? Yukio Okano at 805/985-1485.
by Admin | Sep 27, 2019 | Inreach/Outreach, News (home)
Inreach/Outreach Committee News
The congregation will vote on Sunday, October 6, to determine which organizations will receive our offerings in November, December, January, and February. We received 13 applications for the 15 available offerings. Your votes will decide which organizations receive an offering and how many offerings each receives.
You can use your votes to focus the impact our offerings have, if you choose. On average, a Sunday offering brings in $750. Therefore, if you’d like an organization to be able to do something that will require more than $750, you might want to give 2 or more of your votes to that organization.
A summary of each application is below, and the applications as they will be up in Berg Hall on October 6 are attached. If voting in person on October 6 is not convenient for you, you may turn in your votes by emailing me at suebrinkmeyer@earthlink.net or by putting a note or the attached absentee ballot in the Inreach/Outreach mailbox near the copier. Blank copies of this absentee ballot will be available on the table in front of the Inreach/Outreach box beginning this Sunday, September 29.
Thanks, Sue Brinkmeyer
Acting Chair, Inreach/Outreach Committee 818-281-6249
Summary of organizations applying for an offering:
- CAREGIVERS VC is requesting $1,500 to provide trained staff and volunteers who will transport more than 500 homebound frail, low and moderate-income Ventura County seniors to medical appointments, out-patient surgeries, medical therapies, pharmacies, and the market. They will also carry in groceries, take out trash and read mail or help with other chores.
- CAUSE (Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy) is requesting $3,000 to pay for and manage the ALERTA text system, which currently reaches over 6,500 immigrants with information about their legal rights, important workshops on naturalization and other topics, as well as ICE raids in our local neighborhoods.
- CFROG (Climate First: Replacing Oil & Gas) is requesting $2,000 to pay for staff to do the often complex research, legal work, and advocacy needed to successfully fight efforts by the oil industry to avoid oversight and regulation. Funding will allow CFROG to do the proactive work that helps protect the well-being of humans, wildlife and the land.
- Lift Up Your Voice Motel Fund Team is requesting $3,000 to provide a night or two at a motel when individuals or families, especially families with children, face special circumstances that make our one-time assistance likely to have a significant impact on their long-term health or well-being. Many times such families can’t get help until Monday when offices open, and no shelter is available, so our help is critical to keeping young children and those with serious health issues from being homeless in their car or on the streets.
- The Lift Up Your Voice Park Outreach Team is requesting $3,000 to continue outreach in the homeless community and to support homeless individuals and families. Lift Up Your Voice volunteers build relationships with our homeless neighbors and help them get connected to services. They provide such essentials as bus passes, feminine products, toothbrushes, toothpaste, body wipes, razors, socks, mittens, dog food, donated clothing, and blankets and other necessities.
- Lift Up Your Voice Safe Sleep Team is requesting $3,000 to help people who are homeless and living in their cars qualify for and stay in the Safe Sleep Program, which provides them a safe place to sleep in our church lot as well as case management services to help them return to housing. Funds will pay for car registration, smog fees, car insurance, and necessary repairs as well as provide a monthly “Pizza Night,” when our volunteers and our Safe Sleep guests can come together to build relationships and improve the efficacy of the program.
- MICOP (Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project) is requesting $3,000 to train and certify two trilingual (Mixteco/Spanish/English) community members so they can become Department of Justice Board of Immigration Appeals accredited representatives who provide immigration legal assistance to the region’s indigenous immigrant community.
- Planned Parenthood California Central Coast is requesting $3,000 in order to offer financial assistance for services to patients who are low income, uninsured, under-insured, not qualified for state of federal health care programs, or facing a hardship that could require them to sacrifice health care. The goal is for no patient to go without healthcare simply because they cannot afford it.
- Reduce Barriers Fund, a partnership of River Community Church, the City of Ventura, and the Patrol Task Force is requesting $3,000 to reduce barriers that are preventing participants in the Community Intervention Court (aka Homeless Court) from ending their homelessness. Funds would provide access to shelter, sober living, work, addiction treatment or the like. The intent is to be able to react immediately to a need when it is identified and then have the time required to focus on helping individuals get insurance and housing assistance and take other steps that will allow them to end their homelessness.
- Santa Barbara Channelkeeper is requesting $2,500 to train and engage volunteers in the Stream Team citizen science program, which collects valuable, scientifically robust data about water quality and stream health in the Ventura River watershed. The data is used by government agencies to inform pollution prevention programs and water resource management decisions. The program also provides a rewarding community service opportunity for local citizens of all ages to explore and learn about their local creeks and watershed while also fostering environmental stewardship.
- Step Up Ventura, Inc. is requesting $1,500 to help provide one-on-one therapeutic services to resolve trauma and anxiety, build healthy parent-child relationships and promote optimal brain development in children affected by homelessness. Funding would also help train childcare and preschool staff to meet the emotional, social, and educational needs of homeless children so that they will be ready for kindergarten and have the skills to succeed in school.
- Ventura Community Partners Foundation is requesting $3,000 to rebuild Arroyo Verde Park’s playground, which was destroyed by the Thomas Fire. The new playground will serve children of all abilities and will include rubberized surfacing for children and adults with mobility challenges, play equipment to accommodate a wheelchair, sensory components for children, and cozy spaces for children who may need a quiet space to avoid over stimulation.
- Ventura Homeless Prevention Fund is requesting $3,000 to stop families and individuals from falling into homelessness simply because of a one-time but significant event such as an accident or illness that makes them unable to pay their rent this one time. Case managers help with budgeting and help clients qualify for reduced utility charges, free phones, and other services to ensure future housing stability. Over 90% of those helped pay rent on their own after our one-time help and remain housed one year later.
by Admin | Aug 27, 2019 | News (home), Notes from President's Desk
Notes from the President’s Desk – July, 2019
This month’s column is selected quotes I have used over the last two years. I hope that you will enjoy them, reflect upon them, and be moved to action by those that are most meaningful to you.
“This is no time for a casual faith.”
– Susan Frederick-Grey, UUA President
“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.”
– Benjamin Franklin
“I slept, and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke, and I saw that life is all service. I served and saw that service is joy.”
– Kahlil Gibran
“Good endings make for good beginnings.”
– A phrase that I first heard at the UUCV.
“Want what you have.
Be who you are.
Do what you love.”
– Rev. Dr. F. Forrest Church
“You all are on the front lines – providing ministry and leadership to people of all ages, helping us all not to lose our humanity in this very inhumane time, helping us all not to lose hope. Today, as I awoke, the words of Adrienne Rich were on my heart:
“My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power
reconstitute the world.”
“My fellow leaders, I cast my lot with you. We will not give up hope.”
– Susan Frederick-Gray
“Our Deepest Fear
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
– Marianne Williamson
Living in Paradise,
Bryan Buck, UUCV Board President
by Admin | Aug 27, 2019 | Children Programs, News (home), Religious Ed News
Masks, Music and Justice Making in Children’s Religious Education this Summer
NEWS from Religious Education • Emily Carroll, DRE – July, 2019
As our main curricula finish, and most of our team of amazing volunteer teachers takes a time of rest, we turn toward the playful spirit of summer! Our mission is family ministry that develops wisdom and resilience with UU values and action, builds relationships across the ages, and serves by learning and building connections within the congregation and beyond!
We are delighted to offer two activities on any given Sunday in addition to our nursery class. For the first half of the summer Joyce Lombard will be leading a fabulous mask-making project where kids will form masks to their faces using wet plaster gauze! After painting and decorating, masks will be displayed in the Green Room Gallery! For the younger kids, we’ll have a Music and Principles curriculum where musician guests from the congregation will share their instruments with the kids as we uphold our 7 UU principles with story, craft, and song!
Part two of the summer starts July 28 with activities around reading “Magical Monkey King: Mischief in Heaven” about the Chinese trickster God who gets away with lots of mischief! It’s about taming the monkey mind and learning the meaning of kindness. We’ll create shadow puppets to act out the story as we go!
The other option for the second half of summer is to be part of a Growing Young Justice Makers curriculum for children and youth to understand the complexities of conversations on race, participate in service projects, identify and heed the voice of their conscience, and ground their justice work in UU values.
We are also over the moon excited for the second annual Peace Camp at UU Ventura which is in early August! It is a weeklong day camp for K-8th grade that uses a musical curriculum to teach peacemaking, conflict resolution, and social justice, including three field trips! Register at: tinyurl.com/y2xlxh3u
Wishing everyone a lovely change of pace as the season turns, and from a book I try to read every summer: “Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don’t they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.” Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine
Three Cheers for Summer,
Emily Carroll, Director of Religious Education emily@uuventura.org
