United Women's Council exceeds their fundraising goal
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

They did it.

The United Women's Leadership Council has not only met their goal of raising $50,000 by the end of June but has exceeded it by $6,000, an official with the group said earlier this week.

"It's very exciting," Vice President Amy Fonzo said of the $56,000 the group raised.

Fonzo said that in addition to creating a personal legacy, founding members will also appear in the council's marketing materials for the first year.

The fledgling activist group of 56 women and men have taken up the mission of identifying the gaps in social services for girls age 15 to 19 transitioning out of the county's foster care system.

They'll partner with those agencies and organizations serving that population to meet the girls' needs.

Countywide, an average of 80 young women each year turn 18 and leave the foster care system. Many of them become pregnant, homeless and/or turn to gangs and drugs.

Stats for youth in foster care are just as dismal across the state and throughout the country.

Half of all foster care youth in the U.S. become homeless sometime during their first 12 months of emancipation.

In California, of the 4,000 youth who age out of the system each year, 65 percent have no place to live, 46 percent haven't completed high school, and 51 percent are unemployed, according to the Children's Advocacy Institute. Fewer than 3 percent attend college.

The council, which formed in April and operates under the umbrella of the United Way of Ventura County, has the overall mission of focusing its energies and resources on specific projects for at least three years, particularly those critical to women, by identifying and working with public and private social services agencies to fill gaps in services.

To meet their goal of growing countywide support, they want to increase membership to 300 and their operating fund to $300,000 or more. The council will hold an open membership recruitment event at Cal Lutheran University on Aug. 17.

For more information or to RSVP, call Amy Fonzo at (805) 485-6288, ext. 230.