Building Bright Futures is excited to announce the recipients of our Vermont Early Childhood Fund (VECF) awards for fall 2024! The fund supports creative solutions that will improve the well-being of children from the prenatal period through age 8, their families, and the Vermont communities in which they live.
Thanks to these grants, awardees in every region of Vermont will be able to pursue important and innovative projects, including:
- Creating nearly 300 early childhood care and education slots across the state
- Coordinating efforts to deliver early intervention violence prevention, especially focused on meeting the needs of the LGBTQ+ community and those in substance use recovery
- Increasing access to play therapy, special education, early childhood intervention, programs targeted to fathers, and wellness programs
- Expanding early childhood education workforce recruitment and training, including opportunities for paid classroom experience and a program targeted to New Americans
- Increasing access to professional development programs, including infant and toddler mental health training, college courses, Reggio Emilia pedagogy, and coaching by licensed therapists to address behavioral health challenges
- Increasing access to free, high-quality winter wear for children from families with low incomes
- Investing in an outdoor play area that will provide opportunities for all children, including those with physical or neurological differences, to play alongside each other
- Developing library programs focused on early childhood literacy and development
- Supporting early child development and strengthening parent-child relationships through music programs
- Addressing food insecurity by providing healthy nutrition in early childhood programs
Innovation Grant Recipients
The Innovation Grant ($100,000 to $200,000) has the goal of creating innovative, replicable solutions to address some of Vermont’s most persistent barriers to serving children and families. The Innovation Grant recipients are:
- Orange County Parent Child Center in Orange County
- Steps to End Domestic Violence in Chittenden County
Opportunity Grant Recipients
The Opportunity Grant ($10,000 to $80,000) has the goal of supporting easy-to-achieve solutions with direct results. The Opportunity Grant recipients are:
- Arlington Area Childcare in Bennington County
- Brookside Primary School in Washington County
- Champlain Center for Play Therapy and Family Counseling in Addison, Chittenden, and Lamoille counties
- Clubhouse Kids in Lamoille County
- Craftsbury Saplings in Orleans County
- Creative Preschool in Orange County
- Cubs Child Care in Lamoille County
- Dad Guild in Orange and Windsor counties
- The Family Place in Windsor County
- Greater Burlington YMCA in Chittenden County
- The Growing Tree in Addison County
- Junebug in Addison County
- Little Angel’s Childcare in Orleans County
- Little Explorers Child Care Center in Caledonia County
- Lund in Chittenden County
- Lydia Taft Pratt Library in Windham County
- Middlebury Community Music Center in Addison County
- Neck of the Woods in Washington County
- ONE Arts in Chittenden County
- Otter Creek Child Center in Addison County
- Perkinsville Preschool and Childcare in Windsor County
- The Pumpkin Patch in Windham County
- Pyramid 802 Plus Empowers, statewide
- Rutland County Head Start in Rutland County
- Turtle Island Children’s Center in Washington County
- Whiting Library in Windsor County
VECF was established in 2021 thanks to a generous grant from a private donor and was able to continue to fund projects in 2022 and 2023 with support from the Sunflower Fund at the Vermont Community Foundation. VECF is now funded by the Vermont Integration Project: Building Integration in Vermont’s Birth–5 Early Childhood Systems (VIP B–5) Preschool Development Grant. Thanks to this federal grant, VECF expanded its funding substantially this year, from $105,000 for projects carried out in 2023 to $3.2 million for grants awarded in December 2023 and May 2024, and $1.9 million for this round of projects.
