Sofia Bartolone

Channel Islands Social Services (CISS) is a family-​operated organization located in Ventura County, CA. The organization provides FREE in-home respite care (similar to childcare) in the family's own home and in the local community, as well as Independent Living Services. Eligible families and individuals receive funding from Tri-Counties Regional Center, North Los Angeles Regional Center, or the County of Ventura as Foster Parents or Kinship Families. We know how stress­ful life can be with­out sup­port from friends and fam­ily. Like­wise, all of us need a break from time to time to help us take care of our own needs and to refo­cus so that we can con­tinue to be strong for those who need us. Our com­mit­ted team of care­givers spe­cial­izes in pro­vid­ing sup­port to a vari­ety of fam­i­lies includ­ing those car­ing for peo­ple who have devel­op­men­tal dis­abil­i­ties (such as but not lim­ited to Autism, Down Syn­drome, Cere­bral Palsy, and intel­lec­tual dis­abil­i­ties), Fos­ter Par­ents and Kin­ship Care­givers of young children. Inspi­ra­tion for the orga­ni­za­tion was sparked dur­ing the sum­mer of 2004 when co-​founder, Sharon M. Fran­cis, then Direc­tor of Com­mu­nity Devel­op­ment for Tri-​Counties Regional Cen­ter, iden­ti­fied the unmet needs of chil­dren with devel­op­men­tal dis­abil­i­ties liv­ing in Ven­tura County with no local option for respite ser­vices. Until then, all agency respite ser­vices had been pro­vided by home health agen­cies offer­ing CNA, LVN, or RN ser­vices, or from large L.A.-based multi-​service com­pa­nies. The CISS Admin­is­tra­tive team is made up of very car­ing and highly expe­ri­enced pro­fes­sion­als who are ded­i­cated to help­ing fam­i­lies. With hun­dreds of amaz­ing Respite Care­givers employed by CISS, the small admin­is­tra­tive team works tire­lessly to make sure the needs of both fam­i­lies and Respite Care­givers are being met.