Earned Income Tax Credit & Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Locations in Ventura County

Thanks to the United Way of Ventura County for providing the following information.

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Program is a refundable tax credit available to individuals and families earning less than $50,000 in 2011. This is the federal government's largest anti-poverty measure and can be up to $5,751 depending on income and family type.

The "Earn It, Keep It, Save It" program is the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program that recruits volunteer tax preparers as well as interpreters, screeners, and greeters and offers free preparation of federal and state income tax returns to taxpayers with low incomes. VITA benefits these taxpayers in two basic ways. First, by eliminating the cost of commercial tax return preparation, and secondly, it secures valuable tax credits such as the Child Tax Credit and the EITC.

Local VITA location sites are as follows (be sure to call first to be sure and to make an appointment, if needed):

• Moorpark: Catholic Charities, 609 Fitch Avenue 805.529.0702 (Saturdays 9 a.m. to noon)
• Ventura: Housing Authority, 995 Riverside Street 805.648.5008 (Wednesdays 5-8 p.m.)
• Ventura: Job & Career Center, 4651 Telephone Road, 2nd Floor 805.648.9303 (Tues, Wed, Thurs 10am to 4pm)
• Oxnard: Housing Authority, 1600 Colonia Road 805.385.8089 (Mondays 5-8 pm)
• Simi Valley: East County Job & Career Center, 980 Enchanted Way, #105 805.955.2287 (Wednesdays 9am to 3pm)
• Oxnard: West Oxnard Job & Career Center, 635 S. Ventura Road 805.382.6551 (Mon/Wed 9am-4pm)
• Oxnard: El Concilio Family Servic

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Horace Bristol 1930s Photos at Santa Paula Agriculture Museum March 3 to May 20

Horace Bristol’s Compelling 1930s Photographs On Exhibition At Agriculture Museum

More than two dozen images by famed LIFE Magazine photojournalist Horace Bristol are on exhibition March 3 through May 20 at the Museum of Ventura County Agriculture Museum in Santa Paula. Horace Bristol Photographs: Selections From the 1930s features not only work from his best known Grapes of Wrath series, but other selections from the 1930s period, including such diverse images as a never before exhibited aerial photograph of a Santa Paula orange orchard, and a migrant child pitting apricots. The exhibition is in the Agriculture Museum’s Reiter Affiliated Companies Visitors Center and Calavo Hall.

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Agriculture Museum of Santa Paula Immigrant Farmers Exhibit Opens February 11th

Putting Down Roots-Ventura County’s Early Immigrant Farmers

New Exhibit at Agriculture Museum Opens February 11

For more than 200 years, agriculture has been an enduring magnet attracting newcomers. In the new exhibit Putting Down Roots: Ventura County’s Immigrant Farmers, 1800-1910, visitors to the Museum of Ventura County’s Agriculture Museum in Santa Paula can learn about the farmers and laborers who settled here after traveling from across the country and around the world. The exhibit opens February 11 and runs through May 20 in the Finch Family Gallery.

Manuel Faria. Faria Ranch, Rincon - Museum of Ventura County Research Library

Historic photographs put faces to the laborers and farmers who came here long ago and often stayed, as have many of their descendants. Visitors are invited to conside

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Museum of Ventura County's Agriculture Museum in Santa Paula Opens Sept 25th

The Museum of Ventura County's Agriculture Museum in Santa Paula opens to the public on Sunday, September 25, from 11:00 am to 5:00 p.m., with special free admission, docent led tours and live music by the Lynn Mullins Pickup Band. The long awaited realization of more than 40 years of effort and dedication by many supporters, the Agriculture Museum is appropriately housed in the landmark 1888 restored Mill building at 926 Railroad Avenue, beside the railroad tracks and depot in Santa Paula's historic downtown.

Insects: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, features the museum’s own beehive and magnified images of bees taken with a scanning electron microscope by artist and photographer Rose-Lynn Fisher. The exhibit also focuses on the threat posed to farmers by the tiny but frightening Asian Citrus Psyllid insect. Eight vintage tractors, dating from 1914 to 1955, are found throughout the building, including one upon which children can sit. The machines are part of a rotating display of the museum’s nationally recognized collection of farm implements. display of the museum’s nationally recognized collection of farm implements.

Permanent exhibits using rare historical photographs and interactive elements, tell the story of Ventura County’s farming and ranching tradition. Starting wi

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