Cost is the barrier. Everything else is a distant second.
More than 8 in 10 responding families named money — the sign-up fee, the program cost, the equipment, the uniform, the instrument — as something that has kept a child out of an activity in the past year. No other barrier came close.
And the gap is small. When we asked how much it would have taken, the most common answer by far was between $100 and $250. That is the difference between a season and no season.
It is not only the lowest-income families. Half of responding families do not receive free or reduced-price school meals — the usual gate for assistance programs — and about 6 in 10 of those families still hit a cost barrier. Roughly 7 in 10 of all respondents described their finances as tight, running out before the end of the month, or in crisis.
named money as a barrier to a child's participation in the past year
the most common amount that would have made the difference
described family finances as tight or worse
do not qualify for free or reduced-price school meals
Barriers families named
Share of responding families selecting each barrier for the past year. Families could choose more than one.
If cost were not a problem
What parents said their children would choose. Up to three answers each.
Strong on people and places. Weak on affordable programs and knowing where to turn.
We also asked families to rate their neighborhood across the social determinants of health. The pattern is encouraging and specific: the community assets are there, and the gaps are the ones Upstream is built to close.
What's working
What's missing
How families hear about programs: social media and other parents, each named by about 6 in 10. Only 1 in 6 hear through a school or teacher, and 1 in 7 say they usually do not hear about programs at all — which lines up with the 3 in 10 who missed a program because they did not know it existed. Reaching families is part of the job.
Families across the county, centered in Simi Valley.
About 3 in 4 responses came from Simi Valley, with the rest from Ventura, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Newbury Park, and Camarillo. Most responding families have two or three children; about half have a child under 5, half have a child aged 9–12, and roughly a quarter have a teenager — so the results speak to the ages where participation is decided and where it is most often lost.
Nine in ten families had a child participate in something in the past year, but only about half participated regularly. The want is there. The consistency is what cost takes away.
About this assessment. An anonymous online survey of parents, guardians, and caregivers raising children under 18 in Ventura County, open since 2026 and ongoing. Results on this page reflect 29 responses representing roughly 69 children, collected through October 2026.
This is a small, self-selected sample, not a representative one, and we round every figure accordingly. It is meant to guide our first season and to be refined as responses come in. No individual responses, names, or stories are published.