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GIV receives a Vermont Community Foundation grant to embark on a collaborative project with Leadership Champlain, Vermont Principal’s Association and the School for International Training called “Where are the Boys?” to address the gender achievement gap. Read about it in VT Digger. Stay tuned for more on this project.
The Vermont Community Foundation announced that the Innovations and Collaborations grant program awarded $302,000 to 16 nonprofit organizations in Vermont this fall. One of a number of competitive grant programs at the Community Foundation, Innovations and Collaborations supports projects that help nonprofits collaborate across sectors and regions to develop common solutions to community needs. This fall, contributions from the Foundation’s fundholders helped the program award more in a single grant round than it has since the launch of Innovations and Collaborations in 2012.
“The Foundation is delighted to see this momentum in the Innovations and Collaborations program, awarding almost $90,000 more in this cycle than we ever have,” says Christopher Kaufman Ilstrup, senior philanthropic advisor for program and grants. “This is both a testament to the strength of the projects we are funding and a demonstration of the appeal that strong collaborative work has for our fundholders. We look forward to working with these grantees over the next year as they implement these important projects across the state.”
Grant awards ranged from $10,000-20,000 for both new and continued funding. New projects include a program lead by VSA Vermont and nine partners to provide arts internships to young adults with disabilities and an initiative lead by the Vermont Natural Resources Council with five partners to help communities create housing that is affordable, inclusive, and sustainable. Continued funding went to one project: Child Care Resource in Burlington for the second year of their child care business development project for refugee women.
To learn more about the Innovations and Collaborations grant program, visit vermontcf.org/I&C.
NEW PROJECTS
The Brattleboro Retreat received $20,000 to support the “Mental Health Clinical Collaborative,” a project which will enhance services to homeless individuals by offering onsite therapeutic support to Morningside Shelter residents. Residents with mental health and addiction challenges will be able to access support before challenges reach crisis levels.
Partner: Morningside Shelter
Bryan Memorial Gallery received $20,000 for the “Legacy Project,” a program which will offer guidelines to Vermont’s artists and their eventual heirs on the care and disposal of their art estates. Through a workbook, an interactive website, and a series of workshops, the Project will help Vermont artists prepare and preserve their own legacies.
The Center for Mindful Learning received $20,000 to extend its Winooski School Mindfulness Program to the middle and high school levels and incorporate key community collaborators, including the Winooski Police Department’s school resource officer and the local addiction and mental health services provider.
Partners: Winooski School District, Winooski Police Department, and Centerpoint Adolescent Treatment Services
Community Engagement Lab (CEL) received $20,000 to build an assessment tool to help CEL build replicable models for school and community partnerships that infuse creativity into the regular curriculum and identify best practices for cross-content integration between the arts, design, humanities, and STEM curricula.
Partner: Champlain College
Community-Resilience.org received $20,000 to create local Community Resilience Organizations (CROs), a game-changing strategy for building social capital and self-reliance, while accomplishing required hazard mitigation tasks. This project will provide resources to support resilience action and form a statewide network of CROs to share solutions.
Partners: Hartford, Waterbury, Windham Regional Commission, and Lamoille County Planning Commission
Creative Roustabouts received $20,000 for “Vermontivate!” a game-based program which educates and empowers people to take real-world action in response to climate change. Vermontivate! aims to strengthen communities, nurture citizen-leaders, and support the development of locally-based, low-carbon systems in a measurable, replicable, sustainable, and fun manner.
Partners: Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network, Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, and Tamarack Media.
Family Center of Washington County received $20,000 to bring programs in the Vermont Parent Child Center Network in line with the Results-Based Accountability framework of evaluation. This will not only allow the partners to better serve the nearly 9,000 children and families they reach, it will provide a tested, Vermont-customized model for the other 13 parent child centers around the state.
Partner: Lund Family Center
Governor’s Institutes of Vermont received $20,000 to support research, education, and advocacy around a national trend of boys lagging behind girls academically. NECAP educational scores released in February 2014 confirmed that Vermont boys—particularly low-income boys—continue to fall behind girls academically.
Partners: Vermont Principals Association, Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce, and the School for International Training
Northern Forest Center received $20,000 to engage wood manufacturers and educational institutions to establish an integrated training system to assist manufacturers in hiring, training, retaining, and promoting workers with needed skills, help establish a professional career path for woodworkers, and assist educational institutions in better linking training opportunities with market needs.
Partners: Vermont Wood Manufacturers Association, Woodwork Career Alliance, and Architectural Woodwork Institute
Upper Valley Trails Alliance received $12,000 to expand and relaunch Vermont Trail Finder as a statewide online searchable database for comprehensive trail information. The project will help Vermonters and visitors access the valuable and varied trail resources throughout the state.
Partners: State of Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources, the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, and Yonder, a division of Green Mountain Digital
Vermont Council on Rural Development was awarded $20,000 for the Vermont Higher Education Food Systems Consortium to educate students who will support the state’s working landscape, help seed the next stage of entrepreneurial activity, and advance development of resilient food systems nationally and internationally.
Partners: Green Mountain College, Sterling College, the University of Vermont, Vermont Law School, Vermont Technical College, Vermont State College System, Middlebury College, and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets
Vermont Natural Resources Council received $20,000 for their Transportation, Location, and Inclusive Communities Partnership which aims to give communities more tools to create housing that is affordable, inclusive, and sustainable. The partners will analyze how affordable housing aligns with transportation access and work with a pilot community to develop and implement an integrated plan.
Partners: Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity Fair Housing Project, Vermont AARP, Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission, and Northwest Regional Planning Commission
Vermont Performance Lab received $20,000 for the Center for Performing Arts and Social Practice supporting civic participation through the performing arts. The project will bring together community members, visiting artists, and others to explore how local civic concerns inform artists’ research and provide substantive service learning opportunities involving youth, students, artists, and faculty.
Partners: Marlboro College and Youth Services of Windham County
Vermont Workers’ Center received $20,000 for the Vermont Paid Sick Days Campaign. Lack of access to paid sick days is a factor in perpetuating poverty. Women, who fill the majority of low-wage, part-time, and temporary positions and largely bear the responsibility of caring for sick family members, are most affected.
Partner: Voices for Vermont’s Children
VSA Vermont was awarded $20,000 to support arts internships for young adults with disabilities, striving for long-term, community-wide impact in which young adults can apply skills gained in an existing and successful school-based performing arts program to new community-based arts and cultural opportunities.
Partners: Bridging Program at South Burlington High School, Burlington City Arts, Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Artists’ Mediums, Spaulding High School, Lost Nation Theater, Aldrich Public Library, Global Campuses Foundation, and Mobius
CONTINUED PROJECTS: Year Two
Child Care Resource received $10,000 to support a second year of their child care business development project for refugee women. The partners support refugees opening child care businesses, allowing women to bring in income while caring for their own children and helping other immigrant families enter the workforce with child care that is consistent with their family’s culture and needs.
Partners: Association of Africans Living in Vermont, Opportunities Credit Union, and United Way of Chittenden County’s Read to Me Program
Visit www.vermontcf.org or call 802-388-3355 for more information.
