Father's Day
2023-06-20 | CA

Independence Day
2023-07-04
Kids & Families Together will be closed on Tuesday, 7/4 in observance of Independence Day.

National Disability Independence Day
2023-07-26
Disability Pride Month
“In 2015, New York City Mayor de Blasio declared July Disability Pride Month in NYC in celebration of the ADA’s 25th Anniversary. Though not yet nationally declared, the disabled community has adopted New York City’s declaration. Disability Pride is a fairly new and radical idea. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) wasn’t enacted until 1990. Let me put this into
perspective. If you are currently 31 years of age or older, you lived in a
world where people with disabilities were unprotected against discrimination
in education, transportation, the workplace, and other areas vital to a good quality of life. Additionally, many people without disabilities still view disabled individuals as lesser humans. Because many people with disabilities are unable to work in the same capacity as their able-bodied counterparts, they are deemed weak and unproductive. In our capitalistic society, this obviously doesn’t bode well. These hostilities and viewpoints are incredibly damaging to the self-esteem and mental health of people with disabilities. Disability Pride is all about reminding ourselves and the rest of the world that we MATTER and have VALUE just the way we are.”
Everything You Need To Know About Disability Pride Month in 2022 (therollingexplorer.com)
Disability Pride Flag designed by Ann Magill and updated in 2021 to ensure accessibility, each color represents a different type of disability: physical (red), cognitive and intellectual (yellow), invisible and undiagnosed (white), psychosocial (blue), and sensory (green). The charcoal background symbolizes mourning and rage for the victims of ableist violence and abuse, and the colored bands are placed diagonally to convey persons with disabilities “cutting across” societal barriers.
Image pulled from https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/07/22/observing-disability-pride-month-july
Third Places and Disability
What are third places? From Wikipedia “In sociology, the third place refers to the social surroundings that are separate from the two usual social environments of home (“first place”) and the workplace (“second place”). Examples of third places include churches, cafes, clubs, public libraries, gyms, bookstores, stoops, and parks. In his book The Great Good Place (1989), Ray Oldenburg argues that third places are important for civil society, democracy, civic engagement, and establishing feelings of a sense of place.“
Third places are spaces separate from home and work where people find community. Sadly, real-world third places can be difficult to access. Where can kids go to just play, teens to hang out, and adults to relax with others? Where can we go that doesn’t cost money, allows us to be noisy or quiet, allows people from a variety of beliefs to be together, etc.? Online communities have become a third place that is important for many people but especially important for anyone with disabilities that may not be accommodated in real-world third places. Many third places are not physically accessible, not participating in public health safety measures such as masking, or don’t have programs/available spaces that are low to no cost.
Check out this article by Imani Barbarin a Black disabled woman who is also a communications professional.

With Twitter Crumbling, It Feels Like The World Is Collapsing On Disabled People
by Imani
https://crutchesandspice.com/2022/11/16/with-twitter-crumbling-it-feels-like-the-world-is-collapsing-on-disabled-people/

November 16, 2022

I don’t want to leave the platform and I feel like I am mourning it in real time.
They call us the “chronically online,” those who “need to touch grass,” the people who need to “log off,” but for disabled people, online spaces have been a lifeline in a world that seeks to erase and eradicate us. Even prior to the pandemic, platforms like Twitter helped us to feel less alone and gaslit by our experiences and allowed us to contextualize our experiences in a way that gave us peace.
When I started CrutchesAndSpice.com, I was coming off another major depressive episode and was feeling hopeless about the future. It had taken a long time for me to find a job. My resume always “looked good” but I could see the enthusiasm drain from the interviewee’s faces when they clocked my crutches and, now that I had found a job, it was only part-time, and I was spending more on inaccessible transportation than I was making on my checks. Despite all the tv shows and films that I watched, none really showed what it was like trying to be an adult—or any person—with a disability. It was like we all hit adulthood and disappeared.
I was raised to overcome my disability in quiet ways and always outperform people’s expectations, but that didn’t matter much once I was no longer cute and “inspirational.” And, because I was “normalized” in school from childhood, I didn’t have many disabled friends who could relate, and any time I spoke on these things, I was just told to work harder.
That is—until I got to use Twitter more often.
I set up my Twitter profile in 2009 but didn’t spend too much on the platform until I started my first job outside of college in 2014. I had begun using my blog to write stories about being brought up as a Black, disabled child because that was something I never got to see growing up. I shared these stories on Facebook, but then branched out to Twitter and began engaging in conversations like #CripTheVote.
Through those hashtags, I met other disabled people, particularly, Black disabled people who affirmed my experiences and were vulnerable enough to let into their worlds. I was finally seeing the representation I had always wanted and disabled people—Black disabled people were in the directors’ chairs creating our own narratives and forcing people to see us.
Moved by the community, I went to Graduate School for Global Communications with the express purpose of telling better disability stories and utilizing online spaces to create representation and community. Soon, I started creating my own hashtags and online movements like #AbledsAreWeird and #PatientsAreNotFaking.
Through the disability community on Twitter, it is no exaggeration to say that the disability community saved my life, and it is through knowing them that I have found my purpose. I found answers to questions I didn’t even know to ask and support from people who only know me through their phones.
Without their grace, kindness, and understanding, I can honestly say I don’t think I would be alive right now.
The disability communities and discourse that was done prior to 2020 became critically important during the pandemic. We knew that the ways we discussed disability would mean life and death for thousands of disabled folks across the United States. Disabled folks, being criminally underrepresented, now more than ever were reliant upon nondisabled people’s view of the value of our lives as they debated whether it was prudent to participate in COVID-19 mitigation efforts or not.
It was important that we shared information and resources and information with one another as the entire world had stopped more for us than any other group. While a lot of companies focused on the importance of disability in DEI work and how the pandemic proved accessibility and inclusion of us was always necessary, they fail to see the full picture. While the world finally came to the realization disabled people were right the entire time and that accommodations were for all, everything halted completely for disabled people.
We were left for dead.
Hospitals quickly reached capacity and medical rationing guidelines meant that we were at the back of the line to get care. Society and the system saw no point in saving us. On top of that, we were cut off from our regular medical care, services, and education almost entirely. We had to sit and listen as people debated the merits of a disabled life and whether the economy should be punished for our existence.
We were isolated completely, but we were able to connect and come together in our fear and anger over how our community was being pushed to the margins. We could make it to the timeline even if we couldn’t make it out of our homes and despite a world that had forgotten about us.
And now a billionaire has bought Twitter.
It seems cartoonish that he would buy the platform that kept so many disabled people connected and therefore alive (for a greatly inflated price) and then seemingly scuttles it with bad decision after bad decision. For all the talk about how keeping disabled people alive throughout the pandemic was the greatest threat to the economy, it was he who cost corporations billions in mere hours.
Thousands have lost their jobs or quit because of his “leadership” and the guardrails are off as content moderation disappears and accessibility no longer matters to the company.
Aside from the increased threat of harassment, the greatest threat to the disability community is all the advocacy, networks and supports we created on the platform could be wiped off of it.
I fear that if the platform disappears, the visibility that we’ve built—demanded—will be gone as well.
All my sarcasm over the last few weeks has been out of fear of what seems to be this eventuality. I am looking for ways for us to continue to be connected, but I don’t think there’s any platform that can replicate the magic we created on Twitter.
I don’t want to leave the platform and I feel like I am mourning it in real time.
I don’t want to say goodbye.
I have decided to stick it out as long as possible, but before it’s curtains, I just want to say to each of you: thank you.
Thank you for saving my life and making it make sense. Thank you for the trust and privilege of getting to know you. Thank you for helping me understand my purpose. Thank you for helping me reach my dreams. Thank you for being unapologetically yourselves. Thank you for this community.
I’ll see you on the next one—wherever we go.
Find more of her articles as well as social media profiles at https://crutchesandspice.com

Chronicon 2023
“On May 19th, 2023, a group of fabulous and caring people put their heart and souls into bringing the disabled and chronically ill from the Chronicon community, from all over the US and Canada, to meet each other face to face in many cases for the first time. They gathered to celebrate all that they are and all that they can and will become. It was truly the most amazingly iconic day…”

“Chronically ill people are one of the largest marginalized groups in the US and we have a lot of work to do in having real equality in our everyday lives,” was our next topic of discussion led by the following panelists: Komal Minhas, Resilience Educator, Fortune Consultant, and Host, Julia Stephanides, Workers’ Rights Lawyer and Founder of Legally Holistic, Dr. Deepek Penesetti, Triple Board Certified Child, Adolescent, and Adult Psychiatrist, and Emily Ladau, Author, Advocate, and Speaker.
Finding answers to our problems can be extremely difficult. That is why it is important for us to seek answers by finding our community. For instance, “Loneliness is also known as “Death by 1,000 Paper Cuts,” according to Dr. Deepek Pensetti. “When you have something that you do not share with others, that is loneliness.” “Loneliness is also known as “the silent struggle” and the best way to overcome it is with community,” according to Dr. Pensetti. He also added that “change happens when one person humbled by life helps another.” That is what Chronicon is all about.
Go to the website to read the full article about the event. https://mydiversability.com/blog/2023/6/28/summary-of-chronicon-2023-an-amazing-day-for-the-disabled-and-chronically-ill-community-to-come-together-to-celebrate-all-that-we-are
Resources

12 Ways to Celebrate Disability Pride Month
https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/how-to-celebrate-disability-pride-month
What You Need To Know About Ableism
https://mydiversability.com/blog/2020/8/20/what-you-need-to-know-about-ableism
Diversability Website
https://mydiversability.com/
https://mydiversability.com/blog/2023/6/28/summary-of-chronicon-2023-an-amazing-day-for-the-disabled-and-chronically-ill-community-to-come-together-to-celebrate-all-that-we-are
Chronicon
Chronicon is on a mission to elevate the visibility of the 133+ million Americans living with a chronic illness. Because, let’s be honest—this population deserves more love and support.
https://chronicon.co/
https://www.thechroniconcommunity.com/landing?space_id=2928422
PBS – articles and videos about Disability Pride
https://www.pbs.org/articles/disability-pride-month-and-the-disability-rights-movement/
Disability Pride Parade will be held in LA in October 2023
https://www.disabilitypridela.com/
https://www.disabilitypridela.com/faqs
Third Places
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/04/third-places-meet-new-people-pandemic/629468/

A collaborative effort shared on behalf of the JEDI team.

World Day Against Trafficking in Persons
2023-07-30
World Day Against Trafficking in Persons
Since its inception in 2013, this day has been sanctioned as an opportunity for raising awareness of the global problem of human trafficking. A few years ago, a few of us had the opportunity to attend the Ventura County Coalition Against Human Trafficking Myth Buster Panel where we learned a lot about what’s going on right in our community. VCCHAT started in 2015 and is comprised of Law Enforcement, Victim Service Providers, Legal Service Providers, Faith Communities, and concerned citizens that are dedicated to working together to address the critical issue of Human Trafficking in Ventura County.
Human Trafficking is defined as the recruitment, transportation, harbor or receipt of an individual by use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of sexual exploitation, involuntary servitude, debt bondage or slave labor; or any child under the age of 18 that is used for the purpose of sexual exploitation. This covers labor trafficking, adult sex trafficking and CSEC Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.
These common myths were busted:
MYTH-Human Trafficking only occurs outside the United States.
BUSTED: Human trafficking is very prevalent in the United States, here are the 10 states with the highest rates of human trafficking (taken from https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/human-trafficking-statistics-by-state):

Nevada (7.50 per 100k)
Mississippi (4.99 per 100k)
Florida (4.08 per 100k)
Georgia (3.85 per 100k)
Ohio (3.84 per 100k)
Delaware (3.84 per 100k)
California (3.80 per 100k)
Missouri (3.78 per 100k)
Michigan (3.64 per 100k)
Texas (3.63 per 100k)

MYTH -Human Trafficking is always or usually a violent crime.
BUSTED: The most pervasive myth about human trafficking is that it often involves kidnapping or physically forcing someone into a situation. In reality, most traffickers use psychological means such as, tricking, defrauding, manipulating or threatening victims into providing commercial sex or exploitative labor.
MYTH – Only undocumented foreign nationals get trafficked in the United States.
BUSTED: Victims of human trafficking are those of all ages, races, genders and nationalities.
MYTH -If the trafficked person consented to be in their initial situation, then it cannot be human trafficking or against their will because they “knew better.”
BUSTED: Initial consent to commercial sex or a labor setting prior to acts of force, fraud, or coercion (or if the victim is a minor in a sex trafficking situation) is not relevant to the crime, nor is payment.
The vast majority of recruitment is online- make sure you know who your kids are talking to! Since most of the media and imagery that surrounds human trafficking depicts victims who are chained and bound, many victims don’t even know or believe they are being trafficked especially since the perpetrators are people they trust and have developed relationships with as a result of grooming. It is important to point out that it often takes approaching the victim more than one time for them to realize they need help. These victims are scared for their own safety as well as for their families and loved ones. Also, the victims often believe that they will be arrested, deported or lose their children if they report the trafficker. Most successes that have taken place are when the victim has the chance and space to form a relationship with a healthy person.
Human trafficking is oftentimes the end result of a lifetime of vulnerabilities (trauma, disability, abuse, violence, poverty, etc.) which is why it’s so important for the staff at K&FT to be aware of these facts. Many of the parents/caregivers we work with can be at risk. Children in foster care are a high-risk group for CSEC as well as labor trafficking as they move into adulthood and are looking for work.
What Can Commercial Sex Trafficking Look Like in Ventura County?

Escort services- Hotels/Motels, Night/Strip Clubs, Internet Ads
Outdoor Solicitation- “Tracks” or “Strolls” (Street Side), Truck Stops
Residential- Organized Brothels, Private Homes/Drug Distribution or “Trap” Homes, Massage Parlors
Pornography- Informal Distribution, Formal Pornography Companies
Personal Sexual Servitude- Survival Sex, Forced Marriage
Internet Sex Acts- Webcams, Text-Based/Phone Chat, Social Media

What Can Labor Trafficking Look Like in Ventura County?

Massage Parlors- Front Desk, Cleaning Services, Masseuse
Hotels & Hospitality- Housekeepers, Janitorial/Maintenance Services, Cooks
Traveling Sales Crew- Door to Door, Stationed Outside Establishments, Selling Items (magazines, candy, etc.)
Agriculture – Field workers, packers

ACTION STEPS
Who to contact If You See Something/Someone Who Needs Help

National Human Trafficking Resource Center- For survivors or current victims of sexual exploitation. Provides critical support, information, and services to get help; safety planning and tools to combat all forms of human trafficking. Call/text/chat online is confidential and available 24/7 to request assistance or report a tip anonymously. Available in English or Spanish or more than 200 additional languages through an on-call interpreter.

Contact: 1-888-373-7888; Text: 233733;
Website: https://humantraffickinghotline.org/

Law Enforcement- If you witness a suspicious situation and/or there is a possibility of immediate harm, call 911 and use the key terminology “suspected human trafficking” so the call is addressed to the correct unit and routed properly.

Victims Services- There are 2 local hotlines that have lines open 24/7:

Adult Victims- Interface Children & Family Services: 1-800-636-6738
Child Victims- Forever Found R.E.A.C.H.: 1-805-261-1212

If You Are A:

Parent/caregiver, you can learn how youth are targeted and recruited (resources on VCCAHT)
Health Care Worker, you can learn how to identify (Interface Children & Family Services has training specifically for health care industry)

Other Things You Can Do:

Become well-educated on the issue

Talk to the children in your life

Connect, connect, connect!

Read stories
Plan a picnic
Play a card game
Make a pillow fort
Blow bubbles
Have a barbecue

Foster or adopt a child
Read survivor stories

This American Life podcast: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/740/there-i-fixed-it/act-one-16)
I Am Jasmine Strong video- 5min, quick video that explains how grooming/CSEC can happen to youth: I Am Jasmine Strong – YouTube

Support state and federal legislation

Donate to a local organization- Interface and Forever Found (look up foreverfound.org to find information on an upcoming Benefit Dinner & Live Auction)

These are just a few things, find more at

VCCAHT Ventura County Coalition Against Human Trafficking | California Against Slavery
Forever Found www.foreverfound.org/get-involved

Parent Support Group
2023-08-07 15:30 - 17:00, 2023-08-14 15:30 - 17:00, 2023-08-21 15:30 - 17:00, 2023-08-28 15:30 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles)

International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples
2023-08-09
The United Nations (UN) International Day of the World’s Indigenous People is observed on August 9th each year to promote and protect the rights of the world’s Indigenous population. Also known as World Tribal Day, this event also recognizes the achievements and contributions that Indigenous people make to improve world issues such as environmental protection. Indigenous peoples are inheritors and practitioners of unique cultures and ways of relating to people and the environment. They have retained social, cultural, economic and political characteristics that are distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live. Despite their cultural differences, indigenous peoples from around the world share common problems related to the protection of their rights as distinct peoples.
Resources

International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples | United Nations
Report: Implementing the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention No. 169: Towards an inclusive, sustainable and just future
New national monument Grand Canyon ‘Ancestral Footprints’ map explored (usatoday.com)
Read about local indigenous peoples: Native Californians (arcgis.com)

Nurturing Connections: Parenting Styles
2023-08-09 17:00 - 18:30

Back to School Gift~Away
2023-08-12 10:00 - 12:00

World Humanitarian Day
2023-08-19

Senior Citizens Day
2023-08-21

Women's Equality Day
2023-08-22

Prioritizing Goal Setting for Families and Caregivers
2023-08-29 18:00 - 19:30
New Training- Prioritizing Goal Setting for Families and Caregivers!
Kids & Families Together in collaboration with Ventura County Children & Family Services Care Provider Training Program, presents a new training- Prioritizing Goal Setting for Families and Caregivers
This training is a Spanish Training and live English interpretation will be available via Zoom.
Training Objectives:
• Discuss the value of a shared vision
• Clarify personal or family goals based on identified vision
• Understand how priorities influence progress in goal setting cycle.
When: Tuesday, August 29th, 2023, from 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Where: Zoom
Register: Please click here to register!
This training counts toward required training hours. Please see flyers for more information.

Deaf Awareness Month
2023-09-01 - 2023-09-30

Suicide Prevention Month
2023-09-01 - 2023-09-30

National Kinship Care Awareness Month
2023-09-01 - 2023-09-30
Background
The care of children by kin has centuries of tradition, long before the formal child welfare system was created, including family foster care. Tired parents could get a rest when grandparents would take youngsters and teens for a few hours or days. Relatives stepped in when there were parental financial, medical, or other crises and tragedies. Children would live with grandparents, aunts and uncles, older siblings, or extended family members when parents needed to find employment and couldn’t take the children with them, including when parents were deployed to serve the country.
It was only in the early 1990s that relatives raising their younger family members were identified as a specific child welfare program area. “Family preservation” was coined in the 1970s, and of course foster care and adoption programs date back a previous century. But there was no nationally recognized, consistent name for the policies, programs, and practices connected with relatives raising children. To address growing concerns about the need for improved outcomes for children in foster care, in 1990 the Child Welfare League of America and the National Foster Parent Association collaborated to convene a National Commission on Family Foster Care.
With the considerable increase in the number of relatives caring for their younger family members and their commensurate compelling challenges, the Commission looked for a name that would differentiate foster parenting and care by relatives. Variously described as relative care, extended family care, home of relative care, and foster care with relatives, the National Commission wanted a name that respected and reflected the significance of family relationships. The strength of kinship systems among diverse cultural and ethnic groups had long been documented, for example in the 1974 book by Dr. Carol Stack, All Our Kin – Strategies for Survival in a Black Community. Thus, the name “kinship care” was selected by the National Commission under the leadership of NFPA and CWLA. It was published as a special chapter, “The Significance of Kinship Care,” in A National Blueprint for Fostering Infants, Children, and Youths in the 1990s. (nfpaonline.org)
Kinship Care Today
Kinship care is recognized as the full-time protection and nurture of children by relatives, members of their Tribes or clans, godparents, stepparents, fictive kin, or non-related extended family members. The definition is inclusive and respectful of cultural values and ties of affection. Whether formally through child protective services or informally through family arrangements, kinship care aims to reduce the trauma of family separation and provide cultural and community ties. Within this definition there are two populations of kinship families:

informal, where children live with grandparents or other relatives and are not in the custody of a public child welfare agency;
formal, where children are in the care of a relative or non-related extended family member and in the custody of a public child welfare agency.

Whether informally arranged among family members or formally supported by the child welfare system, it is essential to affirm and support the considerable contributions of kinship caregivers.
Kinship Care in the United States

8 million- number of children who live with a relative who is the head of the household
2.6 million- number of children who are being raised by a relative or close family friend and do not have a parent living in the household
137,356-number of children in foster care being raised by relatives

For every 1- child raised by kinship in foster care, there are 18 being raised by kin outside of foster care
In 2010 26%- of children in foster care are being raised by relatives
In 2020 34%- of children in foster care are being raised by relatives (gu.org)

Local support
In Ventura County, it is estimated that over 5,000 grandparents are raising grandchildren. Kids & Families Together has provided therapeutic counseling and education support services to kinship caregivers for over 20 years. Part of our work is provided by our Peer Partner and Educator program (PPE.) PPEs are para-professionals with lived experience in being a resource parent and or informal kinship caregiver. These amazing individuals walk alongside new or existing kinship caregivers coaching them on the Child Welfare System and Community Resources.
In 2022-2023 PPEs provided education-support services to:

508-Resource Parents: relative and community homes
1157 hours- of education-support services to relative and community homes. This includes coaching families on understanding the Child Welfare System and Community Resources

In 2022-2023 PPEs provided education-support services to:

453– Informal Kinship Caregivers (outside of foster care)

1490 hours- of education-support services to informal kinship caregivers. This includes training and coaching (Informal Kinship Caregivers) on the Child Welfare System and resources and referrals for personal and household items

Advocacy
While much progress has been made to support kinship families – such as Navigator Programs – much more is needed. For example, while there is a National Foster Care Month, we need to advocate for a National Kinship Care Month. Some states have been able to successfully achieve state resolutions for Kinship Care Month, but a National Kinship Care Month is essential to be both celebratory and achieve essential resources for every kinship caregiving family across America. And words matter: there is a need for quality kinship care and quality family foster care. Kinship caregivers and foster parents are better together and advocate together for resources for all children!
Resources/Links/More Information

Home (grandfamilies.org)

Kinship Care – The Annie E. Casey Foundation (aecf.org)
Kinship Care – Child Welfare Information Gateway
KINSHIP CARE – CWLA
Generations United (gu.org)
Kids and Families Together – Ventura County Foster Care, Kinship Care and Adoption Support

Labor Day
2023-09-04
Kids & Families will be closed on Monday, September 4th in observance of Labor Day.

New Training- Harnessing Happiness Hormones
2023-09-07 10:30 - 12:30
As we age, changes naturally occur in the way our bodies stay regulated. Learn how life factors may even affect our hormone levels, with stress having the worst impact. These include four “happiness hormones” (Serotonin, Endorphins, Oxytocin and Dopamine), as well as one stress hormone (Cortisol).
Date: Thursday, September 7, 2023
Time: 10:30am-12:30pm
Location: Online (Zoom link will be sent in a Follow-Up Email 1-2 days before class)
Please Note: this class serves as a foundation for Nick’s Sustaining the Caregiver series, which will begin in two weeks. More information on this class and the series can be found by clicking on the links below.

TBRI Caregiver Training: Introduction & Overview
2023-09-08 09:30 - 15:00

Grandparent's Day
2023-09-10

Nurturing Connections: Strategies for Developing Secure Attachments
2023-09-13 17:00 - 18:30

Hispanic Heritage Month
2023-09-15 - 2023-10-15

TBRI Caregiver Training: Connecting Principles
2023-09-15 09:30 - 15:00

TBRI Caregiver Training: Empowering Principles
2023-09-29 09:30 - 15:00

Filipino American History Month
2023-10-01 - 2023-10-31

Italian-American Heritage and Culture Month
2023-10-01 - 2023-10-31

Polish-American Heritage Month
2023-10-01 - 2023-10-31

Mental Illness Awareness Week
2023-10-01 - 2023-10-07
