Effort to Aid Riot Victims Growing : Donations: Service agencies are sending truckloads of goods to South L.A. Ministers plan local forums on racism.

Stunned by images of devastation, hundreds of Ventura County residents have called churches, charity groups and public offices to find out what they can do to aid the victims of last week’s rioting in South Los Angeles, officials said Tuesday.

Truckloads of food, diapers, toilet paper and other goods have already made their way from every corner of the county to the violence-torn area, disaster coordinators said, and more is expected to follow in upcoming days as the assistance effort gains strength.

Meanwhile, a group of religious leaders says that finding long-term solutions to racial tension and hatred is crucial to avoid a repeat of the violence. The Ventura Ministerial Assn. plans to hold community forums in upcoming weeks to address racism locally, the association’s spokesman said.

“We want to bring people of color and white folks together here in Ventura County so they see each other as people rather than in stereotypic ways,” said the Rev. Richard Weston-Jones of the Ventura Unitarian Universalist Church.

Several county charity organizations have been besieged by calls from residents who want to know where they can drop off canned food, checks and clothing, officials said.

Ventura County organizations involved in relief efforts are Catholic Charities, Food Share, the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross. Most are seeking donations of canned foods, clothing and money, but others need volunteers to provide services such as counseling traumatized youths, cleaning up burned-out businesses and distributing food.

Weston-Jones and other clergy from west county churches and synagogues are coordinating an effort to collect donations of baby food, formula, diapers and cash. Los Angeles disaster coordinators have said those items are the most needed, Weston-Jones said.

The ministers’ association has set up six locations in Ventura and Oxnard where contributions can be dropped off during business hours and on Sunday until 1 p.m. The emergency appeal will continue through May 17, he said.

Local businesses have joined in the relief campaign as well. Procter & Gamble Co. in Oxnard is donating three truckloads of diapers and toilet paper and Ventura Rentals will provide a truck to transport goods collected by the ministers’ group.

Simi Valley residents are continuing to drop off food, clothing, blankets, kitchen utensils and other household goods at Supervisor Vicky Howard’s office, aide Ritch Wells said. “We sent one truckload out yesterday, and we’re getting ready to send another,” Wells said.

The Rev. Weston-Jones said the ministers’ association is still working on the format for the race relations forums. The goal of the meetings, he said, is to confront “the racism that lies just below the surface of our culture and raise it up so we can see it and move beyond it.”

Although racism is usually not overt in Ventura County, it is symbolized in things such as ethnic jokes and racial slurs in private conversations, Weston-Jones said. “That is the kind of thing we want to put an end to.”