Ventura Chamber of Commerce Ribbon Cutting with District Attorney Erik Nasarenko.
“Play is the highest form of research”—Albert Einstein
Recognizing the urgent need for youth mental health support/services, Shaleena Tarren founded Childhood Matters in 2022, as a nonprofit in Ventura.
She said, “I realized that with my son’s mental health challenges, and my daughter’s mental health background, with her continued studies at Pepperdine University, that there was a need within our community to find mental health resources to better help children emotionally. I knew that others were struggling with getting the proper services for youth, too. We provide accessible education, mental health resources and advocacy to educate the community about available mental health resources.”
Tareen’s background includes work in educational leadership roles, teacher mentoring, and parent partnership. She has had a strong focus on curriculum development and the use of Behavior Modification. She is the author of, ‘The Learning Steps,’ which is a children’s book that is focused on fostering a growth mindset in young children. Tareen said, “We started with a coping toolbox program. Now we have 5 different programs and 17 different boxes. We realize the importance of early childhood social emotional learning. Our ECSEL program focuses on building social-emotional spaces in community spaces to give children and teens a safe place to regulate and process their emotions. We have built such spaces in local schools, the Ventura County Courthouse, at the Ventura County Family Justice Center and the United Parents drop-in center in Oxnard.”
Mental Health Awareness Community Playdates, which are free for the community, provides information for mental health resources that are available in the community. These playdates offer various zones of wellness:
- Music Zone
- Art Zone
- Nature Zone
- Mindfulness Zone
- Fitness Zone
- Community Resources Zone.
“A marketplace and children’s fair enable kids to learn about becoming entrepreneurs,” according to Tareen. “Through the play and sensory zones, there is water play, sensory touch, bubble play, and various crafts. We all need to play to learn better.
“We engage youth in high school and college through our youth ambassador program to learn and to train to become mental health leaders. This gives them space to become advocates and to do community outreach work. We take one’s passion (such as men’s mental health), and empower them to do more with it”
A new wellness center opened in Ventura on April 24th of this year. It is in collaboration with the Ventura County Family Justice Center and the Ventura County District Attorney’s office. The center is also a Practicum site for students from Pepperdine University who want to become therapists and are working on their Marriage Family Therapy (MFT) certification hours as interns, offering low-cost or no cost counseling.
Find out more about this important nonprofit, and what is offered to help youth emotionally in our community by going to the website: www.childhoodmatter.org and/or call: 805-533-8786.