Grantees

We are requesting this funding to restock our school with loose parts and other natural materials with the intention of promoting imagination, creativity, and independence. Our school has historically had only loose parts, recycled materials, and other natural materials in it's classrooms and our goal is to reintroduce this play to the children out our school. Loose parts play is vital to the learning and development of children's ability to control their own play, model the things they see in the world around them, and connect with their environment.

Little Lambs serves children ages 6 weeks through 12 years old year-round. After evaluating our needs with parents and staff, it was determined that the children would greatly benefit from having an outdoor classroom within a nature-based learning environment. We have an amazing location however the grounds require immense re-grading before we can add paved pathways, a learning garden, classroom pavilion, dramatic play stage, sandbox, swings, and fencing. It is our desire to create a "playborhood" where families and communities members can come together to play and learn together in a safe, stimulating and shared space.

Green Mountain Mobile Therapy is purchasing an electric generator battery, which will increase the mobile healthcare units electric watt capacity. This is a sustainable renewable energy source that is efficient and reduces overall costs for the organization. Green Mountain Mobile Therapy is a nonprofit organization that provides therapy and social/emotional services to Vermont’s youth and families in locations that do not have appropriate therapeutic spaces and accessible services. Green Mountain Mobile Therapy engages with schools and community organizations to provide direct mental health services and social/emotional resources.

Would like to purchase equipment for children to use indoors to help provide opportunities for them to improve their overall health through daily physical fitness since they do not get PE time at the elementary school.

Support from the Vermont Children’s Trust would allow us to purchase skateboarding equipment to benefit Hardwick youth for years to come. After months of community conversations and fundraising, the Hardwick Skatepark Collective—a youth-led initiative at the Civic Standard, driven to create a skatepark in our town—was able to build a mini-ramp this past May. The project generated meaningful partnerships, including with our fire department which allowed the ramp to be housed behind their station. Since then, the dialogue around skateboarding in Hardwick has shifted. Where once neighbors were concerned about youth skating down Main Street for lack of a better-suited location, now there is pride for those who built the first safe, high-quality skateboarding equipment in town. The Collective’s next venture is a series of beginner lessons taught by an experienced member of the group. This project is not only an opportunity to grow the skateboarding community in our rural town, but also a means of harm reduction in an area where many people are affected by economic hardship, homelessness, and addiction. We have witnessed members of the Collective overcome such challenges or avoid them altogether, in part because of access to a community of their peers, positive mentorship, and material resources. At the Civic Standard, we believe play is as vital as other basic necessities. With your support, we can continue expanding how we build a new culture alongside local youth.

Purchase a new computer system to help them increase their capacity and sustainability.

The Henry Sheldon Museum in Middlebury, Vermont is planning a new hands-on space for children and families titled “Inventing the Future: A Kids’ Makerspace” and we are requesting funding for a Rig-a-ma-jig Basic Building kit. This space will serve children and families/caregivers from all over Addison County to boost connection, foster engagement, and connect children and families with their community museum. We will invite children and their families/ caregivers to create, collaborate, explore, test, experiment, and invent in the new space and the Rig-a-ma-Jig kit will be an ideal opportunity for children to learn through open-ended play sparked by STEM/STEAM learning.

Currently, we are sharing one dishwasher for all three of our classrooms and students and this has become a strain on our teachers. Because dishwashing properly is essential to meeting the dish sanitization requirements outlined in the CBCCPP licensing regulations, as well as ease the cleaning responsibilities teachers have we are requesting funding for a second dishwasher. We are also requesting funding to replace our existing nap bedding (sheets, blankets and pillows) as they are several years old. We believe it greatly supports families that we provide these napping materials and launder them at school. Finally, we are requesting grant funding for a new picnic table and mud kitchen for our playground. We deeply believe in outdoor learning and currently we do not have a mud kitchen for our playground and we believe messy, sensory play would be great for our students.