Grantees: Early Childhood Education
Arlington Area Childcare Inc
Arlington Area Childcare Inc is transforming their existing summer and afterschool programs into a comprehensive support center for children in Bennington County, Vermont, facing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), educational setbacks, and insufficient supervision during out-of-school periods. This lack of structured summer programs in Bennington County is alarming. This contributes to food insecurity, summer learning loss, and limited access to safe recreational activities Their initiative aims to address these challenges by providing trauma-informed care, academic enrichment, and social-emotional support in a safe and nurturing environment.
Child Care Resource
Specialized Child Care supports children in child care with physical or developmental needs, including children up to age 13 in state custody, and children and families experiencing significant short term stress. Supports include child care financial assistance, transportation coordination and securing placement in an appropriate early care program. In addition, CCR staff provide supports and consultation to early childhood educators to help develop teaching strategies, classroom set-up, program culture, and behavior mitigation to prevent expulsion from care. They embody the data which supports the value of safe, healthy and quality early care in preparing children to thrive in school and life.
Leahy Center for Lake Champlain
ECHO Science Center is expanding its Early STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Education Outreach Program, which provides hands-on STEM-based education activities and curricula and teacher training in preschool and 1st-grade classrooms and other early learning programs in predominantly underserved communities across Vermont. Activities are both facilitated and self-guided, are offered in-school and remotely, and are planned to reach an estimated 75 educators and 900 students annually in more than 60 classrooms. The program addresses a shortage of STEM expertise among early childhood educators in many school districts and supports the science learning readiness critical to current trends in elementary education.
Lyndon Institute
Lyndon Institute, a Town Academy high school and Career & Technical Education center, has supported NEK families for more than 155 years. Education in the NEK plays a crucial role; ensuring resilience and sustainability by equipping the next generation with the skills necessary to address the social and economic challenges associated within a historically under-resourced community. Lyndon Institute in partnership with Northeast Kingdom Community Action and CCV will advance the pilot program started in fall of 2024 by growing capacity in support of VT’s need for ECE professionals with career-focused curriculum, licensure as a Teaching Assistant upon graduation, Dual-Enrollment college courses, and targeted education-related internships