Organizations allow volunteers to spread the holiday joy
Ventura County is home to many different organizations that provide volunteer and service opportunities year round, especially during the holiday season. Whether it is allowing underprivileged children to experience a Thanksgiving dinner or hosting toy drives, these organizations allow people of all ages to play a role in the community during the festivity-filled seasons.
Hannah Blitstein, manager of community and corporate partnerships, works with Many Mansions, a nonprofit that aims to provide permanent and reliable housing for people in need. The organization provides various holiday services with the biggest program being the “Holiday Helpers.”
“We’re running gift and toy drives, where organizations and individuals will buy gifts, toys, things especially for teenagers, and donate them to many mansions. We are also trying to collect grocery store gift cards as another way to help take some of this pressure off of the rising food costs,” Blitstein said.
Unlike other organizations, Many Mansions not only aims to remove the economic burden of the holidays, but also ensures that, with the help of their winter programs, essentials will be covered. “Instead of shopping for individuals, it gives a lot of autonomy and choice back to the parents and the guardian. They get to pick what their kids are going to enjoy the most, and at the end of the day, that’s what we want, is this independence and autonomy for not only the parents, but also the children involved as well,” Blitstein said
Stacy DeWitt, executive director, works with volunteers and the board at James StoreHouse to provide services including essential resources, serving kids and families from foster care, as well as helping children who have been rescued from trafficking. This Thanksgiving season, the nonprofit organization allows the community to give back in many ways. “People can create Thanksgiving baskets and those go to youth who’ve aged out, or families at risk and they don’t have food. So those Thanksgiving baskets are a great way to serve the community,” DeWitt said.
James Storehouse also offers volunteer opportunities around Christmas time to provide adolescents with toys and presents. “The County, Ventura County, has asked us to put on a holiday toy store for all the caregivers that have foster kids, or it’s for the youth who’ve aged out, or the at risk families, and so we will have thousands of people needing gifts. So if people want to send in a toy or gift card that would be so helpful, or if they want to volunteer in the toy room, then they can help provide a really nice shopping experience for those caregivers,” DeWitt said.
James Storehouse ensures that the underprivileged children in our community feel the joy of experiencing different holiday festivities during the months of November and December. “We care for the most vulnerable kids in our community…When there’s a holiday or an event, we make sure that we provide those items, so like for Thanksgiving they can have a Thanksgiving meal they might not ever have had before. And then for Christmas, we have the toys and gift cards, because very likely, the kids wouldn’t be opening anything under the Christmas tree, or even have a Christmas tree [in the past],” DeWitt said.
Aissa Fernandez, manager of the Community Impact Program, works at United Way of Ventura County, a program focused on funding projects needed in the Ventura community. They support areas such as homelessness and education, as well as oversee a website called “Volunteer Ventura County” where over 200 institutions provide volunteer opportunities. “[Organizations] post their volunteer opportunities as just kind of a way to connect regular residents who are looking for volunteer opportunities, but also agencies that need volunteers to cover a lot of nonprofits…We push for civic engagement and volunteerism in our community,” Fernandez said.
Giving back to the community through volunteering during the holidays allows disadvantaged groups to also feel accompanied and taken care of. “For some people [the holidays] means Thanksgiving with your family [and] sometimes it doesn’t mean that, but being able to give somebody a holiday experience that reminds them of their childhood, or that could make [them] feel a little less lonely, I think is so worth it,” Blitstein said.
