Grantees

Lund's Children’s Services program provides parenting education and assistance to caregivers and children under age 6 in their homes or at Lund . The target population is low and very low income families in Chittenden County. This grant would support expansion of our services to families who are particularly vulnerable due to substance use disorder. Families transitioning from treatment are often particularly at risk and this program would target services to those families. The goals of the program are to reduce child abuse and neglect, promote knowledge of healthy child development, and ensure that parents are connected to community resources, social supports and organizations that will ensure healthy, safe family functioning.

Mad River Mentoring is a community-based mentoring program for youth, aged 8-18. They work with families, schools, and local groups to ensure all youth in the HUUSD have access to high-quality, 1:1 mentoring. Our goal is to create strong support networks for young people to reach their full potential. They will continue to offer formal, adult-to-youth mentoring as well as provide more resources and support to participants. Additionally, they will launch a series of free, weekly, mentoring groups led by our mentors. The groups will be open to all interested youth, with content based on their interests. Through these efforts they seek to increase the support and resources youth need to thrive.

School age programs seek to purchase 2 I-Pads, to use the Devereaux DESSA-Mini assessment process to help identify social and emotional levels of the children ages 5-12 in our programs. This system apprises our staff of areas that could be addressed for children in their group, to help improve social/emotional resiliencies. Presently, we use a manual quarterly reporting system that has two persons respond to the 8 questions of the DESSA; the results are charted, differences in observations are discussed, and strategies are formed. Beginning with summer 2016, we are switching to an online system to make the process be more agile and faster to respond to needs. This will require use of I-Pads, to be rotated through all of our sites.

We are establishing a licensed afterschool program under the supervision of Mary Johnson Children’s Center; our request would help to initiate and support programming for up to 25 children per day. At the request of parents of Weybridge, and their school principal, we surveyed the need for and interest in afterschool programming. In addition to meeting the needs indicated in the survey results, the recent consolidation of schools in the Addison Central Supervisory Union has implications for a possible re-distribution of students that would increase enrollment at the Weybridge school, and add more potential participants in afterschool programming. The proposed program would benefit the larger community, in this way as well.

In January 2025, rePlay Arts moved to a larger facility where we created a designated classroom for onsite programming. Since completing renovations in May 2025, we have added onsite hands-on programs to our existing roster of outreach programs. Specifically, these programs have included the following two tracks of workshops focused on building skills, creativity, confidence, and community: 1 - Public programs with visiting teaching artists 2 - Partnership programs with groups served by community based organizations Each workshop centers a different creative project using donated materials to engage participants of all ages and abilities. Piloting these two workshop tracks has demonstrated how our new classroom can successfully support groups in creating hands-on projects and establishing new relationships. This pilot has revealed the need for specialized equipment to organize and store program materials to maximize classroom efficiency while creating a welcoming and accessible environment for participants, many of whom have disabilities and sensory sensitivities. A rolling tool cart will allow us to store our wide variety of artmaking tools so that they are accessible to all, and staff and students can clearly see and choose the tools they need for their comfort and ability level. Storage cabinets with doors will allow us to store large quantities and heavy materials in a way that is accessible, but not is visually overwhelming and can be closed off as needed.

Purchase equipment for math enrichment at the out of school time program.

Promote learning opportuniites that make school success obtainable for all children, reinforce and enhance math instruction that is given to cildren during the school day; engage parents in the math learning process by aving them be learning partners; create community learning partners for children; link math learning to real life experience, and have fun.

This program will build awareness to educate and to equip teen influencers, parents, grandparents, teachers, etc., with credible information about teen prescription drug abuse.