The Zonta Club of the Conejo Valley Area, was established in 1972 in Ventura County of Southern California. It is made up of business professionals who want to make a difference in the community, and who seek new opportunities for friendship through service. Professionals from Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Simi Valley, Westlake Village, and parts of Agoura, all meet for one dinner and program meeting the third Tuesday of each month. At these meetings, club members enjoy presentations that are insightful, informative, and entertaining, as well as initiate new service projects and support existing projects already in place in the community.
Donations to Zonta International support world wide programs designed to make the world a safer, healthier, and equitable place through education, service, and advocacy for women and girls.
We know that when people all speak together, our voices are even stronger.
WESTMINSTER FREE CLINIC
(805) 300-6012
CLINIC
TEEN MEDICAL TRAINING
CONECTE:ZTAP ADVOCACY
The Zonta Club of the Conejo Valley Area donates annually to the Westminster Free Clinic to support its program to deliver free health and advocacy services to the working poor of Ventura County, an additional $5,000 annually to support their Teen Training Program, and is a proud funding partner for the new Conecte: ZTAP Advocacy Program for paraprofessional adults who can then train others to disseminate information and resources that will support and assist families dealing with mental illness and violence issues
Westminster Free Clinic: Westminster Free Clinic (WFC), founded in 1994, is a grass roots health care provider that is driven and empowered by volunteers. The clinic serves about 5,000 patients each year. It offers basic non-invasive health care, at or near locations where large numbers of uninsured people live or are marginally housed. Physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, and other medical professionals volunteer their time at the clinic after their regular jobs. The clinic addresses a broad spectrum of public health and health care issues. This program includes free patient care, prescriptions, resource and referral, advocacy, free legal services, bilingual counseling and dental screening services as well as training opportunities for teens and college students. http://www.wfc-online.org/Pages/Aboutus.asp
Westminster Free Clinic Teen Training Program: Currently, seventy local high school students volunteer alongside these professionals to serve the needs of our working poor, uninsured families. Thirty-one of the teens are Latino and low income with hopes of pursuing a career in nursing or a related health care field. Over 75% of the teens are girls.
This innovative model involves youth mentored by professional adults to serve a growing need in our community and offers high school students an experience that could launch them into a career in health care. Students are exposed to doctors, nurses, chiropractors, physical therapists, dentists, pharmacists, health educators, counselors and case managers. The enthusiasm and energy of the teens is contagious and patients and adult volunteers alike look forward to seeing them. The high school students are the first to serve the patient and are ultimately the one who presents the patient to the doctor and explains why the patient has come. The doctor then explains to the patient and student why they are making their diagnosis and what the patient needs to do. Everyone learns and the doctors say they like volunteering at our clinic because of the student-training component.
Students also participate in monthly training sessions, have job shadowing opportunities, community outreach projects and field trips to places like UCLA Children’s Hospital and Ventura County Medical Center to learn about other career possibilities. The Clinic’s teen training model has been featured in a number of national publications including Family Circle Magazine and Inspire Your World. Funds raised each year determine how many patients we can serve. How many patients are served determines how many students can have an intern experience. Presently, the clinic serves over 5000 local working poor families. This inspiring program benefits both uninsured people and high school students with dreams of a career in healthcare. This program has a great success rate of students going on to a university or community college.
Westminster Conecte-ZTAP; The Conecte -Zonta Funded Training and Advocacy program, in cooperation with Westminster Free Clinic, is a violence prevention and training project that focuses on adults who raise, care for, and teach young children ages 0 to 8 years. It is designed to prevent violence by helping these adults to be positive role models and learn the skills to teach young children nonviolent ways to resolve conflicts, deal with frustration, and handle anger.
Decades of research have shown that early childhood is a critical period in a child's life when children learn basic interpersonal skills, problem-solving, and self-control. It is a good time to teach positive behavior and the skills needed to get along with others. The ultimate outcome of this program is to have trained paraprofessional adults and teenagers who can then train others to disseminate information and resources that will support and assist families dealing with mental illness and violence issues, and will also help prevent similar issues for their children. The goal is to encourage the Latino community to talk about these important issues and help empower one another to address them, with the tools and support of leading national organizations and local services.
The Zonta Club of the Conejo Valley area annually donates to support the Justin Elementary School’s Dual Literacy Program in Simi Valley, California. This support has enabled the school staff to utilize Leap Pad technology in the classrooms with second language learners, purchase library books written in Spanish and English, and to establish a 22 computer Lab Library –Media Center for students and families to learn together.
In the classroom, Leap Pad technology is combined with “take-along-home” books written in both Spanish and English at students’ “just-right” reading levels. This allows parents who are limited English speakers or who do not speak English at all, to take advantage of the opportunity to participate in the literacy education of their children.
The 22 computer library –media center allows more students access to research and translation technology, and can provide an opportunity for student to teach parents what they have learned, side by side. This year, additional Reading Counts on-line tests are being purchased so more students can assess their progress with comprehension skills.
The Zonta Club of the Conejo Valley Area hosts and organizes Special Kids Day each Spring- this year: May 4th. Special Kids Day is an annual event for disabled children, coordinated with our area schools and sponsored by the Zonta Club of the Conejo Valley Area. On one special Friday morning in the Spring during Conejo Valley Days, the CVD Carnival Site will be open only for these handicapped and disabled children providing them with the opportunity to enjoy an participate in the carnival festivities. Our club matches children with community volunteers who are 16 years or older-about 350 children and their teachers & families are served. Information: skd@zontacv.org or visit our website at www.zontacv.org/skd/skdinfo.htm
The Zonta Club of the Conejo Valley Area donates approximatlely $1,000 annually to support the CASA’s Midwifery School, the only licensed midwifery school in Mexico. After three years of training, at CASA’s School, midwife graduates are able to work in any licensed Mexican health care facility completing their residency before returning to their communities to work. Midwives are the first line of defense in many rural communities for both maternal and infant health and in bringing awareness for women and their families that domestic violence is unacceptable. www.casa.org.mx
Since its inception in 1985, with a staff of only four and the help of more than 70 volunteers, the Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Tri-Counties has granted more than 600 heartfelt wishes to children in the Tri-Counties. The Zonta Club of the Conejo Valley Area annually donates 10 baskets of “top ten items” needed during the Make a Wish wish-granting process. Our club members collect items from the list, and deliver them to Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Tri-Counties, 4222 Market Sreet, Suite D., Ventura California. Our contact is Shanna Wasson Taylor. (staylor@tri-counties.wish.org)
The Zonta Club of Conejo Valley Area annually awards local and national scholarships amounting to approximately $6,000 to high school, college and graduate students. Application completion online at www.zontacv.org. Scholarship information: scholarship@zontacv.org)
Other charities that we support are: Hospice’s Children’s Bereavement Program, Zonta’s Meals on Wheels Angels a program that provides for the needs of home-bound Seniors in the Conejo Valley Area as identified by local Meals on Wheels Drivers. (president@zontacv.org)
The Zonta Club of the Conejo Valley Area in cooperation with Interface Family Services and the Cities of Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley, opened the first Z-House Transitional Home for Battered Families Program in 1995. Zonta members furnished and stocked the houses and replenished supplies with donated items. Families may live in the homes rent free for up to one year, while they secure jobs, education, counseling, and get their lives back together. The homes are managed by Interface Children & Family Services. Each year, Zontians buy, wrap, and deliver gifts and housing supplies to the families. The mentoring and personal support often give these women the support systems they have to move on and improve their lives and the lives of their families.
Tri-County Family Services
(805) 650-0114
Choices Over Violence Program,
and Domestic Violence Seminars:
The Zonta Club of the Conejo Valley area supports Tri County Family Services programs and training events coordinated by Gloria Gonzales. Tri-County Family Services is a non-profit agency located in Ventura, California serving Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, and San Luis Obispo with therapeutic and supervised visitation, supervised custody monitored exchange services, parenting classes, anger management, support groups, and individual counseling for families.
The CHOICES OVER VIOLENCE program is a weekly intervention group designed to end the batterer’s abusive behavior and help individuals make belief, attitude and perceptual change, and address the effects of domestic violence on children. Convicted Batterers are assigned to the program by the Court System, and The Choices Over Violence Program Personnel works closely with probation officers, and the Court System to monitor and evaluate the progress of clients.
Tri-County Family Services Professional Development and Training on Domestic Violence Seminars are held annually in cooperation with the Ventura College Counseling Department, Zonta, and other funding partners. This program is for educators, psychologists, counselors, MFT’s, LCSW, Nurses, Judges, Lawyers, Social Workers, Police Officers, Probation Officers, Correction Officers, and anyone interested in learning about domestic violence issues. Training topics include, assessing anger and abuse; psychodynamics; Why battered women stay; Intervention with abused women, Impact on children, Intervention strategies with children, Abuser typologies, Understanding power, Anger management techniques, and Ethical concerns.