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Community Partners

Partnering With Our Community

In 2006, the Branchflower family began fostering, and in 2012 we opened Shelter Care Resources as a response to the great need to care for the material needs of foster children.  Since we began helping foster families, we have been blessed to connect with a multitude of other people and organizations who share the same vision.  We have also become aware of other needs that are not directly related to foster care, but have a great effect on kids entering the foster care system.  Because most children are taken in to foster care as a result of general neglect, it is important to help families who are struggling financially and on the cusp of losing their children.  Listed below, are just a few of the organizations we are proud to call partners.

Churches, Foster Care Advocates and Counseling Centers

A community of social and emotional support

Calvary Chapel Oxnard

Calvary Chapel Oxnard is the church that Rob and Corey Branchflower call home.  CCO focuses strongly on outreach to the community, giving support to Shelter Care Resources, The Lighthouse Women and Children's Shelter, The Rescue Mission Alliance and Ventura County Pregnancy Center.  The first Wednesday of every month, Rob leads a foster dad's support group in the fellowship hall.  For families with special needs children, Scott and Susan Hewer, both former special education teachers, help integrate children into the regular classes and work with the children's individual needs.   There is also a Spanish Church, Capilla Calvario, which meets in the building on Friday and Sunday nights.  Capilla Calvario has a food pantry which is available every Friday night at 7pm.  

Visit their website at http://www.calvaryoxnard.org

The River Community Church

The River Community Church is known for its outreach to needy families. Every Sunday, they provide continental breakfast for those who come to visit, and give out bread from Panera Bread at the end of service. Their food pantry is open every 2nd and 4th Sunday from 12:30-1:30.   Visit their website at http://www.therivercommunity.org

New Life Community Church

New Life Community Church houses a food pantry and a strong community service group.  The serve team goes out into the community and helps with various projects and needs.   

Visit their website at  https://www.newlifeoxnard.com

 Kids and Families Together/Heart2Heart

At any given time there are over 1200 children in the Ventura County foster care system.  Kids and Families Together provides counseling and mentoring to foster and resource families.  Shelter Care Resources partners with them for four events a year:  Christmas Gift Distribution, Easter Egg Hunt, Back-to-School Backpack giveaway and Halloween Costume giveaway

Visit their website at 

http://www.kidsandfamilies.org


Crisis Pregnancy

Ventura Pregnancy Center  http://www.venturacpc.org

If you think you’re pregnant & want to talk, call us. You can reach a caring, trained peer-counselor by calling (805) 644-3307. You don’t have to go through this all alone. We want to be a form of support for you. Services Are Free & Confidential. Pregnancy tests, confidential counseling, non-medical ultrasound, abstinence education, information on fetal development and abortion risks and procedures. We are not a medical clinic and do not refer for abortion.

The Adolescent Family Life Program (AFLP) and Cal-Learn Program work with expectant and parenting teens, both male and female. Both programs address the social, health, educational, and economic consequences of adolescent pregnancy by providing comprehensive case management services to teens and their children.

A Small Part of a Huge Foster Network

Here are some of the most amazing women who are each part of a different organization, and who operate every day as a team:

From left to right: 

(Back) Dawn Groom, Vice President and Co-Founder, RaisingHOPE; 

Betty Ebberson, Defending the Fatherless at Calvary Chapel Oxnard;

Tami Barnett, Executive Director and Co-Founder, RaisingHOPE; 

Stacy DeWitt, Executive Director, James Storehouse; 

Heather Fowler, Executive Director, Child Hope Services;  

(Front) Corey Branchflower, Shelter Care Resources; 

Karen Gamboa, Co-Founder, Defending the Fatherless and Executive Director, Dark to Dawn.  

Each of these organizations serves the community within their own parameters by providing for new and ongoing foster placements, resource families, at-risk youth and aging-out foster youth.  

More About Our Network

Impacting Ventura County Every Day

James Storehouse

Stacy DeWitt

http://jamesstorehouse.org

James Storehouse is a 501(c)(3) community based non-profit. We partner with local public and private child welfare agencies. James Storehouse fulfills emergency requests to expedite safe placement of babies and children and to assist aged-out youth as they transition. We have received commendations from Los Angeles County and Ventura County recognizing our service to the foster care community. 

Defending the Fatherless/

Dark to Dawn

Patrick and Karen Gamboa 

http://www.defendingthefatherless.net

http://www.darktodawn.org

The mission of Dark to Dawn is to defend the cause of the orphans by declaring God’s mandate for their care and inspiring believers to take action. 

Defending the Fatherless began in the spring of 2011 as a ministry of Calvary Chapel Nexus. It is a ministry that began as a way for the body of Christ to support families on the journey through adoption and foster care. 


Raising Hope

Tami Barnett, Dawn Groom

http://www.raisinghope.org

RaisingHOPE, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization that provides excellent legal advocacy, awareness, funding and support for children and families in the child welfare system (sometimes commonly called the foster care system). RaisingHOPE, Inc. provides legal services for dependent children, non-minor dependents, parents of dependent children and foster parents or relative caregivers. Dependent children may be in foster care, group homes or other congregate care facilities, relative homes, transition homes or even with their parents. The organization also gives funding to provide for the needs of dependent youth or recently emancipated youth to pay for things not covered by any other means. The organization also has a high quality mentorship program for teens and young adults.

Child Hope Services

Daniel and Heather Fowler

http://www.childhopeservices.org/new-page/

Child Hope Services helps families with their specific and initial start-up needs, such as cribs, beds, strollers, car seats and other items for foster care and guardianship. For private and/or international adoption we can provide financial assistance through a one-time grant.

They also provide families with one week of clothing and other necessary items. This primarily pertains, but not limited to, foster families who have just been placed with a child. This will free up the family to focus on taking care of and loving on their new addition in that first week.

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