In November 2024, BBF awarded the following Vermont Early Childhood Fund grants:
Innovation Grants
Orange County Parent Child Center in Orange County
After years of planning and several project delays, Orange County Parent Child Center is poised to open its Woodlands Campus in Randolph, creating 62 new child care slots. Innovation Grant funding will help with startup expenses to support the center’s planned opening in September 2025.
Steps to End Domestic Violence in Chittenden County
The Early Intervention Violence Prevention Project is designed to offer anti-violence education and strengthen resources for expectant parents, parents/caregivers, and youth with risk factors for experiencing violence. This project is geared specifically toward benefiting children from the prenatal period to age 8 and their families, parents, and caregivers. Collaboration among Steps to End Domestic Violence, Outright Vermont, and The Turning Point Center will provide greater impact on parents, caregivers, and children from the LGBTQ+ community as well as those in substance use recovery, who are at higher risk for experiencing violence and often encounter barriers when seeking help. The three organizations will engage in a collaborative and coordinated multi-agency effort to expand and develop new interventions that will provide parents, caregivers and children with anti-violence skills and knowledge, enhanced community supports, and connections to resources.
Opportunity Grants
Arlington Area Childcare in Bennington County
Arlington Area Childcare is the only early education center in Arlington, serving families in Arlington, Sunderland, Sandgate, and the rest of Bennington County with children from 6 weeks to 12 years of age. Funding will be used to provide comprehensive professional development for staff. This will include intensive infant and toddler mental health training to better support students’ health and wellness, as well as support for staff members’ continued education and training.
Brookside Primary School in Washington County
Looking to close the gap between children of varying abilities in their outdoor play space, Brookside Primary School will use grant funding to purchase playground materials that are accessible and provide varying sensory experiences. Their goal is to provide opportunities for all children, including those who have physical differences or are neurodivergent, to play alongside each other and build friendships, practice social and motor skills, and engage in learning opportunities.
Champlain Center for Play Therapy and Family Counseling in Addison, Chittenden, and Lamoille Counties
Champlain Center for Play Therapy and Family Counseling brings the healing power of play to Vermont children and families by providing high-quality therapeutic services and removing barriers to accessibility. They offer individual and group child psychotherapy for children ages 3 to 11, using play therapy techniques paired with parent coaching and consultations. Grant funds will be used to pilot two programs that are specifically designed to embed clinical mental health counseling services via play therapy into established early childhood systems. Licensed clinical social workers will be trained in two distinct evidence-based models of group play therapy—Child Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT) and Group Theraplay—to serve the pre-K programs at Essex Junction Recreation and Parks (EJRP) and Vermont caregivers in Chittenden County and beyond via group telehealth sessions.
Clubhouse Kids in Lamoille County
Clubhouse Kids provides care for 62 children in Morrisville and surrounding towns. Grant funds will be used to hire an additional staff member to support adequate coverage, allowing the center to remain open when short-staffed and covering for teachers to attend professional development and weekly meetings as a newly participating Early MTSS classroom.
Craftsbury Saplings in Orleans County
Craftsbury Saplings was founded in 2015 by community volunteers to serve the children who live in 11 rural towns in Orleans County. Funding will support pre-development work to create a new facility, expanding program capacity from 19 to 54 children.
Creative Preschool in Orange County
The Creative Preschool began in 1977 as a cooperative nursery school in Strafford, Vermont, and continues now as a vibrant, community-based, nonprofit preschool for children 32 months to pre-kindergarten. Their Mental Wellness and Resiliency Project will connect parents, primary caregivers, and educators of young children to free mental health services and resources. Supports will range from connecting individuals with mental health support to offering community-wide workshops to build parenting skills and resiliency.
Cubs Child Care in Lamoille County
Cubs Child Care, a provider of both year-round and seasonal child care services, is preparing to establish 15 new preschool spaces and become a Universal Prekindergarten program, providing a seamless transition for children currently in the Cubs Child Care 2-year-old program. Funding will support the hiring of staff, professional development, and the creation of age-appropriate classrooms.
Dad Guild in Orange and Windsor Counties
Since its founding in 2019, Dad Guild has developed and implemented over 1,000 hours of programming, established a growing network of over 1,200 Vermont dads and masculine-identifying caregivers, and reached an audience of over 100,000 people through website and social media traffic. With the majority of programming in Chittenden County, funding will support the expansion of Dad Guild to the Orange County/Northern Windsor region of Vermont, ultimately resulting in a robust statewide fatherhood network that ensures dads have the support, resources, and connection they need.
The Family Place in Windsor County
The Family Place provides a wide range of programs and services for children and families in the Hartford region. Opportunity Grant funding will help build the capacity of their early childhood education program to respond to the mental health needs of the young children who are enrolled by providing additional education and consultation to staff. This support will improve educators’ ability to respond in the classroom setting and improve staffing consistency to promote a trauma-informed environment that supports the needs of the most vulnerable children.
Greater Burlington YMCA in Chittenden County
Greater Burlington YMCA’s programs meet the needs of individuals and families at every stage of life. Key programs include early childhood education, afterschool enrichment, summer camps, health and wellness initiatives, and aquatics. Opportunity Grant funds will help expand access to on-site social services support so all children and families in the Y Early Childhood Program facing challenges like housing instability, food insecurity, mental health struggles, and trauma are connected to services and resources for their social/emotional/financial well-being. Funding will also help improve teacher retention through coaching and supporting teachers in the classroom.
The Growing Tree in Addison County
The Growing Tree is a new, center-based program that will provide full-day, full-year preschool at the Addison Central School building. Funding will support startup costs, helping to create 20 spots for children from 32 months to 5 years.
Junebug in Addison County
Each winter, Junebug’s Cozy Kids program seeks to ensure every child has high quality outerwear by purchasing and donating new winter coats, snow pants, boots, hats, and mittens to babies and children. The anonymous program is completely confidential, and last year it served more than 150 families.Opportunity Grant funding will help support program expansion by developing a storage documentation system and renting storage space.
Little Angel’s Childcare in Orleans County
Little Angel’s Childcare, a licensed family child care home in Derby, is opening a second location in Newport Center. Funding will support both locations, adding spots in Derby and opening the new location to create 18 total spots
Little Explorers Child Care Center in Caledonia County
Little Explorers Child Care is a new registered home child care program that will open in the fall/winter of 2024, serving children ages 6 weeks through 12 years of age in a safe and comfortable home atmosphere. Funding will support startup costs of this new program in Waterford, helping to create 12 new spots.
Lund in Chittenden County
Opportunity Grant funding will continue and expand on Lund’s successful New Americans program. Using what Lund has learned over the past year, they will refine the program while maintaining its overall goal to create a comprehensive training pathway into early childhood as a profession, particularly tailored for New Americans who may not have the traditional educational experience required to enter the profession or engage in a high-quality training program.
Lydia Taft Pratt Library in Windham County
As a community information hub and gathering place, the Lydia Taft Pratt Library endeavors to enrich lives and strengthen community by engaging the evolving informational, educational, cultural, and recreational needs of the Dummerston community. Funding will help expand early childhood literacy programming and services and create more community space for children and their families
Middlebury Community Music Center in Addison and Rutland Counties
Research shows that learning music at a young age supports social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development in children. Middlebury Community Music Center will continue to build on previous work to offer the nationally recognized program Music Together® in schools and family classes.
Neck of the Woods in Washington County
In 2025, Neck of the Woods will begin construction on additional space that will add another 35 children and up to eight staff members to this Head Start Center located in Waitsfield. Funding will support increased staffing as they prepare to enroll additional students.
ONE Arts in Chittenden County
ONE Arts serves over 100 families a week and is committed to making the arts accessible, honoring the individuality and creativity of each child through differentiated care, and creating a community of people who support one another. To help address food insecurity and provide healthy nutrition for children who attend programs in their three locations, ONE Arts will hire a Nutrition Support Coordinator to implement the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).
Otter Creek Child Center in Addison County
Construction is underway on a new, state-of-the-art, ADA-compliant child care center in Addison County. Located within a one-mile radius of Addison County’s two largest employers, the new center will add 77 new spots, accommodating 139 children aged 6 weeks to 5 years. Opportunity Grant funding will support related start-up costs.
Perkinsville Preschool and Childcare in Windsor County
Perkinsville Preschool and Childcare provides high-quality care and education in a safe, nurturing environment that supports the whole child. Funding will support the expansion from a registered family child care home to a licensed family child care home, creating six additional spots.
The Pumpkin Patch in Windham County
The Pumpkin Patch’s co-op model program provides a unique, multi-generational approach to learning. Funding will help increase enrichment programming for their new afterschool program, provide professional development, offer caregiver support through a series of workshops, and build water safety skills for preschool children.
Pyramid 802 Plus Empowers (Statewide)
Pyramid 802 Plus has been training and coaching early childhood educators for almost five years. This project will help increase and improve the early childhood workforce by providing equitable access to education and training that supports employment opportunity, allowing participants to receive wages and gain direct experience and mentoring while employed in a community early childhood education program.
Rutland County Head Start in Rutland County
This collaborative project between Rutland County Head Start and VTSU Castleton will provide teaching staff and preservice teachers a valuable chance to immerse themselves in Reggio-inspired classrooms, gaining firsthand experience and knowledge in this innovative educational approach. Through this initiative, participants will receive specialized training and ongoing consultation and support from RIVET (Reggio Inspired Vermont Early Education Team), enabling them to seamlessly integrate best practices from the Reggio Emilia approach into their teaching methods and classroom activities.
Turtle Island Children’s Center in Washington County
Turtle Island Children’s Center is a full-day, year-round early education center for children ages 6 weeks through 6 years old that has been serving families in central Vermont since 1982. In response to a rise in social-emotional regulation and behavior challenges, they are starting a new special education program. By converting a non-classroom space into a therapeutic/regulating space and providing in-house observation and support, they aim to offer short, targeted interventions early rather than waiting until a child is in need of more intensive support.
Whiting Library in Windsor County
To help address barriers to accessing high-quality out-of-school experiences for children in their community, Whiting Library aims to become a key part of the early childhood and family support network. Their project will include training in the Family Place Libraries™ model of family engagement; parent/child workshops or intentional playgroups for young children, parents, and caregivers; and developing a toy lending library and offering workshops focusing on play in early childhood.
