• Brattleboro Enrichment Activities for Middle Schoolers (BEAMS) Summer Switch Program –$20,000 (Brattleboro)
Funding will expand Brattleboro Area Middle School’s tremendously successful one-week summer program for at-risk 7th and 8th graders, to a two-week program. BEAMS’ service-learning projects and outdoor education curriculum will be expanded, supporting students’ academic, social, and personal success through engaging thematic units on topics of interest to the students.
• Boys and Girls Club of White River Valley – $15,000 (Randolph)
To support a summer camp and after school enrichment activities to enable all young people, especially those who need them the most, to reach their full potential as healthy, productive, caring responsible citizens. Funding will allow them to expand their offerings at no additional cost or burden to low income families.
• Canaan Schools After-School Homework Help and Summer Program – $14,800 (Canaan area)
Funds will be used to provide bus transportation for students of the after school and summer programs. This will increase opportunities for the most at-risk students to take advantage of these two programs in one of the most economically impoverished and “transportation poor” areas of the state.
• Circle of Harmony Learning Project, Mt. Anthony High School–$11,985 (Bennington)
During a two week bike trip from Bennington to Montreal and back, eight girls and boys completing 9th through 11th grade will explore Vermont and Quebec, visit colleges, study with the teacher chaperones, and learn to work toward individual goals. Students will be selected who are at-risk of not completing high school because of struggles with motivation and engagement in school, and not showing academic work commensurate with their ability.
• Currier KidZone, Currier Elementary School – $7,000 (Danby)
Funding will support a summer learning initiative which will enhance a tutoring program, summer snack reimbursement, address a significant transportation issue, and continue a mini-Kindercamp to help transition incoming Kindergarten students. This community has extreme poverty and families need a safe place for their children to attend during the summer to combat summer learning loss.
• East Valley Academy Summer Program – $16,700 (East Randolph and area)
Funding will cover a five week summer program serving at-risk students (entering grades 9-12) from Orange and Windsor Counties who are in need of emotional and behavior support. In partnership with the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, students will be brought into the field to work hand-in-hand with archeologists. These opportunities will enrich summer learning experiences for the students.
• ENCORE Program, North Country Supervisory Union – $46,470 (Newport area)
This summer program serves over 200 students throughout the towns that comprise the North Country SU. They are partnered with Green Mountain Farm-to-School, Campaign to End Childhood Hunger, Vermont Food Bank and the 21st Century Schools Program. This grant will ensure that summer programs are provided to all of their students in need.
• Fairfield Summer Program –$19,625 (Fairfield)
Funding will be used by this collaborative effort between the Fairfield Community Center, the town library and the Fairfield Center School to expand after-school programming, provide food and transportation, stipends for presenters/coordinators, scholarship assistance to low-income families and to establish a technology mentor program for seniors using trained teen experts.
• Foxcroft Farms Harvest Program – $33,600 (Leicester area)
This non-profit farm helps struggling youth to become engaged in their education and stay in school. Funding will support the Growing to Work Project for at-risk high school students. Participants raise vegetables and fresh eggs for senior citizens, provide educational tours for grade school children and raise pigs and dairy calves to support their service and recreational activities. The Harvest Program serves over 700 people throughout the year, from preschool students to senior citizens.
• Franklin Northwest Saturday Programs — $26,551 (Swanton)
Funding will support Saturday Study Sessions, an opportunity for students to receive tutoring and assistance. Food will be provided, with the goal being preventative intervention to keep students current and at mastery with their class subjects. Saturday STEM Lab will help students build their own understanding from experiences and new ideas.
• Girls Move Mountains – $15,000 (Montpelier-based, five county service area)
GMM responds to the challenges faced by adolescent girls by helping them develop the assets and skills they need to be resilient and to successfully navigate adolescence. Funding will support five “Dirt Divas” programs and one rock climbing program for at-risk, low-income girls from Lamoille, Caledonia, Orleans, Washington and Chittenden counties.
• Hub Teen Center and Skatepark – $24,450 (Bristol area)
The Hub Teen Center serves youth from a five-town area of Addison County. Bristol has an unusually high drop-out rate and an equally high rate of drug abuse. Funding will support the Hub’s activities to provide teens with outlets to help them deal with their emotions and energy; absent these outlets, many would turn to more destructive measures to cope with the challenges of growing-up.
• Linking Learning to Life –$16,667 (Burlington and Bradford)
The Ready, Set, Work Program is a unique job readiness program designed in partnership with the Upper Valley Business Education Partnership to provide at-risk youth with skills needed to successfully transition into the workforce. It consists of an intensive five week summer program for youth in Burlington and Bradford in classroom and community based activities as well as working on-site with an employer in the community.
• Mosaic Program, Mt. Anthony Union High School – $11,800 (Bennington)
This is a summer immersion learning initiative integrating history, reading, writing and literature through the dramatic arts. Twenty elementary and middle school students, and ten high school students from the Upward Bound program, will research, write, rehearse, stage and perform an original historical drama. Students invited to participate will be identified as at risk of school failure or as needing positive, structured activities for the summer.
• Newport City Elementary “Out of School Program” – $14,545 (Newport)
Funding will increase participation in five successful programs: Reading Journey, Math Expedition, Teaching Children to Care, Seventh and Eighth Grade junior Counselor Training Program and Camera Exposure. These programs help students to actively help one another develop the resources, tools and strategies needed to confront and conquer obstacles.
• Northern Tier Center for Health (NOTCH) – $10,000 (Richford)
NOTCH, in partnership with Arvin Brown Library, will expand the Richford Day Camp program to six weeks, extend library services and offer additional programming by Vermont artists. This camp serves economically disadvantaged children with virtually nonexistent extra-curricular activities outside the school year. This award will help provide scholarships to children who could not otherwise participate because of fees and transportation barriers.
• Orange Windsor Supervisory Union “One Planet Extended Learning Program” – $16,964 (Tunbridge and South Royalton)
Funding will allow the Extended Learning Program to expand their successful program offerings as well as the number and range of student attendees. Activities to be enhanced with this funding include computer literacy, GPS basics and orienteering, coaching club, garden science and whole foods education.
• Caledonia North SU “Our Community Partnering with Technology”– $20,000 (Lyndon)
The 2011 CNSU Summer Program will build on current programming in the areas of social/emotional learning, leadership activities, substance abuse prevention, education, transitioning to high school while expanding academic instruction, technology skills instruction and exposure and opportunities for students to learn more about workplace skills.
• Poultney High School Summer Program – $14,880 (Poultney)
Funding will help support Poultney High School’s six-week Fine Art Camp, as well as additional classes during the 2011-2012 school year. This will help fill a tremendous void in terms of summer programming, and will provide students with skills to pursue careers in art or enhance their career choice. Participation is open to students in all the surrounding area high schools, each of whom is battling to keep their art programs.
• Shaftsbury Peer Leadership Graduation Project – $10,029 (Shaftsbury)
Shaftsbury school’s students, teachers and community members will work with Jumpcut Productions to produce a communication and technology project focused on the importance of graduating from high school. The students will create an integrated media project and will produce a short film available on DVD and the internet. Mt. Anthony High School students will participate in the project and will mentor the elementary students.
• Springfield Summer All-4-One Program – $18,000 (Springfield)
Funding will support this academic enrichment and recreation after school and summer program for children in Kindergarten through eighth grade. Programs are designed for children to enhance their gross and fine motor skills, social skills and learn to make healthy and positive choices. The focus is to help youth learn beyond their walls and explore careers and other areas of studies in a fun and exciting way.
• Vermont Achievement Center, Sheldon Academy Summer Program – $10,000 (Rutland)
Funding will support Sheldon Academy’s Summer Program to address the needs of at-risk children during the summer months when working families need additional support. It is a six week therapeutic academic and adventure based social skills day camp for children struggling with emotional and behavioral challenges, which promotes a strong emphasis on building blocks for friendship and positive relationships.
• Vermont Institute on Health and Wellness – $10,000 (Middlesex area)
VIHW will expand its two-year old program providing Vermont’s teens with a unique summer institute geared toward exploring health and wellness. Funding will allow VIHW to serve at-risk students to learn about diet and exercise, work with instructors to build healthy daily practices and make mindful choices about their bodies. Students participate in a daily schedule of workshops and classes and have free time to explore the fields and practices that work best for them.
• Waits River Valley School – $32,420 (Topsham and Corinth)
Funding will allow for the expansion of this successful summer program in a high poverty region of the state with few resources for financial support. The summer program will be extended for an additional three weeks, serving an additional 200 students in need.
• Westminster Summer Program – $18,382 (Westminster)
Westminster Summer Program is designed to enrich the lives of their students and counter the summertime loss in school year academic gains that is all too common among low income students. Funding will support this six week program dedicated to expanding the horizon for all students.
• Widen Our World Summer Program – $10,574 (Starksboro)
WOW provides a safe, nurturing, exciting environment for more than 100 of the town’s school age children, for eight weeks of the summer. This continuous improvement fosters the belief that giving these children authentic learning challenges on the way to planning a set of educational expansions of world view and personal horizons is vital to their positive growth and development.
• Winooski Summer Enrichment Program – $15,000 (Winooski)
The summer enrichment program provides school age children in Winooski the care and support they need to maintain academic achievement and succeed alongside their peers when school resumes in the fall. It combines fun, food, physical activity and education during the summer for up to 126 youth. Funding will provide scholarship and subsidy opportunities for families that cannot afford the full rate for the program.
