Perla Batalla
and SPECIAL GUESTS

The Gospel Choir of the
Evangelistic Missionary
Baptist Church

Ventura Center for Spiritual Living
(formerly Church of Religious Science)
101 S. Laurel St., Ventura, CA 93001
Saturday, May 10, 2008, 7 p.m.
Benefits Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy
$25 General Admission

Tickets & Information (805)-658-0810 or purchase tickets online at http://www.coastalalliance.com/ticket/cause-mother-s-day-weekend-concert-ticket.html  

CAUSE invites you to promote your business/organization, or honor mom with an ad or very special greeting in the CAUSE Mothers Day Weekend Concert program .

Get a taste of our headlining perfomer Perla Batalla's wonderful music at www.perla.com!

Join your family, friends and neighbors in gathering signatures to stop Wal-Mart from coming to Ventura.

It is time for the residents of Ventura and our allies around the county to stand up and let our voices be heard.

Since November 2004 CAUSE, in conjunction with the Stop Ventura Wal-Mart Coalition and Livable Ventura, have led a local campaign to stop the development of a proposed Wal-Mart on Victoria Avenue in Ventura. The effort has included grassroots organizing, community education and policy initiatives including the adoption of a one-year 2006 moratorium on the development, and in 2007 the adoption of an interim ordinance. The campaign has now stepped up its effort by seeking a big-box ballot measure for the November 2008 election.

For more information on this action, and how you can participate, and on the work of the Stop Ventura Wal-Mart Coalition log on to www.StopWalmartVentura.com. 

For information on regular meetings of the Stop Ventura Wal-Mart Coalition and on the work of Livable Ventura contact Nan Waltman at no2walmart@yahoo.com.
 

More information on the Stop Ventura Wal-Mart effort:

Opponents seek to get Wal-Mart on the ballot
Ventura County Star, October 25, 2007

No to Wal-Mart – Yes to a Livable Ventura
The CAUSE, December 2006

Ventura OKs Moratorium on Stores: Victoria Avenue Ban Includes Proposed Site for Wal-Mart
Ventura County Star, Jan 24, 2006 

How Your Tax Dollars Subsidize the World's Largest Corporation
VC Reporter, Greg LeRoy - Nov 10, 2005

Living wage sought in Ventura: Coalition urges ballot measure
Ventura County Star, May 24, 2005
 

CAUSE and the Santa-Barbara based Coalition for Sustainable Transportation (COAST) have formed the Alliance for Sustainable and Equitable Regional Transportation (ASERT), a collaborative effort to organize a regional Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties transit equity alliance of community, environmental, labor, business and faith-based organizations.

Current ASERT activities include the hosting of several community education events, including the first Central Coast regional community transit summit, and exploration into conducting grassroots community campaigns to adopt city and county sales tax ballot measures in the Counties of Ventura and Santa Barbara, emphasizing public transit. On Saturday, March 1, 2008, ASERT hosted its first educational event,  a forum entitled "The Future of the Central Coast Regional Transportation System: Let's Learn How to Make it Happen," with former Governor Michael Dukakis. The next forum will take place on Saturday, May 10, 2008 with Assembly Member Pedro Nava at Ruby's Cafe in Oxnard. ASERT is also organizing a Central Coast Regional Transit Summit for January 2009 in the City of Ventura. The community transit summit, which is expected in be attended by over 2,000 residents and elected officials, will include several nationally known speakers and panels addressing the many aspects of creating an integrated regional transit system in the Central Coast.  

For more information on ASERT activities, including how to get involved, contact CAUSE Community Planning Director, Carmen Ramirez, at (805) 658-0810, or at carmen@coastalalliance.com.
 

Save the Date: Saturday, March 8, 2008 at Oxnard College

Women in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties have their sight set on social, economic and environmental (SEE) justice. The 2008 Women SEE Justice Regional Conference will bring together 200 immigrant and low wage working women and teen girls for leadership development and to organize for action! The conference will be a springboard for action on issues such as immigration, child care, transportation and environmental justice.

To be a part of this exciting leadership and action conference contact Gabriela Alvarado, CAUSE Centro Mujer Community Organizer at 805-487-8984 or gabriela@coastalalliance.com.

To sponsor the Women SEE Justice Regional Conference contact CAUSE Associate Executive Director, Maricela Morales, at 805-658-0810 ext. 203 or maricela@coastalalliance.com.
 

To make health coverage a reality for all, sign-on in support of the Ventura County Quality Declaration on Universal Healthcare! The Ventura County Declaration on Quality Universal Healthcare brought together health care advocates and providers, faith, labor, community based and elected representatives towards a common goal. In 2007, the Declaration was used to evaluate the various health coverage proposals and determine which best realizes the goal of quality universal healthcare. In 2008, we are likely to see not one but several statewide health coverage initiatives and multiple proposals by presidential candidates. Let your voice be heard and support the Declaration on Quality Universal Healthcare.

For more information, contact CAUSE Associate Executive Director, Maricela Morales, at 805-658-0810 x 203 or maricela@coastalalliance.com.
 

On the afternoon of Saturday, December 1st, Erica Fernandez, CAUSE youth leader and senior at Hueneme High School, stood confidently on-stage at the Heartland Presidential Forum in Des Moines poised to ask Sen. John Edwards her question. She passionately told her story of Oxnard and Malibu’s struggle to stop a multi-billion dollar foreign corporation from building a Liquefied Natural Gas storage facility off our coastline. She finished her story with her questions, "Do communities like mine or people like me not deserve a clean and healthy environment? Sen. Edwards, our vision is equality and justice, what will you do to make our society and country a place where we are 'all in it together'?"

To view the web cast of the Heartland Presidential Forum visit: http://www.communitychange.org/index.html

Erica was selected to be one of 30 people to address one of the candidates.  Senator Edwards heard and responded to her question on the issue of environmental justice at the nationally televised Presidential forum, which was sponsored by the Center for Community Change.  Earlier this year, Ms. Fernandez was involved in the campaign that stopped one of the largest mining companies in the world, BHP Billiton, from building a liquefied natural gas facility off the coast of Oxnard.   Ms. Fernandez was determined to stop BHP Billiton because if approved, it would have become the worst contributor to air pollution in our county.  As the daughter of farm workers, Ms. Fernandez understands well the health risks faced by agricultural workers and their families.  Her father suffers from a serious respiratory illness and the BHP Billiton project posed a significant risk to his health.  Ms. Fernandez was recently recognized for her work by the Earth Island Institute and received one of six national awards for her involvement in this campaign. Click here to see a video about Erica Fernandez.
 

Liliana Santuario, her breast-feeding infant, Pablito, and VC CLUE members continue their struggle for a just, humane immigration reform policy that upholds family unity from the prophetic sanctuary at the United Church of Christ in Simi Valley (UCCSV). 

Despite some protests, Liliana, VC CLUE, the UCCSV and allied congregations grow in number, strength and resolve to show the human face of immigrant workers and their families, their contributions to the society and the need to stop the raids that separate families. 

Over seventy-five interfaith leaders from around the country participated in the National New Sanctuary Movement Convening in Simi Valley this month.  There Liliana’s inspirational words reminded everyone to “look at these hands, they are the hands of 12 million people who are here to help our families and the nation.”