Casa Pacifica receives $140,000 in emergency grants

Camarillo, CA –  Casa Pacifica Centers for Children and Families received $140,000 in emergency grants for costs related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Grantors included: Gene Haas ($100,000), Ventura County Community Foundation ($30,000), Montecito Bank & Trust ($5,000), and The Towbes Foundation ($5,000).

The COVID-19 pandemic has strict requirements for residential facilities like Casa Pacifica. These new protocols and requirements were designed to prevent and prepare the campus if a youth does contact the virus, as well as a change in the delivery of both their campus and community-based services. The changes have resulted in unbudgeted costs for Casa Pacifica.

Local grantors like Ventura County Community Foundation began the Ventura County Rapid Response Fund shortly after the shelter-in-place order began due to the ongoing pandemic. According to VCCF’s website, the purpose of the Fund is to “support those organizations providing basic human needs to individuals, families, and small business in Ventura County.”  Other grantors like the Gene Haas Foundation and Montecito Bank & Trust give to Casa Pacifica annually to support general operating costs. The Towbes Foundation has been a supporter of Casa Pacifica’s mobile crisis response SAFTY Program in Santa Barbara County in the past.

In addition to the unbudgeted costs of implementing pandemic related safety measures, Casa Pacifica is dealing with the lost event revenue from the Angels Wine, Food & Brew Festival and the Yummie Top Chef Dinner, originally scheduled for early June. The Festival, in its 27^th year, netted over half a million dollars last year.

Casa Pacifica relies on grantors, event revenue, and corporate and individual donors to keep their doors open. Each year Casa Pacifica must fundraise between 10% and 13% of its $30 million budget, about $3.9 million last year. The dollars raised fill the gap that exists between the money they receive through government contracts and the actual cost of caring for the children receiving their services.

Casa Pacifica Centers for Children and Families is a crisis-care and residential treatment facility for foster or at-risk children in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. Its mission is to restore hope, enhance resilience, and strengthen community connections for children, young adults and families at the most challenging times of their lives. The agency is the largest non-profit provider of children’s mental health services in both counties and administers ten community-based programs designed to strengthen families and keep children in their homes and communities. One of those community based programs is their foster family agency, which recruits and trains families for potential placement with a foster youth. Camino a Casa by Casa Pacifica is a private insurance program designed to offer Casa Pacifica’s high-quality mental health services to private insurance youth. For more information about Casa Pacifica visit its website www.casapacifica.org or call the Development & Public Relations Department at (805) 445-7800.

Get Citizensjournal.us Headlines free  SUBSCRIPTION. Keep us publishing – DONATE