Come Visit Us! Our office is open Mon­day – Fri­day from 8:30am – 5pm.

CISS is a family-​run, ser­vice orga­ni­za­tion com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing direct sup­port to indi­vid­u­als and their ded­i­cated caregivers/​parents. We know how stress­ful life can be with­out sup­port from friends and fam­ily. Like­wise, all of us need a break from time to time to help us take care of our own needs and to refo­cus our own pri­or­i­ties, so that we can con­tinue to be strong for those who need us.

Our com­mit­ted team of care­givers spe­cial­izes in pro­vid­ing sup­port to a vari­ety of fam­i­lies includ­ing those car­ing for peo­ple who have devel­op­men­tal dis­abil­i­ties (such as but not lim­ited to Autism, Down Syn­drome, Cere­bral Palsy, and intel­lec­tual dis­abil­i­ties), Fos­ter Par­ents and Kin­ship Care­givers of young children.

Inspi­ra­tion for the orga­ni­za­tion was sparked dur­ing the sum­mer of 2004 when co-​founder, Sharon M. Fran­cis, then Direc­tor of Com­mu­nity Devel­op­ment for Tri-​Counties Regional Cen­ter, iden­ti­fied the unmet needs of chil­dren with devel­op­men­tal dis­abil­i­ties liv­ing in Ven­tura County with no local option for respite ser­vices. Until then, all agency respite ser­vices had been pro­vided by home health agen­cies offer­ing CNA, LVN, or RN ser­vices, or from large L.A.-based multi-​service com­pa­nies. Some of these agen­cies serve more than a dozen regional cen­ters and more than 10,000 peo­ple. This was not the per­son­al­ized care that local fam­i­lies deserved.

After seven years of ser­vice at TCRC, Sharon left and launched Chan­nel Islands Social Ser­vices with her hus­band Tim, so that local fam­i­lies could have flex­i­ble, local respite options. The orga­ni­za­tion con­tin­ues to be family-​owned and oper­ated with their sons help­ing around the office and Tim’s mom, Tish Tay­lor, RN, lead­ing CPR and First Aid train­ing and per­form­ing in-​home assessments.

Please call us so we can start get­ting to know and help you.

Admin­is­tra­tive Phone List

Note: To email us, use our first names and add @islandsocialservices.org

Fam­ily Ser­vices
Martha Esquivel, Fam­ily Ser­vices Assoc. x853
Abbey Pam­intuan, Fam­ily Ser­vices Spe­cial­ist x857
Edith Wysinger, Fam­ily Ser­vices Man­ager (& Fund­ing Agency Main Con­tact) x852

Human Resources /​Timesheets /​Train­ing
Cindy Arndt, Office Man­ager x855

Pay­roll /​Account­ing /​Billing
Beth Alen­der, Direc­tor of Finance x851

Admin­is­tra­tion
Sharon M. Fran­cis, CEO x850
Tim Fran­cis, Direc­tor of Oper­a­tions (Main con­tact for Recruit­ment & Adver­tis­ing too) x854

The CISS Admin­is­tra­tive team is made up of very car­ing and highly expe­ri­enced pro­fes­sion­als who are ded­i­cated to help­ing fam­i­lies. With hun­dreds of amaz­ing Respite Care­givers employed by CISS, the small admin­is­tra­tive team works tire­lessly to make sure the needs of both fam­i­lies and Respite Care­givers are being met.

Meet the CISS Admin. Team:

Sharon M. Fran­cis, Co-​Founder and CEO x850
Sharon began her career sup­port­ing indi­vid­u­als with devel­op­men­tal dis­abil­i­ties and their fam­i­lies in 1993. Prior to launch­ing CISS, she spent four years help­ing adults with spe­cial needs in sup­ported employ­ment and seven years at Tri-​Counties Regional Cen­ter per­form­ing qual­ity assur­ance and resource devel­op­ment. Sharon has been instru­men­tal in the Ven­tura County com­mu­nity in var­i­ous roles and non­profit groups such as the Ven­tura County Autism Soci­ety on which she has served as the Board Sec­re­tary for many years, Amer­i­can Can­cer Society’s Relay for Life, the Amer­i­can Red Cross as an instruc­tor since 2005, and she serves on the board of Part­ners in Housing.

Tim Fran­cis, Co-​Founder and Direc­tor of Oper­a­tions x854
Tim has worked for CISS since he helped to found the orga­ni­za­tion in 2004. His pro­fes­sional and edu­ca­tional back­ground is in the film indus­try, hav­ing worked in post pro­duc­tion at var­i­ous well-​known enter­tain­ment com­pa­nies. He leads all mar­ket­ing and recruit­ment for CISS, and is the “go-​to guy” for all behind-​the-​scenes needs of the com­pany and staff. He has started work on var­i­ous edu­ca­tional videos related to respite care and fam­ily sup­port and has hopes of dis­trib­ut­ing them in the near future to inspire peo­ple to get involved.

Beth Alen­der, Direc­tor of Finance x851
Beth has worked for CISS since 2005 as the Direc­tor of Finance. She has over 30 years of account­ing and busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion expe­ri­ence hav­ing served as Con­troller and V.P. of Admin­is­tra­tion for other com­pa­nies. At CISS, Beth is respon­si­ble for all of our account­ing, billing, and pay­roll. She works closely with all depart­ments and answers calls from fam­i­lies and care­givers who have ques­tions about the account­ing of their hours.

Martha Esquivel, Fam­ily Ser­vices Asso­ciate x853
Martha has worked at CISS since 2006. She works in the Fam­ily Ser­vices depart­ment and for most peo­ple who press exten­sion 0, she is the first per­son they speak with. Her past expe­ri­ence has been in the med­ical field work­ing in var­i­ous doctor’s offices and at Children’s Hos­pi­tal of Orange County in admin­is­tra­tive roles. Martha sup­ports fam­i­lies by refer­ring the best pos­si­ble care­givers as well as pro­vid­ing infor­ma­tion and train­ing to CISS staff. Her goal is to make long-​lasting matches that work for both fam­ily and Respite Caregivers.

Edith Wysinger, M.S., Fam­ily Ser­vices Man­ager, x852
Edith has been work­ing in this field for almost eigh­teen years and she joined CISS in 2007 as a Fam­ily Ser­vices Man­ager. She enjoyed her work with an Early Start Pro­gram as an Early Inter­ven­tion­ist and later as a Regional Cen­ter Ser­vice Coör­di­na­tor and Man­ager. These expe­ri­ences broad­ened her knowl­edge in work­ing with fam­i­lies and indi­vid­u­als of all ages. At CISS, Edith works with the Regional Cen­ter in coör­di­nat­ing the autho­riza­tions and refer­rals we receive. She is also the res­i­dent trans­la­tor mak­ing sure we reach our Span­ish Speak­ing fam­i­lies and Respite Care­givers. Edith enjoys her work in the field for the rewards it offers both per­son­ally and professionally.

Cindy Arndt, Office Man­ager, x855
Cindy has worked for CISS since August 2009 as the Office Man­ager, has over 20 years expe­ri­ence work­ing in the spe­cial needs and spe­cial edu­ca­tion fields. She has filled var­i­ous pro­fes­sional roles as a job coach, sit­u­a­tional assess­ment spe­cial­ist, med­ical facil­i­ta­tor, and most recently as a tran­si­tion spe­cial­ist with the Conejo Val­ley Uni­fied School Dis­trict where she worked with tran­si­tion­ing high school stu­dents who are in Spe­cial Edu­ca­tion. Cindy helps at CISS to make sure that the employ­ees are up to date on train­ings and all HR required tasks. She assists with pay­roll and processes all new hires. Cindy loves inter­act­ing with the com­mit­ted Respite Care­givers, see­ing first­hand how the fam­i­lies value the qual­ity care they receive.

Abbey Pam­intuan, Fam­ily Ser­vices Spe­cial­ist, x857
Abbey is the newest addi­tion to the CISS Admin team. She has been sup­port­ing indi­vid­u­als with devel­op­men­tal dis­abil­i­ties and their fam­ily mem­bers since 2000 through her prior work at Path­point Inc. She joined the CISS Enhanced Respite team in 2008 sup­port­ing chil­dren and teens who were expe­ri­enc­ing behav­ioral chal­lenges. Abbey coor­di­nates the Enhanced Respite and Fos­ter & Kin­ship Respite pro­grams, and she is bilingual.