Grantees

Many of the people enrolling in our parenting programs in recent times struggle with addiction as well as the effects of trauma and adverse childhood experiences (75-80%). With so many parents and caregivers presenting with substance use issues, we will offer Nurturing Parenting Programs for Families in Substance Use Recovery targeted at families with young children. This is an evidence-based parenting and life skills training program which we will offer to parents with young children who are in recovery. Studies over the years show that the program is very effective at preventing child abuse, improving family functioning and parental resilience, and helping provide benefits in the realm of socio-emotional functioning in children.

A parent education program.

In order to secure a reliable mass copier, color printer and scanner in order to increase awareness of our program and be able toe xhibit student's work.

ONE Arts is on a mission to facilitate and coordinate unique and significant art experiences in our local community (Chittenden County) and to build a larger creative community of all ages. Our art center provides daily after school programs and creative camps for elementary ages and middle school in the Old North End of Burlington, while our two early learning locations serve ages 0-5 and their families. We need a new gate to keep the toddlers from leaving the classroom, specifically in our gross motor space. We used a baby gate system, but unfortunately the gate broke, pulling out of the wall. We currently have a couch blocking the exit but this is not a sustainable long-term solution. We are looking forward to replacing the broken gate with a higher quality, safer gate and having it installed by our handyperson. With the $2,000 from the Vermont Children's Trust Foundation, we will be able to install a high quality safety gate, long enough and strong enough to create a barrier to the exit door and specifically made for children that is ADA compliant. Installing a new gate will help us control exits more safely and securely.

We know that arts education increases the cognitive function of children, and we know high-quality childcare is the difference between a family struggling or thriving. When ONE Arts began, we wanted to offer quality childcare at an affordable rate with an art-centered curriculum. Over the past few decades, political attacks on the arts have caused many communities to lose arts funding. ONE Arts is proud to offer two preschools and an after-school art center to our community. Over a third of our students are from marginalized groups including include low income families, houseless families, and children of parents who are in recovery. Our schools allow these students and their families to stabilize, grow, and belong in their school home.

We want to inspire a love of Science and an attitude of competence in this field among our K-6th grade students by increasing opportunities for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) learning time. We believe that the afterschool and summer setting, with its creative, flexible structure, is the perfect environment to explore STEM topics and spark a love of learning in this field.

Over the past three years, we have developed a robust STEM program in our eight programs. As a next step, we are implementing a dynamic robotics program. Robotics provide rich grounds for the development of valuable transferable skills, like problem-solving, critical thinking, communication and 21st century skills. By its nature, the study of robotics inherently incorporates all four pillars of STEM, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, making it a truly dynamic and multi-disciplined learning opportunity. Robotics also allows scaffolding in learning--through a variety of techniques, students can move progressively toward deeper understanding and, ultimately, greater independence in the learning process.

The grant will assist in acquiring laptops, which will be available for use by students, instructors, parents, and families of participants of ONWARD!. The laptops will benefit the program by providing access to online services, research, teaching and learning materials, as well as to provide a technology component to the afterschool program.