Big Brothers, Sisters Merge With Interface

Faced with a funding crunch brought on by the recession, the 23-year-old Big Brothers-Big Sisters agency in Ventura County has decided to cut costs by merging with Interface Children Family Services.

The merger, effective July 1, makes Big Brothers-Big Sisters one of more than 60 programs operated by Interface, a large nonprofit agency with six offices around the county.

The Big Brothers-Big Sisters program will continue operating as it has in the past and will remain at its Eastman Avenue office in Ventura at least temporarily, Interface Executive Director Charles T. Watson said.

Lynne West, the former executive director of the Big Brothers-Big Sisters agency, is continuing as head of the program under Interface.

She said Interface will take over the group’s fund-raising and administrative duties, giving her staff more time to devote to recruiting volunteers to act as Big Brothers and Big Sisters to the 100 children now on the program’s waiting list.

“Too much of our time and attention was being taken for fund raising and the struggle to survive,” West said.

Although the local Big Brothers-Big Sisters program is an affiliate of the national organization based in Philadelphia, it has been funded separately, with much of its money coming from United Way of Ventura County.

In 1991, dwindling donations to United Way of Ventura County forced the organization to cut its funding to various nonprofit agencies, including Big Brothers-Big Sisters.

Largely because of this cutback, the Big Brothers-Big Sisters program was $50,000 short of covering its $175,000 in costs for the fiscal year ended June 30, Watson said. Interface covered this deficit for the agency, he said.