VENTURA : Youth Club to Open New Building Soon

The Boys and Girls Club of Ventura expects to open its new, $1.3-million clubhouse in east Ventura this month, providing room and activities for hundreds more youngsters than the current location in Montalvo.

The 15,000-square-foot building on Johnson Drive should be open by next week, club Executive Director Jane Goldschmidt said.

The new facility includes a gymnasium, an arts and crafts shop, a game room, an exercise room, a library, a computer center, child-care areas and a community room.

The facility was financed primarily through individual contributions, and will replace the small Bristol Road storefront in Montalvo that has held the Ventura Boys and Girls Club since 1978.

“There is just no comparison between the two sites,” Goldschmidt said. “The Montalvo club is just a two-room facility, and the new building will be able to handle three to four times as many children.”

Currently, 400 youths are members of the Montalvo club. Another 1,400 boys and girls belong to the main club on Olive Street in downtown Ventura.

“The new club is a lot more open, and we can provide a full service program for the children, which is important, because we are their home away from home,” Goldschmidt said. The expected increase in membership will be handled with the hiring of additional staff, she said.

The Boys and Girls Club of Ventura was born out of the Ventura Police Boys Club, which was formed in 1938. Its members met in the historic Ortega Adobe building in downtown Ventura until the club moved into its current building on Olive Street in 1968.

The Ventura organization joined the Boys Club of America in 1962 and merged with the Ventura Girls Club in 1980. The Girls Club was formed in 1967, using the Bristol Road site as its meeting place, as well as a building on McFarlane Drive in west Ventura.

Youngsters from age 5 to 19 are eligible to join the club, and the $5 annual membership fee may be waived if a child cannot afford it, Goldschmidt said.