Grantees

Fund tumbling mats and a diaper changing area to enhance program offerings and remove an attendance barrier

Unfortunately, in 2019, 27 % of Vermont high schoolers admitted to either receiving or sending a sext in the past 30 days (YRBS). This can cause youth legal involvement and emotional and social distress. PCAVT’s Project SELFIE (Safe Expression onLine for Internet Empowerment) will decrease the numbers of youth who engage in and are harmed by sexting. The program is a developmentally appropriate, trauma informed, sexting prevention program to increase digital safety for youth. It includes presentations for middle and high school students and training for adults on decreasing the digital risks: sexting, online grooming, inappropriate digital communications by adults to youth, and online pornography. Evaluations show the program works!

Purchase infant simulators to provide teens with a more realistic experience of infant care where teens will learn the basic responsibilities and demands of parenting.

UVM PROSPER (PROmoting School-community-university Partnerships to Enhance Resilience) brings a model developed by the expertise of prevention scientists, public school systems, and educators to communities in Vermont that disseminates and sustains high-quality evidence-based interventions (EBI’s) for the prevention of youth substance use and problem behavior. PROSPER Teams, composed of community stakeholders, cooperate to deliver evidence-based programs and supplemental opportunities, to a critical mass of families and youth in a targeted age group to bring about positive community-wide change.

PROSPER is an evidence based partnership model that facilitates the delivery of two evidence based programs that build strong families and help youth avoid risky behaviors. UVM Extension and Lyndon Town School along with community partners, will come together to implement strategies and programs that support needs identified in the Youth Risk Behavior Survey data by building protective factors through a strengths based approach. We will continue to strengthen this PROSPER site in the Northeast Kingdom, adding new facilitators and building sustainability, supporting youth and families in having the skills they need to thrive.

Paran Recreations INC is dedicated to enhancing the health and well-being of rural children from low income families. Our goal is to sustain the access of year-round outdoor and place-based education for our surrounding community focusing on youth populations by providing at least 45% of campers with a full funded scholarship to attend our camps throughout the year.

TogetherWorks' Open0-Mic program is a healthy choice for a weekly structured youth activity. This grant will allow us to purchase the appropriate equipment for this program.

The Puppets in Education program needs to update the puppet presentation and workshop set up, as per evaluation feedback from teachers, to have the most effective social emotional presentations for VT's children. Our stage is over 15 years old and is held together with duct tape. We have been using donated items for the workshop and it is not as successful as we would like it to be. We are in need of a new stage, rear projector and screen. Our programs have the most impact when children lose themselves in the story and world the puppets create. Having faulty equipment can break the powerful connection with the children and then the important messages the puppets are teaching are lost. New equipment will let us focus on the programming.