2024 S. Whitney Landon Award Recipients:
Burlington Children's Space
Burlington Children’s Space (BCS) is a private, nonprofit early education and childcare center. We are dedicated to serving all populations, with both children and teachers from a variety of diverse backgrounds. We strive to educate members of our community about early education issues, the need for high quality child care, and the impact child care has in the community. This school year, we've welcomed families back into the building, and started Family Dinner nights again. We host monthly dinners for anyone in the BCS community to join which enables families to create social connections, to explore the environment, to learn about classroom interests and curriculum, and to volunteer at these and future events. Although this meets the scheduling needs of many, some family members are unable to attend due to their work schedules.
Inclusive Arts Vermont
Start With the Arts (SWTA) innovatively combines professional development (PD) for childcare providers with direct service arts-based literacy activities to meet the needs of children ages 0-5 through arts-based social and emotional learning activities (SEL). In SWTA, providers often comment about the magic of the arts as they witness shifts in energy, connection, and engagement in their young learners. Witnessing this magic encourages providers to use the SWTA model beyond our time at their site. They gradually understand and implement the model incorporating open-ended, process-focused, arts-based options into their repertoire.
Lund
Lund is a leader in Vermont, advocating for change through family services and early childhood programs that are in tune with the diverse and unique needs of Vermont’s families. Family Education is an innovative program designed to ensure the healthy development of children prenatal up to age 6. Parents and caregivers are offered home visiting services, child developmental assessments, parenting education, and coaching on children’s developmental needs. Lund’s program is unique: it is available to any family in Chittenden county with a child up to age 6, and also to families living at Lund’s Residential Treatment Program, the only substance use and mental health treatment facility in Vermont that allows parents to live together with their young children. Lund puts children and families first: we develop integrated service plans across multiple programs to meet each family's unique needs. In our treatment programs, Lund knows that parenting is a significant barrier to pursuing recovery, and that treatment is instrumental in building resilient families. Family Education does not stop when clients leave treatment; instead, supports are embedded in every step of a parent’s treatment journey to create a home environment where children are safe, loved, and supported
One Arts Inc.
ONE Arts has three locations, (two in the O.N.E. of Burlington and one in Colchester), and we also collaborate with other organizations throughout Burlington, including Burlington Forest Preschool, Howard Center, and CVOEO. Our mission is to facilitate and coordinate unique and significant art experiences in our local community and to build a larger creative community that includes all ages. Our art center provides daily after school programs and creative camps for elementary ages and middle school in the Old North End, while our two early learning locations serve ages 0-5 and their families. We serve over 100 families a week across our locations!
Franklin Grand Isle Bookmobile
The Little Readers Program uses age-appropriate content rich materials to start building knowledge while also learning to recognize letters and their sounds, vocabulary and other early literacy skills which will help children develop vocabulary and interests that will build a foundation for reading comprehension later in life. By planning intentional read aloud stories children are encouraged to engage with the story to learn about new ideas, people, and develop their own unique interests. Social/emotional stories about friendship, empathy, and sharing help the children navigate their world and learn how to act in new situations. Young children thrive on learning new things and love to have stories and books read to them. FGI Bookmobile visits each participant in the Little Readers Program every three weeks for a short activity, finger rhymes or songs, and a read aloud story. Hands-on activities like felt boards and sensory bins reinforce the story. Our goal is to help childcare providers, parents, and caregivers understand the importance of oral development and building knowledge through intentional read aloud stories, conversations, and play to foster a lifelong love of reading and learning.
Good Beginnings of Central Vermont
By offering an expanded educational workshop series for parents and caregivers beginning in our FY25 , Good Beginnings will provide critical opportunities for not only families to learn about techniques, strategies and best practices around infant and self care, but for them to meet each other in a safe and welcoming environment - aiding them in building their own network of peer support. Classes are offered at various locations based on space-availability and accessibility throughout Washington County. Popular and well-received classes that have been offered during the last two years have covered topics such as: Infant First Aid and CPR, Baby Nutrition and Wellness, Rituals of Caregivers, Power of Touch (Infant and Caregiver Massage), Newborn Play, Postpartum Movement and Care, and others. Local massage therapists, somatic body work practitioners, nurses, lactation consultants, certified emergency response trainers and other professionals will continue to provide their services to support these classes.
