Ventura County Civic Alliance
Website: http://www.vccf.org/civicalliance
 First and foremost, the Alliance is a forum for regional dialogue,
providing a table for public discourse on important community issues,
and convening civic organizations and citizens with diverse perspectives
for information sharing, education and dialogue. One of the goals
of the Ventura County Civic Alliance is to inform the public debate
through policy papers and reports. VCCA recently released its first
publication, State of the Region--Ventura County 2002. During the
past 18 months, the Alliance has conducted diagnostic research that
will give the people of the region a better sense of the status of
a number of regional issues.
Region Served: The County of Ventura, which is bordered by the Pacific
Ocean, Los Angeles County, Kern County, and Santa Barbara County.
The Las Padres National Forest comprises most of the northern half
of the county, Lakes Casitas and Piru are situated at east and west
ends of the county.
Population: The County's population is now approaching 800,000 inhabitants.
This figure is growing at between 1.5% and 2% per year -approximately
the same as the five-county, Southern California region and the state
as a whole.
Size of Region: 1,873 square miles: Public beaches cover nearly
7.5 miles of the county's shoreline, while state beach parks cover
411 acres
Strategic Partners: The Cities of Camarillo, Fillmore, Moorpark,
Ojai, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Santa Paula, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks,
Ventura
Established: 2000
Overview
During its 2003-2005 program cycle the Alliance will focus its
efforts on three program goals and objectives:
- Regional Growth and Sustainability
- Civic Engagement and Education
- Research
The Alliance has several products, including The State of the Region:
Ventura County 2002, which is an extensive quality-of-life Indicators
Survey report, and The Civic Resource Map for Ventura County, which
is an ongoing process for identification of local civic engagement
organizations in the county whose members are working on environmental,
economic, or social equity issues. Through this process, the electorate
and public sector will be engaged, educated, and mobilized to solve
common regional issues.
The Alliance also serves, when needed, as a think tank on community
issues, enlightening community dialogue by contributing objective
research, issue papers and thoughtful analysis to the public debate.
Finally, the Alliance is a vigorous champion of the value of balancing
the "3 E's" of sustainable community, geographic representation
of east and west Ventura County citizens, and representation of all
ten of the county's cities in all public policy discourse that affects
the future of our region.
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