THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - eTradeWire -- To earn a living wage on the Central Coast, an individual with two children needs to earn $60 or more an hour. A majority of positions in Ventura, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San Benito and Monterey counties don't pay anywhere near that. The Feb. 28 conference, "Affording a Dignified Life on The Central Coast of California," will spotlight how this lack of affordability goes beyond impacting families; it also affects the community, region and the state. The conference will be hosted by California Lutheran University School of Management's Center for Economics of Social Issues (CESI) and held from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Lundring Events Center on the Cal Lutheran campus.

The conference is based on the findings of the 2025 study, "Affording a Dignified Life on the California Central Coast," by Jamshid Damooei, Ph.D. He will release the report at the conference.

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The conference's most critical outcome will be to highlight the issues surrounding affordability and urgently reach policy implications that can be discussed at all levels of government, foundations, nonprofits and business communities.

Sabith Khan, Ph.D., director of the Master of Public Policy and Administration program at Cal Lutheran, will moderate the keynote panel of thought leaders, who will explore affordability issues facing the Central Coast and the state and begin a dialogue of possible solutions. The panel includes Vanessa Bechtel, president and CEO of the Ventura County Community Foundation; Bruce Stenslie, president and CEO of the Economic Development Collaborative; Cesar Morales, Ed.D., Ventura County Superintendent of Schools; and Sean Veal, vice president and CRA investment manager at City National Bank and adjunct professor in the MPPA program at Cal Lutheran.

Study findings explored at the conference include:

• Across the region (Ventura, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San Benito and Monterey counties), the average childcare costs are 95% of a family's income at the 100% poverty level (single parent with two children).
• Between 49% and 74% of families were eligible for state or federal financial support for preschool, but there is no evidence they are receiving even a fraction of it.  
• $4,099,070,139 in potential funds could have been allocated to the Central Coast region for preschool education, housing vouchers and federal and state low-income food assistance programs (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as "food stamps.")

Damooei will also unpack the complex reasons why money is being left on the table.

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Cal Lutheran: 60 W. Olsen Road, Thousand Oaks. Tickets are $50. http://www.callutheran.edu/