VSA Vermont
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The Woolen Mill |
Judith Chalmer |
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Tel.: (802) 655-7772 |
Website: |
Organizational Profile:
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Full-time Staff: 3 |
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VSA Vermont is dedicated to making the world of the arts accessible to Vermonters of all abilities. VSA Vermont is the only Vermont organization devoted to arts and disability inclusion. VSA Vermont offers programs in every county of Vermont.
Programming Partners and Other Funders:
Barre City Middle School, Brenner Foundation, Burlington City Arts; Burlington College, CCTV; Champlain Community Services; Champlain Adaptive Mounted Program, Cobleigh Library; Colchester High School; Community Economic Development Office; Concept 2; Disability Rights Vermont; Peter and Bari Dreissigacker; Fairpoint Communications, Flynn Center for the Performing Arts; Franklin Grand Isle Bookmobile; Anne Slade Frey Charitable Trust; A.D.; H.O. Wheeler school, A.D. Henderson Foundation; Health Care and Rehabilitative Services; Green Mountain Self-Advocates; High Horses; HowardCenter; Imani Health Center; Jane B. Cook 1983 Charitable Trust; LLH/LHM Foundation Main Street Landing; Milton Library; New Visions Foundation; Northern Lights Career Development Center; Ronald McDonald House Charities; Safe Harbor Clinic, Sara Holbrook Center, Seventh Generation, Shelburne Museum, South Burlington Library; Springfield Adult Day Service; St. Michael’s College, Lisa Steele; Turrell Fund, UVM Center for Disability and Community Inclusion; UVM Office of Student-Community Relations; Vermont Agency of Human Services; Vermont Arts Council; Vermont Association of Childcare Resource and Referral Agencies; VCAM; Vermont Center for Independent Living; Vermont Coalition for Disability Rights; Vermont Community Foundation; Vermont Council of the Blind; Vermont Dept of Voc Rehab: Division for the Blind; Vermont Family Network, Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services; Vermont State Department of Education; Vermont Developmental Disabilities Council; Vermont Folklife Center; Visiting Nurses Association; Windham County Reads; Windham Foundation; plus 48 home child care providers each year
Educational Programs and Artist Residencies
Start with the Arts™
VSA Vermont presents Start with the Arts™ literacy activities at 48 home-based child care sites per year serving the most needy, most rural children in registered home childcare sites throughout the state, for 12 weeks each, with activities linked to Vermont’s Early Learning Standards.
Home in the Arts
Home in the Arts is an after-school program teaching skills of confident self-expression for children with housing challenges. This year Home in the Arts will be presented at the Safe Harbor Clinic, the Visiting Nurses Association Family Room and at H.O. Wheeler School in Burlington, at Spaulding High School in Barre. This year Home in the Arts will also include VSA Vermont’s program, Aha! Adaptive Horses and Arts, bringing arts activities to children receiving therapeutic horseback riding lessons at four barns across Vermont.
High School Self-Advocacy Theater Project
High School Self-Advocacy Theater uses theater games and the shared challenge of creating an original performance to give students confidence in describing their goals, solving problems, and working as a team. This program, linked to Vermont Learning Standards, assists students in preparing for independent living after high school and will serve approximately 15 students at Colchester High School.
Can Do Arts
Can Do Arts is a year-round series of visual, musical, and performing arts workshops for adults with developmental disabilities receiving services from HowardCenter, Champlain Community Services and Health Care & Rehabilitation Services. Each eight-week workshop culminates in a public performance or exhibition designed to increase community inclusion and create public awareness about the talents of adults with developmental disabilities. Can Do Arts is also offered to seniors in adult day centers such as Springfield Adult Day Services.
Professional Development and Technical Assistance
Start with the Arts™ Training Program
VSA Vermont won an Award for Excellence for this program from the national VSA Affiliate Network. VSA Vermont offers intensive mentoring to 48 isolated, rural child care providers each year. Training is linked to Vermont’s required Core Competencies for Early Childhood Educators. This year VSA Vermont is adding four months of follow up services. VSA Vermont is developing a new component of this project that will partner with library outreach programs at five sites in Vermont to bring Start With The Arts™ training to isolated school-aged children during summer months when literacy skills leave low-income students at a disadvantage.
Workshops for Teaching Artists
VSA Vermont conducts daylong training sessions for teaching artists three times a year. Workshops are designed to increase the ability of teaching artists to include all learners and all expressive and perceptive abilities.
Professional Development Theater
This year VSA Vermont will work with the Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services to create a show that will let refugees know what services are available to them if they become victims of a crime. This is an opportunity for people with disabilities to take a leadership role for an issue of concern to the whole community. The Awareness Theater Company’s monthly public access television show was awarded first prize in the category of diversity empowerment was from the Alliance for Community Media.
VSA Vermont also assists other performers in developing career goals. This year this includes The Unstoppable Rene Pellerin, a deaf-blind storyteller, whom VSA Vermont helps to develop marketing materials and also whom they present at various venues.
Cultural Access and Inclusive Arts Services
Ticket Distribution
VSA Vermont distributes tickets to venues statewide including the Flynn Center, Weston Playhouse, Dartmouth’s Hopkins Center, and at museums such as the Shelburne Museum.
Access Development
VSA Vermont will develop multiple venues for performers with developmental disabilities through performances of the Awareness Theater Company. Venues include theaters, community centers, and, increasingly, television and video as Awareness Theater Company develops its media-producing capacity. This year Bill’s Bill, a movie about the history of special education and advocacy, will be screened at 50 locations through the state including the Vermont International Film Festival. VSA Vermont won first prize in a video contest by the Alliance for Community Media.
Public Awareness and Outreach
New Web Site Launch
VSA Vermont has continued to upgrade its accessible website with calendars and maps.
Bill’s Bill: Advocacy from the Past into the Future
The movie Bill’s Bill is the culmination of a two-year project by VSA Vermont to honor the great courage and hard work it took to make special education a reality in Vermont and to motivate future generations of advocates. This story of real people who are students, parents, legislators, and educators was first presented by VSA Vermont as a stage play with theater class participants from Champlain Community Services. The movie contains a new version of the play, plus auxiliary chapters in which individuals depicted in the play reflect on their lives today and inspire a new generation.
Festival Workshops
Festival workshops are activities led by VSA Vermont volunteers at various community festivals, usually in Chittenden County, including the Imani Health Center, Sara Holbrook Community Center, and others. This year VSA Vermont will partner with Disability Rights Vermont to celebrate advocacy and a new name for that organization.
Exhibitions
Artwork produced in Can Do Arts classes is displayed and sold at various venues, with proceeds going to the artists.
(F) 202-429-0868