About the Nonprofit
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Organization Background
Our Village Closet (OVC) was founded in December 2018 by two Resource Mommas (aka Foster Moms), Dominique and Amanda. We call ourselves the Dreamers and Connectors. Advocacy, connections and nurturing attachments are our jam! But why did OVC begin? We believe that advocacy and education come from our lived experiences. Our whole mission started out of a basic need. We ourselves experienced last minute placements without enough of or the right kind of supplies and no local resource to help us fill those needs efficiently or economically. We also learned how much support and encouragement we needed along the way: connections to others who understood what it was to invite brokenness and trauma into our lives and homes, people who could help us lean into the uncertainty, resources to help us parent complex trauma, extra needs, medical fragility, attachment disorders and so much more.
And so, we dreamed of such a place, part supply closet/part support and resources, until one day we decided to take that first step, and have been moving forward, growing our village with volunteers and supporters along the way. We began unofficially in our garages (in Guerneville and Healdsburg), our cars, and in numerous storage units throughout Sonoma County. We received our official 501(c)3 status in September 2020. More recently, we secured a grounding, physical space and opened our Resource Center in Santa Rosa. Our Village Closet has an opportunity and the potential to strengthen and bring the foster community together, working collaboratively to provide extra layers of support for the youth and families affected by foster care in Sonoma County. This is a call to action, a call to empower, a call to reach out to those in need, a call to stand together in the gap between the hurt and the healing.
Goals
Equipping the Village: To date, our main program has been putting essential supplies in the hands of foster youth and caregivers in Sonoma County. We also work collaboratively with Sonoma County’s FYC program, area social workers, and TLC’s Transitional Housing Program (THP) to fill specific needs for holiday wish lists, host giveaway events to meet seasonal needs, and facilitate virtual baby shower gifts/basics for mothers-to-be in the THP program.
From the time of our establishment in December 2018 to our official 501(c)3 status in September 2020, we assisted an average of 25/month, or 300 youth and caregivers per year. Since September 2020 and especially with the opening of our Resource Center in June 2021, our numbers served have increased to over 75/month, or 900 youth and caregivers per year.
Since opening our Resource Center in June of 2021, we now have the physical space to focus on another program-
Training the Village: This program will provide needed and relevant trainings for youth, caregivers and community members on the lasting effects of trauma, trauma-informed care, trauma behaviors and mental health, suicide prevention and intervention, supporting families in the dependency system, caring for a youth with drug and alcohol (FASD) exposure, sensory integration needs and supports, and more. Financing our Community Training Fund will allow us to cover the fees for trainers, guest speakers, materials and incentives for attendees.
We recently became certified to train people in the QPR Gatekeeping essentials for suicide prevention and intervention. Our goal is to train 300 people by the end of 2022 to be QPR Gatekeepers and create more community safety around suicide prevention. We will continue to have training available to community members and resource parents on trauma informed care and sensory needs with a goal of training 150 people by the end of 2022.
Self-Care and Support for the Village: Our Village Closet has already collaborated with Buckalew Programs (Sonoma County) to run support groups for youth and families at our Resource Center, especially around mental health and wellness. In Fall 2021, we will begin a weekly, morning support group for Resource Parents. Additionally, we are collaborating with Forget Me Not Farms to run two weekly connection/support groups for youth at their Sebastopol location, which begins October 4, 2021.
Evaluation
Our Village Closet tracks the number of youth and caregivers that we serve and reports on monthly overall numbers. We also collect data on the families served and their affiliation with the dependency system to determine which populations most utilize our services. This could include foster youth themselves, former foster youth, unhoused youth, youth adopted from foster care, transitional age youth, CASA workers, Social Workers, Kin caregivers, Resource Family caregivers, and Adoptive caregivers. We evaluate the numbers served versus the number eligible within the respective populations, and determine more effective ways to reach those eligible.
We measure our community impact through a number of ways, including social media engagement and new followers, new donors, number of youth and caregivers served, volunteer base, number of meaningful community partnerships and collaborations established throughout the year, and even the number of word-of-mouth referrals and recommendations.
While our monthly numbers served has increased since September 2020, it has very much increased since our Resource Center opened in June 2021. We went from 35 people served in May, without a unifying physical space, to 90 people (and more) served each month since then! This shows the need for our services. We also gauge our effectiveness by the meaningful interactions that take place in our space and returning connections. Community support (in monetary and in-kind donations) has increased with multiple articles in The Press Democrat and our winning the North Bay Spirit Award in July 2021.
Inclusiveness
From establishment, Our Village Closet has been and will remain committed to diversity, equity and inclusion for all those we work with and serve. To that end, everyone is welcomed by our organization. We do not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of our activities or operations. Furthermore, we support movements that encourage racial equality and shine a light on the change needed to educate our community about systemic racial injustices. We work to share educational social media posts as well and advocate for all the marginal populations in our community.
Board/Governance
We have a Governing/Working Board of Directors that supports our mission and organization programs. We are also in the process of creating an Advisory Board to engage more community members, diversify our board, and increase our at-large board member numbers. scribe the role of the board of directors in advancing the mission of the organization. We are also working to increase board engagement to have a truly “working” board. At present, our board members contribute less than 5% financially to Our Village Closet, and we hope to increase that with more board engagement and commitment.
Volunteers
We are almost entirely a volunteer-led organization, with only one part-time paid employee. Our founders act as volunteer executive director and executive administrator who oversee operations of our programs. We use about 5-8 volunteers to help during our Resource Center open hours each week, helping on the floor, stocking, quality control, connecting with visitors, sorting clothes, laundry runs, donation runs, item assembly, and organizing items. Additionally, we have once monthly work days and have about 10 volunteers help at each of those. For special give away events, we collaborate with community organizations(i.e. Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Rotary Clubs, etc) as well as our own village volunteers.
Planning
As we move into tomorrow and the weeks, months and years ahead, Our Village Closet (OVC) has the continued opportunity to surround those within our community, youth and caregivers alike, who have been and continue to be affected by foster care. With increased staffing and a strong volunteer base, OVC can provide more support groups, facilitate ongoing self-care events, provide internships for foster and transitional age youth, have our Additionally, describe how the organization engages in planning and describe the focus of any current planning efforts.
